Confessions was in the hands of mine Enemy he had cast a chain about me which manacled me so fast I could not disengage my self but was forced to follow him for of my bad inclinations he formed bad desires which basely obeying I contracted a bad habit and not timely resisted was presently changed into a troublesome necessity I call this slavery a Chain because it was composed of my own inclinations as of so many links which the Grace that prepar'd me for my Conversion was not strong enough to break asunder He made vain attempts to be disengaged his Will encourag'd with Grace stoutly opposed his Will seconded with Concupiscence himself was the Theater of this Combat he was the Victor and the vanquished but the advantage was more prejudiciall then the defeat since the worse party was the strongest and his Will yeelding obedience to the Tyranny of Concupiscence resisted the Command of Charity He pleasantly complains to God of the greatness of this Evill in the same place of his Confessions In vain did I take pleasure in Your Law concerning the inward man because there was another law in the rebelling against Yours and which against my will made me subject to the law of sin that was in my members For the law of sin is nothing else but the Tyranny of Custome which engageth the minde of man with a kinde of constraint but not without some colour of Justice because he willingly procured this Thraldom But he never more happily express'd the nature of this Evill then when he compares a bad Habit to the imperious complacency of sleep For it seems there is nothing more sweet then those drowsie vapours in the mean time there is nothing more violent and of all things that set upon a man there is none from which he can lesse defend himselfe This evill takes force from it's sweetnesse the more pleasant the fumes are it exhaleth the stronger are they the more pain they inflict the more is their pleasure the lesse liberty they indulge us the more is the love they expresse toward us 'T is by this example that this great Saint illustrates the agreeable violence of a bad habit Ita sarcina seculi veluti somno assolet dulciter premebar cogitationes quibus meditabar in te similes erant conatibus expergisci volentium qui tamen superati soporis altitudine remerguntur Aug. I was overwhelmed with the love of the world saith he as with a deep sleep and the meditations I lifted up to heaven were like the vain endeavours of men striving to awake who beaten down with the weight of drowsiness fall asleep again at the very instant they awake True it is as there is no man that would always sleep and in the judgement of all wise men watchings are better then sleep I also was of the same opinion that 't was more advantageous for me to submit to thy grace O Lord then to yield to my passion But as the most part of men suffered themselves to be more sweetly charm'd with sleep when their hour to awake approacheth so did I more enticingly imbrace my bad habit when the time of my conversion seemed nearest at hand It is but too evident by this comparison that mans weaknesse passeth even to impotency when he suffers himselfe to be swallowed up by sin and in his infirmities stands in need of a mighty arme to deliver him from the Tyrant that keeps him under Now the holy Spirit performs this good office to all sinners 't is he that breaketh their irons when they are fetter'd by concupiscence or by custome The Spirit helpeth our infirmity saith great Saint Paul he not only clarifies the Christians but fortifies them and the same grace he sheds abroad in their souls at once fils them with light and strength he joynes himselfe with the soule to subdue the rebellions of the flesh he inspires their liberty with a new vigour knocking off it's fetters he armes the faculty whereby it takes vengeance of it's enemies for as Saint Augustine excellently observes 't is not the Spirit of man but of God that fights against the flesh Spiritus concupiscit adversus carnem in hominibus bonis non in malis qui Spiritum Dei non habent contra quem caro concupiscat Aug. these two parts almost continually agree in unbelievers and wicked men if they practise hostility for their particular interests concupiscence unites them to serve her designes She masters wantonnesse with pride tames pleasure with avarice but in all these contestations the soule and body are subject to sin and these two are reconciled together to further the intentions of their Soveraign But when the soule fights against the flesh in the faithfull 't is always by the motion of the spirit 't is this divine Protection that gives her courage and delivering her from the bondage of her slave establisheth her in the possession of her lawfull authority Let us explain this Truth in the words of Saint Augustine the flesh did not lust against the spirit in Paradise there was no warre in so profound a peace nor did man see himselfe divided by the conflict of two parts whereof he was made But when once he had violated the Law of God and had refused obedience to his Soveraign he was given over to himselfe upon condition too that he should never be his own Master but be wholy at his devotion that had deceived him Then was it that the flesh began to revolt against the spirit but this happens not but in the person of good men for in that of wicked men the flesh hath nothing to rebell against because the soule being become carnall hath no other feelings but those of the flesh And when the Apostle saith That the spirit warreth against the flesh we are not to imagine that he speaks of the spirit of man but of that of God that fights in us against our selves or to speak more soundly 't is he that combates that in us that is prejudiciall to us and when he makes warre upon us 't is to procure peace within us 'T is in this sense that the same Apostle hath said further to the faithfull that if by the vertue of the spirit they did mortifie the deeds of the flesh they should live For least man should grow proud in hearing those words and perswade himselfe that it was by his own spirit that he ought to tame the flesh the Apostle presently explains himselfe that they are the Children of God that are led by the Spirit to the end we may know that 't is he that mortifies our flesh quickens our soule and gives us victory in the Conslict 'T is for this cause that he is called in Scripture the Spirit of strength and of counsell to teach us that the same that guides doth also assist us that having enlightned us he warmes us too inspiring us with courage to execute our designes after he hath endued us with wisdome to devise and contrive
did not the following surpass it For the Holy Spirit is the Love of the Faithful as he is the Love of the Father and of the Son But to understand this truth we must inform you that the Word being begotten of the Father by the Understanding is his onely Son and that the Holy Ghost being produced by the Will is his Love The Father and the Son reciprocally love one another by this mutual charity they finde their happiness in this common dilection and should they cease to love they would cease to be happie Having a minde to exalt us to their happiness they raise us also to their love and pouring forth charity into our souls they make us capable of loving them For God is so great that he can neither be known but by his own Light nor lov'd but by his own Love the Holy Spirit must enlighten our Souls warm our Wills and by the purity of his flames purge away the impurity of our affections he transforms us into himself to make us happie This holy Love is a particular effect of the Holy Spirit the beams that heat us are an emanation from that Divine fire that burns the Seraphims and the charity that raiseth us above the condition of men is a spark of that personal charity wherewith the Father and the Son love each other from all eternity But that we may not challenge the Holy Spirit as sparing of his favours he hath vouchsafed to be the accomplishment of the Church as he is the accomplishment and perfection of the Trinity For though there be no defects in God though this Sun is never clouded nor eclipsed this Supreme Truth labours under no shadows nor errours this excellent Beauty hath no spots nor blemishes and this amiable goodness be full of charms and graces yet may the Holy Ghost be called the Complement thereof The Father begins this adorable Circle which the Son continues and the Holy Spirit finisheth he it is that bounds the Divine emanations draws forth the fruitfulness of those that cause his production and if it be lawful to speak of an ineffable mystery and to subject to the laws of Time Eternity it self God is not compleated but by the production of the holy Spirit He is the rest of the Father and the Son his person is the perfection of the Trinity and this Divine mystery would want its full proportion did it not include the Holy Spirit with the two Persons from whence he proceeded The holy Scriptures to afford us some light of this verity attribute all the perfection of the works of God to the blessed Spirit They represent him to us moving upon the waters in the Creation of the world finishing by his Fecundity what the Father and the Son had produced by their Power They teach us that it was he that gave motion to the Heavens influences to the Stars heat to the Sun They inform us that 't was by his vertue that the earth became fruitful and that from his goodness she received that secret Fermentation that to this day renders her the Mother and the Nurse of all things living And the Gospel to give this Truth its full extent instructs us that 't is the holy Ghost who by his graces in the Church makes up what Jesus Christ hath begun in it by his travels He is his Vicar and Lieutenant he came down upon the earth after the other ascended up to heaven nor hath he any other designe in his descension then to compleat all the works of Jesus Christ The Apostles were yet but embryo's in Christianity when the Son of God left them three yeers of conversation was not able to perfect them the greatest part of the discourses of their Divine Master seemed to them nothing but Aenigma's his Maximes Paradoxes his Promises pleasing Illusions every thing was a mormo to these timorous spirits ths name of the Cross scandalized them and so many Miracles wrought in their presence were unable to calm their Fear or heighten their Courage To finish these demi-works the Holy Ghost came into the world he descended upon their heads in the shape of fiery tongues to make them eloquent and bold he inspired them with Charity to cure them of Fear made them Lovers thereby to make them Martyrs he cleared their Understanding warmed their Will that light and heat being blended together they might more easily overcome Philosophers and Tyrants Finally he set up a Throne in their hearts that speaking by their mouthes and acting by their hands he might render them accomplisht pieces to the service of their Master And indeed we must acknowledge the Apostles changed their condition after the descent of the Holy Ghost their Fear vanished as soon as they were confirmed by his Strength the Cross seem'd strew'd with Charms as soon as they were kindled with his Flames they found Sweetness even in Torments Glory in Affronts Venit Vicarius Redemptoris ut beneficia quae Salvator Dominus inchoavit Spiritus sancti virtute consammet quod ille redemit iste sanctificet quod ille acquisivit iste custodiat Aug. Serm. 1. Feria 32. Pentec and Riches in Poverty This made S. Augustine say that the Holy Spirit came to finish in Power what the Son of God had begun in Weakness to sanctifie what the other had redeemed and to preserve what Christ had purchased If you seek saith the same S. Augustine what was wanting to the Apostles and what might be added to their perfection by the coming down of the Holy Ghost I will tell you Before that happie moment they had Faith but they had neither Constancie nor Fidelity they were able to forsake their possessions to follow Jesus Christ but they would not lose their lives to glorifie him they were able indeed to preach the Gospel but knew not how to signe it with their blood nor seal it with their death they were vertuous as long as they conversed with the Son of God up on earth but they were not grown up to perfection till the Holy Ghost had communicated to them his graces and adding force to charity had made them the Foundations of the Church the Fathers of the Faithful the Terrour of Devils and the Astonishment of Tyrants Finally 't is the holy Spirit according to the saying of S. John Damascen that perfects the Christians because 't is he that Quickens them by Grace and Deifies them with Glory So that we are obliged to confess that he enters into alliance with them that he is the same to the Church that he is to the Trinity and that after he hath been our Bond our Gift and our Love upon Earth he will be our Accomplishment in Heaven The Fourth DISCOURSE That the Holy Ghost seems to be to Christians what he is to the Son of God IT is not without ground that the Christian is called the Image of Jesus Christ since he is his other Self the one possessing by Grace what the other doth by
them But Saint Augustine informs us that he acts otherwise with sinners then with the godly and that he carries himselfe after another fashion with those he moves only Aliter adjuvat nondum inhabitans aliter habitans nam nondum inhabitans adjuvat ut sint fideles inhabitans adjuvat jam fideles Aug. Epist ad Sixtum then with those whom he inanimates He assists the former that they may be converted he helps the second that they may persevere in the former he inspires faith in the later charity to the one he opens the door of the Church to the other the gate of Heaven But finally 't is one and the same Spirit that aids all Christians in their different conversations 'T is he that triumphs over the Executioners in the Martyrs that combates Hereticks in the Doctours that subdues the flesh in the Continent that despiseth the pleasures of the world in the Anchorites that conquers sinne in the Penitents and that leads all the Elect from the Camp of the Church Militant into the bosome of the Church Triumphant The Ninth DISCOURSE That the HOLYSPIRIT is the CHRISTIANS Comforter SIn and Misery were borne into the world both upon a day assoon as ever man became criminall he became miserable Peccavit anima ideo misera est liberum arbitrium accepit quo usa est quemadmodum voluit lapsa est ejecta est de beatitudine implicata est misertis Aug. contra Fortu. Disp 2. punishment followed transgression so close upon the heeles that he lost his happinesse as soon as he had lost his innocence Ever since this fatall moment his life hath been but a continued Train of miseries insensibly leading him to the Chambers of death The Hydra of the Poets never was so fruitfully pregnant and Fiction with all it's inventions could never yet represent the story of our misfortunes Nor Age nor Sexe nor Condition give any person a dispensation Infants are wretched in the Cradle that innocent Age that hath no other sinne then that of Adam is sensible of pains as sharp as those that accompany old age Women who somtimes shake off obedience to their Husbands cannot escape the pangs of griefe and Kings who are so absolute in their State have no Guards that can stop sicknesse and sadnesse from entring into their Palaces These two enemies of man-kind creep every where their dominion knowes no bounds where ever there are men they finde subjects and create miserable Indeed Christians meet with a great deale of consolation in these distresses for besides that the hope of futurity sweetens their present evils that the example of Jesus Christ gives them encouragement that the constancy of Martyrs bear up their spirits they have received the Holy Spirit that comforts them in their troubles and supplies them with as many remedies as misfortune takes upon it shapes to assault them Let us reduce both of them to four heads and make it appear in their discourses that 't is not in vaine that man beares the name of miserable and the Holy Spirit that of a Comforter One of the fearfullest torments of man a sinner is that the two parts whereof he is made cannot agree In te ex teipso est flagellum tuum fit rixa tua tecum lucta est in illo corpore quamdiu vivimus pugnamus quamdiu pugnamus periclitamur Aug. The body and the soule are always upon bad terms their love is turned into hate and if there be any agreement between them 't is always to the disadvantage of the nobler part All is out of order in the master-piece of the Creation Earth is higher then Heaven the Beast domineers over the Angell the Spirit stoops to the Body and Passions are the Mistresses of Reason The Saints groan under this disorder they invoke death to be freed from this Tyranny and they intreat an end of their life that they may see an end of a Combate whose event is so doubtfull The Holy Spirit accommodates this difference by his grace for he takes part with the soule against the body he subjects the soule to God thereby to subject the body to the soule he sets things in the state they were in during the time of Innocence and so suppresseth the revolts of the flesh that if the Spirit be not absolute it is at least the strongest in the Saints 'T is the grace of our heavenly Comforter say the Fathers of the Church that sweetens our discontents that quencheth the impure flames that concupiscence kindles in our hearts that subdues those violent passions whose first motions are of so difficult coercion 'T is it that charmes those deceitfull hopes and desires that promise us felicity in the World and which finally following the Inclinations of this Spirit whereof it is the Image inables the Christian to be revenged of those rebells that disturb the quiet of his person The second punishment of guilty man is to see himselfe exiled from heaven and constrain'd to endure a banishment as long as life Indeed he undergoes here all the miseries of an exterminated person he is deprived of his goods and lives not but upon borrowing or almes he is driven out of Paradise fallen from all those honours that equal'd his condition to that of Angels and reduced to a deplorarable state Homo cum in honore esset non intellexit ideo comparatus est jumentis insipientibus Psal 48. rendring his fortune little different from that of beasts He never looks up to heaven but if there be any spark of piety remaining he bewailes his offence and is afflicted at his banishment Griefe puts these complaints in his mouth Wo is me because my habitation is prolonged He is afraid least the snares that are scattered in the place of his residence entangle him if he suffer any calamity he presently reflects upon the happinesse he hath lost and if he taste any pleasures he misstrusts lest they engage him in the world For Christians are threatned with this double evill and if they take not good heed they are in danger to love their exile and forget their Countrey they settle their fortune upon earth they build as if they never meant to remove they are strongly taken up with the present world and they lose all beliefe of the future and a man hath much adoe to perswade them that so delightfull an Abode is the place of their Banishment and the Theater of their Torment They must be made feele their miseries that they may have some desire towards another life and we think we have gained much upon their Spirit when they will be perswaded to look with an indifferent eye upon the place of their birth Therefore is it that Richardus de Sancto Victore divides men into three ranks the first is those that are fastened to their Countrey whom he calls Delicate Delicatus est cui patria dulcis fortis cui omne solum patria perfâ—ctus cui omnis terra exilium est
give a little light to this Speculation let us amplifie in this discourse what Saint Augustine hath wrapt up in this passage and unfolding all the evils derived from sinne discover the malignant influences of this Delinquent in chiefe upon his wretched members Ignorance seems to be one of the prime calamities of man 'T is born with him ever since he was born with sinne it sinks so deep into his soule that it cannot be expell'd thence but with labour and pain Children know neither their Creatour nor their Father they live some years in this sad condition we must expect till Nature ripen their senses and make them capable of the instructions of their Nurses or Masters that knowledge and truth may passe into their soules by the mediation of their eyes and eares Those that are born among infidels thinking to deliver themselves from ignorance are plung'd into falshood and fall into a mischiefe more grievous then that they labour to avoid when these two evils are associated together they heighten the bad inclinations of the Will of an offender they make an Opinator and adding obstinacy to malice throw him into a necessity of sinning If it have not this unhappy consequence in the faithfull who are instructed in the School of Truth it occasions another whose effects are no whit lesse tragicall For the Will feels a wretched impotency towards all those good things the combate of vices and the conquest of vertues makes him apprehend she complains that what ever is enjoyn'd is harsh and difficult what ever is forbidden easie and delightfull and having no strength to secure her selfe against griefe and pleasure Languorem istum culpa meruit natura non habuit quam sane culpam per lavacrum regenerationis Dei gratia fidelibus jam remisit sed sub ejusdem medici manibus adhuc natura cum suo languore confligit Aug. she loseth as many victories as she fights battles In the mean time all the children of Adam live in this misery what ever habituall goodnesse they acquire they never lose all that weaknesse they extracted from their Father assoon as Grace forsakes them they relapse into their former infirmity and being members of Adam they are always feeble and languishing But that which is most deplorable Concupiscence that so disables for good raiseth their appetite with so strong a propensity to evill that nothing seems difficult that appears under that notion The ambitious suffer with pleasure those great anxieties that accompany Glory this vain Idol makes them so couragious that they are true to it to the last gasp their constancy imitates that of Martyrs and they endure more hardships to conquer a Province then those generous Champions have to purchase Heaven The Covetous make our Penitentiaries blush their Interest costs them more then our Salvation Passion that swallows them up exerciseth so cruell a Tyranny over their wills that it obliges them to all the painfull severities the love of Jesus Christ disciplin'd the Anchorites to They fast to save charges they watch for lucre they leave their Countrey to traffique they venture their lives to assure their gains and lose their conscience to enrich their house Finally Haec cupiditas vana ac per hoc prava vincit in eis ac fraenat alias cupiditates Aug. Concupiscence works as many disorders in sinners as Charity does good in Martyrs it inspires them with vigour in tickling them with love it sheds a poison into their souls which blending weaknesse with strength makes them so unable for any good that the least difficulty that accompanies it astonisheth them and so valiant for evill that the greatest oppositions that attend it raise their courage to compasse it To all these mischiefs might be added the division of the soule and body the revolt of the passions against reason the treachery of the senses in respect of the understanding and all the distempers that arise from the unseasonablenesse of the weather or the strife of the Elements had I not largely describ'd them in discovering the miseries of man a Criminall But not to fall upon tedious repetitions 't is more usefull to consider the Head from whence we have derived our Benedictions and confront him against the other from whom we have received our Anathemaes Jesus Christ is that glorious CHIEF whom the Eternall Father is pleased to engraffe upon our Nature to deliver it from those miseries it grones under 't is from Him that all our advantages flow and as we are made guilty by descending from Adam we become innocent by being planted into JESUS CHRIST Our Redemption holds some proportion with our Fall the Mercy of God is regulated by his Justice and the Grace he bestowes upon us is a copy of our chastisement The first Man saith Saint Augustine received a Liberty void of all servitude God presented him with Fire and Water and gave him leave to chuse Man took Fire and rejected the Water God who is just let him grasp what he had chosen so that hee was therefore unhappy because he would be so See here an Expresse of the Justice of God Turn the Table and behold one of his Mercy For seeing that Man by the bad use of his Free-will had corrupted all Mankinde in his Person He came down from heaven not tarrying for his prayers and healed him by his Humility who had lost himself by his Pride he rectified the wanderers and put them into the right way hee call'd home the Banished and instated them in their Country that they might no longer glory in themselves but in that immaculate CHIEF from whom they derived their salvation This Verity is the Foundation of our Religion The beliefe of two Adams acquaints us with our Fall and with our Recovery Wee cannot know what we owe JESUS CHRIST unlesse we know what we lost in Adam nor can we ever worthily comprehend the obligations we have to our Redeemer unlesse we fully understand all the misfortunes accru'd to us by him that was our Parricide at the same instant that he was our Parent Therefore is it that the great Apostle never separates ADAM from JESUS CHRIST he always opposeth Grace against Sin be heightens the greatness of the Remedy by that of the Disease and that we may have a right estimate of the children of God he minds us that they were the children of wrath and vessels of dishonour Saint Augustine the faithfull Interpreter of Saint Paul admirably explains this Mystery in commenting upon the words of this Apostle As none saith he enters into the kingdom of Death that passeth not by Adam Siâ—â—t in regno Mortis nemo sine Adam ita in regno Vitaenomo sine Christo sicur per Adam omnes peccatores ita per Christum omnes justi homines sicut per Adam omnes mortales in poena facti sunt filii seculi ita per Christuâ— omnes immortales in gratia sunt filii Dei August ad Optat. so none enters into the
Sinners All his Actions testifie that he considers his Church as his Spouse and the Faithfull as his Children because he was willing to enter into their humiliations and to exalt them to his Greatnesses For though the Church be not Iesus Christ nor Iesus Christ the Church yet their union is so strict that they are two in one flesh two in one voice two in one passion and two in one rest Indeed if we examine these words well we shall find that they contain the chiefest conditions of the marriage of Iesus Christ with his Church and that they clearly explaine the priviledges which the quality of being members of the Son of God bestows upon the Faithfull They are both in one flesh because the Church is born of Iesus Christ upon the Crosse and that the Sacraments which produce and preserve her issued from the wounds of her Beloved They are two in the same flesh because in the Eucharist he nourisheth her with his Body and Blood and in that mystery tries to transform her into himself as hee was transformed into her in the Incarnation when he was made Man to become her Beloved Wherefore Saint Augustine hath very well observed Ut noveritis quia unus dicitur Christus caput corpus suum ipse dicit cum de conjugio loqueretur sunt duo in carne una ergo jam non duo sed caro una sed forte hoc dicit de quocunque conjugio Auli Paulum Ego autem dico in Christo Ecclesia fit ergo ex duobus una quaedā persona ex capite corpore ex sponso sponsa Aug. in Psal 30. that the Church was all things to Jesus Christ and that Jesus Christ was all things to his Church She is his Mother because she conceived him in the womb of the Virgin she is his Daughter because she was born of his death and proceeding from his wounds honours as her Father him whom she loves as her Bridegroom she is his Sister because she fulfils the will of the Father and obtains that quality by her obedience Thus Jesus Christ and his Church are truly allied by flesh and may upon a better title then other conjugall parties say in the difference of their conditions they are but one Body They have also but one voice because they always speak together the Church is the Organ of her Beloved and Iesus Christ is the interpreter of his Church He expressed himself by her mouth before he was born upon Earth he speaks yet by her now that he is ascended up into Heaven and as their interests are inseparable their prayers are common and their language is equally entertained by the Father Thence it comes to passe that Saint Augustine unfolding this profound mystery teacheth us that the Son of God carries himself diversly towards the Faithfull according to the different qualities that separate or unite him to them He intercedes for them as their Chief Priest whose principall Office is to offer up mens prayers and to draw down blessings from Heaven upon their heads He hears their supplications with his Father to whom he is equall in Majesty he is willingly overcome by the tears of the distressed and having prayed for them as their Priest he hears them as their God Finally he prays in them as their Head he delivers the Word in the name of his Body he defends the interests of his members he pleads his own cause in pleading theirs and asks a Grace for himself in begging mercy for them Thence it comes to passe that the Father giving way to the Prayers of his Son so easily lends an ear to the Petitions of the Church because hee ownes the voice of Jesus Christ in that of his Spouse and grants that to the merits of the one which he might justly refuse to the demerits of the other He might answer us as David sometimes did that widow that made so eloquent a speech to him in behalf of Absalom Is not the hand of Joab with thee in this Loquatur Christus in nobis ut quem gerimus iu pectore babeamus in cre Cypr. For when he understands the innocent voice of his Son mingled with ours and sees that we make use of the merits and arguments of Jesus Christ to perswade him he may say to every sinner Is not the hand of Christ with thee in this Or beholding the accomplishment of that Figurative History acted heretofore in the family of Isaac where the Cadet got the blessing of his father by a mysterious surprise he might say The hands are Esau's but the voice is Jacob's because 't is true that the voice of the Son of God covers many times our bad actions and his innocent mouth obtains Graces for us in stead of punishments our guilty hands would deservedly draw down upon us Oftentimes out of an excess of love he loads himself with our sins and forgetting his Greatness appears before his Father as a Delinquent he puts on the habit of a servant takes the place of rebels and making a change advantageous for them takes their Offences and puts upon them his Merits Thence it comes to past that on the Cross where he stands the Caution of Sinners he complains that his Father forsakes though he be inseparable from him and beholding himself as the Victim of Sin useth language unworthy of his Innocence but worthy of his Love Orator ergo in forma Det orat in forma servi ibi creator hic creatus creaturam mutandam non mutatus assumens secum nos faciens unum hominem caput corpus oramus ergo ad illum per illum in illo dicimus cum illo dicit nobiscum longe à salute mea verb a delictorum Aug. praef in Ps 85. and the condition he was in This is it that S. Augustine acquaints us with in that discourse that comprebends as many Mysteries as Words If we consider Jesus Christ as equal to his Father he hears our prayers with him if we consider him in the form of a servant as like to sinenrs he presents his prayers with them there he is the Creator here he is created but remaining unchangeable is united to his Creature to change him and makes himself one man with him whereof they are joyntly the Head and Body Thus sometimes we pray to him and sometimes also we pray in him and he prays with us he speaks by our mouth we by his and living in one and the same Body we many times use the same language 'T is in the view of this Mystery that S. Augustine hath discovered a Secret to explain all those passages that seem to concern the Innocence of Jesus Christ For as by consequence of the Marriage contracted with the Church he is included in her obligations he speaks many times in the person of the Church and that we mistake not we must have this alliance always before our eyes and not be astonished that the Son of God who
agnosce â—e in ipso tentatum te in illo agnosce vincentem Aug. Jesus Christ saith he was tempted by the evil spirit in the desart or rather we were tempted in him for 't is from us that he took Flesh from him that we derive Salvation 't is from us that he receives his Death from him that we receive our Life 't is from us that he had these affronts cast upon him from him that we have Honours conferred upon us 'T is therefore for our sakes that he suffered Temptation and for his sake that we carry away the victory Or to say the same thing in other words If we were tempted in him 't is in him also that we overcame the devil our enemy He certainly could have difcarded him from his person and using him like a rebellious slave have punished his rash boldness by commanding him to hell but had he not been willing to be tempted he had not taught us to overcome by his example nor had the combat he fought in the wilderness procured us the honour of a Triumph Thus the quality of Head is injurious to Jesus Christ and honourable to Christians because in that exchange it obliged him to make with them he endured the shame of the Temptation and purchased for them the advantage of the Victory Finally to conclude this Discourse The Son of God was willing to bear the reproaches of the Cross and to merit for us the priviledges of Glory For being charged with our iniquities he suffered death the punishment of them permitted Shame to be added to Cruelty that spoiling him of Life Si moriamur saltem cum libertate moriamur Cicero in Verâ—em de Crucis supplicio agens they might withal rob him of his Honour and he might give up the ghost as an Offender and a Slave together In the mean time his Punishment purchased our Glory his Death merited our Immortality and in stead of taking vengeance of our crimes he procures us his own advantages It seems saith S. Augustine the Father mistook himself he treats his onely Son as a Delinquent and handles Men as Innocents he crowns him with Thorns these with Glory and confounding the Sinner with the Just confounds Chastisements with Rewards But if we consider that the Son of God took our place and we his that he is our Head and we his Members we shall finde that his Father had reason to punish him and to reward us because having made a change with us he is become Guilty we Innocent Let us therefore be thankful to Jesus Christ who disdained not a quality which investing him with our Nature chargeth him with our sins and our infirmities and uniting him to us as to his Members obliges him to be tempted to make us victorious Ille quippe Christianorum caput in omnibus tentari voluit quia tentamur sic morivoluit quiae morimur sic resurgere quiae resurrecturi sumus Aug. in Psal 9. Serm. 2. and to suffer the death of the Cross to obtain for us the glory of Immortality The Ninth DISCOURSE Of the duties of Christians as Members toward Jesus Christ as their Head THough the duties of the Head and of the Members are reciprocal and that composing one Body they are obliged to a mutual correspondence arising from Necessity as well as Love yet there is no man but will acknowledge that as the Members receive more assistance from the Head ten the Head from the Members so are they tied to greater expressions of dependence Nature which is an excellent mistress in this matter instructs us that the life of the Members depends upon the Head and their very preservation obliges them to three or four duties without which they can no ways subsist Their Interest requires that they be inseparably fastned to that from whence they receive their life lest their division with their death deprive them of all those advantages which spring from the union they have with their Head Thus we see that the Hand which is one of the most ingenious parts of the body and which may be called the Mother of all Arts and the faithfullest Minister of the Soul loseth its dexterity and comeliness as soon as separated from the Head that enlivens it The Feet though not so noble as the Hands are yet as necessary being the moveable Foundations of this living building are destitute of all strength when they have no commerce with the Head This indeed ceaseth not to act and move though provided neither of Hands nor Feet when Nature fails it hath recourse to Art and being the throne of the Soul ransacks all her treasures of Invention to execute that by it Self Omnis salus omnis vita à capite in caeterae membra derivatur Galen was wont to be put in execution by its Members But though the hands are so industriously subtil and the legs so vigorously strong they are absolutely useless because their separation deprives them of the influences of their head This Maxime so notorious in Nature is much more evident in Grace For the Son of God hath no need of his Members 't is Mercy and not Necessity obligeth him to make use of them He is not at all more powerful when united to them nor more feeble when separated from them Faith tells us he can do all things without them whereas they can doe nothing without him Therefore is he compared to the Vine and they to the Branch to acquaint them that all their vertue flows from his and being pluckt from his Body can as the Branch expect nothing but the fire Therefore the first obligation of Christians is to unite themselves to Jesus Christ to seek their life in this union and to believe that their death is the infallible consequence of their division This is it that Saint Augustine represents us in this Discourse which though long cannot be tedious because there is nothing in it that is not delightfull and necessary As the Body hath many members which though different in number make up but one body so Jesus Christ hath many members which in the diversity of their conditions constitute also but one body so that we are always with him as with our Head and drawing from him our strength as well as our life we can neither act nor live without him We with him make up a fruitful Vine that bears more Grapes then Leaves but divided from him we are like those Branches which being good for nothing are destin'd to the slames when stript off from the Vine Therefore doth the Son of God so earnestly affirm it in the Gospel that without him we can doe nothing that our interests as well as our love Domine si fine te nihil totum in te possumus Etenim quicquid ille operatur per nos videmur nos operari potest ille multum totum sine nobis nos nihil sine ipso Aug. in Psal 30. may engage us to be united to his
to act when this ceaseth to operate For the right understanding of this Truth we must remember that though the Christian and the Man be one and the same person yet have they their oppositions and their differences Man believes himself perfect when he is free and reasonable these two faculties are his principal advantages and the vanity of Philosophy perswades him that as long as he acts according to Reason he cannot fail of attaining felicity To keep himself in this state he is careful that the Senses pervert not his Understanding that the Passions trouble not his Rest and an inordinate Love deprive him of his Liberty But this blinde Opiniator sees not that he carries his enemy in his own bosom that Concupiscence orders all the motions of his soul that Reason is but her slave and that he is never more wedded to himself then when he thinks to hang loose from all things else As the Christian is a new man he acts by other principles for he renounceth Reason to give himself over to Grace he quits the light of his Understanding to submit to the obscurity of Faith and his endeavour is to quench the flames of Self-love that he may burn onely with the fire of Charity He learns in the School of Christianity that Reason is a bad guide because she lets Concupiscence lead her he knows that the Understanding is prevented with a thousand errours and having lost the better part of his light he many times confounds Vertue with Vice He is not ignorant that the Will is the most depraved as it is the most guilty of all his faculties and being engaged in the love of the creatures finds nothing that charms the affection but what is corruptible and perishable Therefore is his greatest care to get assistance against these domestick enemies and wholly to surrender himself to grace that it may be to him for a guide and a defence Thus Faith becomes his Light Hope his Supporter Charity his Love and if we may speak so Grace is made his second Nature To the vain errours of Science he opposeth the solid lights of Faith to the false promises of the world the true promises of Jesus Christ to self-love divine love and to the corruption of Nature the purity of Grace Then is it that soaring above himself he learns by a happy experience that he was never more free then since he became a slave and that Grace is so far from robbing him of his liberty that it hath delivered him from a bondage as cruell as it was ignominious For as Saint Augustine saith Free-will finds its perfection in Charity he that was in darkness becomes enlightned from weakness he passeth to strength from disorder to good government and he that was sullied with the love of the creatures recovers his purity in the love of the Creator But nothing more obliges the Christian to renounce his reason that so he may become the subject of Grace then to know that his last end is supernaturall and that he cannot attain it by forces solely naturall For though man have some knowledge of God though he observe his perfections in the creatures though he judge of his greatness by the beauty of his works and recoiling into himself sees there some shadows of him whose image he is yet he knows very well that God is so great that he cannot be perceived but by his own light Indeed he must shed abroad some rays into our soul that the soul may have some glympse of him he must clarifie and strengthen her that she may look up unto him and mounting above her selfe may render her partaker of that light whereby he is made visible to the blessed in glory Thus though the will have some affection for the Supream Good though she cannot fixe upon any objects that have not some appearance of Goodness in them and that in the midst of her greatest disorders there still remains some inclination towards her Creator yet the Christian knows that God cannot be worthily embrac'd but by that love he works in us that charity must be poured into our hearts and that without the assistance of this Divine gift we can neither love him nor hate our selves as we should The inclination Nature stamped upon us in her purity was too weak to effect this and that which Nature hath left us since her corruption is too inordinate to lead us to it Thus Grace is necessary in both conditions and the actions that proceed not from this Principle are to be suspected because according to the Maximes of Saint Augustine those that flow not from Charity flow most commonly from Concupiscence These two Soveraigns possess the will successively as the first works nothing but good the second is only active in evil and to be disingaged from the tyranny of the one there is no other way but to submit to the lawful dominion of the other Thence it comes to pass that the same Doctor declaring his full judgement in that Epistle he writ to Vitalius informs us that Grace depends upon Gods pure Liberality that 't is due neither to Men nor Infants though it be necessary to all the actions of the former that God who is the Author of it respects neither their works nor their dispositions that men may know when he bestows it 't is an emanation of his mercy and when he denies it 't is an act of his justice He that shall well weigh the sense of these words as profound as the depths he treats of will not have much adoe to acknowledge the indigence of the creature the need he hath of Grace and the Liberty God reserves to himself of dispensing it to whom he will The Third DISCOURSE That the Grace of a Christian ought to be more powerfull then that of Adam IT is strange but withall very true that nothing so much hinders a man from valuing the remedies that cure him as the opinion he hath that he was not very sick This is it that to this day abuseth the greatest part of Christians and lessens the obligation they have to the Grace of Jesus Christ For they are perswaded that the fault of our first Father hath scarce made any devastations in our Nature that the greatest part of our evils spring not so much from our will as from our imagination and that there is little difference between the state of sin and the state of originall righteousness Pride insensibly confirms us in this belief we make our weakness pass for cowardise nor can we be brought to acknowledge that our passions are the punishment of our disobedience From this first Errour is derived a second more troublesome then the former For believing our disease light we think the remedy extream easie and judging Concupiscence not so strong we judge the Grace of Jesus Christ nothing so powerful Indeed those that imagine that mans liberty is yet vigorous enough to resist sin acknowledge only a sufficient grace adding little to that of
disposition it findes her For those that fully div'd into the meaning of S. Augustine have observed that the Grace of Jesus Christ though always effectual is not always victorious and though it never fail to produce some holy desires or good motions in the soul of a sinner yet it surmounts not always the illigitimate pleasure that holds her captive so that its manner of acting differs very much from Physicall predetermination which ever tames the will notwithstanding all the resistance she can make Finally this third opinion takes and leaves something of the second it takes that sweetness that charms the will of man and confesseth all the force of grace to consist in that suavity that accompanies it but it rejects that lazy compliance that subjects grace to liberty making man in some sort the master of his salvation it cannot allow that our consent should more depend upon our selves then upon grace and that acting in the state of sin as if we had acted in the state of innocence we should rather dispose of grace then grace of us To explain therefore the power of this Divine influence according to the most common opinion and most constant with S. Augustine it consists me thinks in a certain sweet elapse shedding it self into the will charming it so agreeably that 't is transported by it doing nothing but by the motion of this suavity which becomes infallibly victorious surmounting the delectation that captivated the will If it produce not always this last effect it fails not to produce some others For if it disingage not the sinners soul it breathes into him some desire of his liberty imprints some motions into him that make him sigh if it breaks not his chains it easeth the weight of them and enables him to form some good designs or conceive some good wishes But whatever man does 't is grace still that makes him doe it it is more the principle of his action then himself and seeing it produceth in him according to the language of the great Apostle both to will and to doe he is obliged to say with the same Apostle that he owes all that he is and all that he doth to Grace and that the glory he expects is rather the reward of grace then of his merits From all this Discourse 't is easie to judge that this last opinion comprehends the two other that it unites force with sweetness in grace that it may prevail upon man without wiolence It respects the Majesty of God because it gives him the absolute disposall of his creature it spares the liberty of man Certum est nos velle cum volumus sed ille facit ut velimus bonum certum est nos facere cum facimus sed ille facit ut faciamus praebendo vires efficacissimas voluntati Aug. because it subjects it only to pleasure which is never more welcome then when forc'd and gives it a share in the work of salvation because it confesseth with Saint Augustine that he acts with the grace that makes him act Ageris ut agas bene agis si à bono agaris There remains one difficulty which I am content to propound without resolving To wit whether Grace always mingle force with sweetnesse to convert a sinner or to guide a just person for it seems there are some souls that God deals roughly with which taste no inward sweetnesse at all and destitute of all delectation act only by the strength and faithfulness of their grace They are continually plunged in grief and sorrow they may bespeak God as Job did in the midst of his afflictions Mutatus es mihi in crudelem and they may boast with the Apostle that all their strength consists in their weakness Tunc potens sum cum infirmor I know very well that Saint Augustine never separates force from sweetness in grace and that where ever he describes it victorious he describes it agreeable But may we not say also that this great Doctor hath spoken of Grace as he had experience of it himself and being disingaged from sinfull pleasures by innocent ones believed all graces sweet and that the particular conduct God had observ'd towards his soul was his generall proceeding with all others In a word Mysticall Divines and Spirituall Guides seem to acknowledge ways wherein God separates light from force and force from sweetness though in both these he faile not to promote souls in piety But because Saint Augustine hath given no notice of them in his works let us hold our selves to his conceptions and say that if there are graces where light and force are more sensible then sweetnesse there are none where sweetness is not mixt with force and light and the sweetness so much more effectuall that being more intimate 't is lesse known to the understanding and more remote from sense The Sixt DISCOURSE That the names Saint Augustine gives Christian Grace bear witness 't is effectuall MAn is so free that he cannot endure any thing that checks his liberty he is more afraid of servitude then of death he had rather die a Free-man then live a Slave and if liberty were not to be found in Heaven I question whether he could find in his heart to be happy 'T is the love he hath to this advantage which serves him for excuse of his greatest crimes If he repine to live in a Monarchy 't is because he conceives the absolute power of Soveraigns inconsistent with the liberty of their subjects If hee cannot submit to Laws 't is because hee is perswaded they intrench upon his will and that they will fetter a creature over whom God will not reign by compulsion If finally Christians cannot suffer effectuall grace if the name be distastfull or suspected and if instead thereof they introduce sufficient grace 't is because they believe it reduceth man to a troublesome bondage excluding merit and prejudicing liberty But because there are unjust pannick fears and evils that more hurt the imagination then the body I design this Discourse to discover the unreasonableness of this apprehension and to let those that are in love with liberty see that 't is not incompatible with effectuall grace because this according to Saint Augustine is a victorious pleasure charming our soul a triumphant love predominant over our will and a powerfull perswasion captivating our understanding Forasmuch as God hath made man free never taking that from him which once he hath bestowed upon him he could not have employed a more gracious nor more effectuall way to gain him then pleasure All creatures are taken with it and the Poet had reason to say There is nothing that is not sweetly master'd by pleasure The Ambitious seek not so much the reputation in honours as the pleasure because they contemn them assoon as they cease to be agreeable The Covetous is not so much provoked with profit as pleasure in the desire of wealth because he spends many times prodigally to procure other things that
more delight him Nay the Lascivious wanton is not so much in love with beauty as with pleasure because he placeth his affection sometimes upon objects that have no appearance of beauty and many times forsakes a handsome woman to court a deformed one Thus pleasure is a powerfull charm that masters all hearts plunders liberties and makes slaves that never complain of their bondage because they are voluntary Lovers that seek the secret of purchasing affection study nothing but complacency being assured they shall produce love in that heart where they have begot pleasure Flatterers never insinuate into the minds of great men but by rendring themselves acceptable nor doe their false Commendations steal in at the ears but because pleasure takes up the place of truth The very Devils though our mortall enemies seduce us not but because they please us and had they not found out the art of mixing pleasure with sin all their temptations would be fruitless But the will of man though never so free hath such an inclination toward pleasure that did she never so strongly barracado her self she could not possibly resist it she holds out against truth because she is blind and sees not the beauties 't is adorned with she secures her self against violence because she is free and naturally opposeth whatever seems to incroach upon her liberty she does not acquiesce in reason because she is deaf nor hears any discourse but such as charms the understanding by convincing it But pleasure hath allurements which she can no wayes withstand she trembles when ever it sets upon her she is afraid to lose her liberty in his presence and knowing the power it hath over her inclinations she cals in sorrow to her succour to guard her against this pleasing enemy If it be true that pleasure reigns absolutely over the will we need not think it strange that grace which is nothing else but a victorious suavity hath such advantage over her for besides that this Heavenly influence surpasseth all the delights in the world that charm us having more allurements then glory and beauty that makes so many Lovers and Martyrs it insinuates much deeper into the will then whatever ravisheth us mortals Tunc enim bonum concupisci incipit cum dulcescere incipit ergo benedictio dulcedinis est gratia Dei qua fit in nobis ut nos delectet cupiamus hoc est amemus quod praecipit nobis Aug. Being in the hands of Jesus Christ whom nothing can resist it glides into the very Center of our heart making impressions there that are never more strong then when they are most agreeable thence it cashieres all pleasures that have unjustly usurpt upon us and knowing all the weaknesses of the place it sets upon we need not wonder if she make her self mistresse Other pleasures enter not into the will but at the gate of the senses they have lost half their strength before they can make their approach and her inclinations being unknown to them they many times cause aversion intending to procure love But grace wooes the heart without the mediation of the senses and more powerfull then pleasures that act not upon all the faculties of the soul carries light into the understanding faithfulnesse into the memory and pleasure into the will so that we need not wonder if the sinner suffer himself to be overcome by a Divine quality that sheds delight into all the powers and faculties of the soul That which Grace effects thus agreeably by pleasure it brings to pass more powerfully by Love For according to the judgement of S. Augustine Amor imperiü babet super omnes animae vires propter hoc quod ejus objectum est bonum Aristo Di. Tho. and when God means to convert a sinner his sole design is to make him his Lover Love is the Master of all hearts There is no impossibility this passion undertakes not Miracles are his sports and all the prodigies Antiquity hath teem'd with are nothing but the effects of this Soveraign Scripture is never more eloquent then when it intends to express the force thereof nothing satisfies it in this design all words seem too weak to express its conceptions and finding no comparisons that answer the dignity of the subject it descends to the Tombes where having considered the Trophies of death is forc'd to confess that his power equals not that of Love it passeth to the very Center of the Earth observes the unrelenting hardness of Hel and comparing the pains of the damned with the anxiety of lovers leaves us in doubt whether Hel or Love be more pitiless But not to aggravate his power by such strange comparisons let it suffice to judg of him by his effects Though he be the son of the Wil yet is he the Master he disposeth so absolutely of his Mother that she hath no motions but what her Son inspires her with she undertakes nothing but by his orders 't is the weight that sets her a going the Loadstone that attracts her the King that governs her and she so absolutely depends upon his power that nothing but another love can dis-engage her she is so fierce or so free that neither violence nor fear can tame her she laughs at tortures preserves her liberty in the midst of fetters and many times torments make her but more wilfull Only Love mollifies her hardness his charmes gain upon her what sorrow cannot and experience teacheth us there is no surer Command then that which is founded upon Love In the mean time Vanity which is almost the inseparable companion of Greatness perswades Kings that 't is a debasement to seek the love of their subjects and seduced by this false Maxime they endeavour to make themselves feared not being able to make themselves beloved But God who hath formed the heart of man and knows how they may be vanquished without being forc'd owes all his Conquests to his Love he never appears more absolute then when he tames a rebellious Will when of an Enemy he makes a Lover and changing his inclinations sweetly compels him to fall in love with him Forinsecus terret per Legem intrinsecus delectat per Amorem Aug. His Power sparkles in his Corrections he astonisheth sinners when he loosens the mountains from their foundations when he makes the earth shake under their feet the thunder rumble over their heads and threatens the world with an universal Deluge or a general Conflagration But all these menaces convert not the Guilty the fear that terrifies them reduceth them not to their duty their heart remains criminal when their mouthes and their hands be innocent and if God inspire not his love into them he punisheth indeed their offence but changeth not their Will This prodigious Metamorphosis is reserved for his love 't is his charity that must triumph over rebels nor is there any thing but his Grace that by its imperious sweetness can oblige a sinner to love him I am not
afraid to injure mans Liberty in using terms so significant because supposing Grace nothing but Love it can do no violence to the Will for of all the things in the world there is none freer then Love A man cannot complain that he is forced when nothing but charms of affection are employed to gain him and if there are some Lovers that have blamed the rigour of their mistresses there is none that have found fault with their love If it be an Evil 't is a voluntary one it hurts none but those that willingly embrace it and of so many punishments that torment us there is none more innocent because none more free Crowns may be snatched from Soveraigns Confidence may be taken from Philosophers Orators may be convinced any man may lose his life but whatever stratagems are made use of whatever violence men practise a Lover cannot be forced nor his love extorted from him Seeing then Grace is nothing but Charity and Charity nothing but a holy Love we must not apprehend violence nor imagine that the assaults of this divine quality can at all injure our Liberty because it does not disengage us from evil but by obliging us to love God If Grace cannot force our Will because it is a victorious love it ought less to constrain it because according to the language of S. Augustine 't is a pleasant perswasion For this great man considering that he was to deal with Free-will on one side and the Power of Grace on the other that he was to maintain the Empire of God and the Liberty of Man he hath always exprest himself so happily that he never prejudic'd either and as indeed Grace never forceth Man but perswades him it holds something of Eloquence or of Reason that triumphs over Liberty without compelling it Rhetorick is an Art that teacheth us to perswade Truth Orators are agreeable Soveraigns that bear rule over the mindes of their Auditors that calm their Passions change their Designes Quid enim inter Pisistratum Periclem interfuit nisi quod ille armatus hic sine armis tyrannidem gessâ—â— Cicer. and gently force their Wills Therefore was it unhandsomely done of that Ancient to compare Pericles with Pisistratus because this Tyrant domineered but over mens Bodies that Orator exercised a dominion over their Souls the one made use of Violence the other employed nothing but Sweetness the one procured the hatred of his Subjects the other the love of his Auditors For no man could complain of Pericles because he used nothing but Eloquence to perswade his Command was founded upon Reason his chief Force consisted in Truth he subjected no Understandings but by clearing them nor changed any mens Wills but in taking them by their interests or their inclinations In a word Eloquence may boast her self a Soveraign that reigns without arms subdues people by her word convinceth Philosophers by her reasons and subjects Monarchs by her power She protects the Innocent comforts the Distressed condemns or absolves the Guilty and as she animates the Advocates or the Judges produceth different miracles in their souls Whether she inchant the Ears by the harmonious cadencies of her Periods whether she excite love and hatred by her gestures her principal designe is to master the Liberty of Man She sets not upon the Understanding but to gain the Will she appears complacent that she may be perswasive nor doth she require the attention or her auditors but that she may get their consent 'T is true never any man complains of her violence because she is sweet and he that hath changed his minde at the hearing of an Orator never accused him of Tyranny 'T is certainly upon this ground that S. Augustine calls Grace a powerful perswasion because imitating Eloquence it clears our Spirits calms our Passions and gains our Consent It hath this advantage over Eloquence that it hath no need of our Ears to win our Hearts it transmits it self by it self into the inmost recesses of the soul findes out Reason in her Throne without employing the Senses carries Light into the Understanding and kindles Love in the Will Thus she perswades what she will to the obstinate subdues rebels without arms makes her Subjects will what she desires they should and when she displays all her forces she works the conversion of a sinner in a moment This certainly was the power Jesus Christ made use of when he laid Saint Paul flat at his feet when he converted that Persecutor into an Apostle changed his heart and his tongue and made him that breathed nothing but murder say Lord what wilt thou have me to do He lost not his Liberty for having lost his Fury he changed not his Nature for having changed his Judgement nor can we say that the perswasion that gained his consent was less free or more violent for being so sudden Grace knows how to be obeyed without making us slaves she can perswade without compelling and more powerful then Eloquence is able to make us love what we hated before That great Orator that guided the Romane Common-wealth with his Tongue and made his opinion so dexterously pass into the soul of his Auditors that gallant man I say hath wrought miracles by his Eloquence which we have much ado to allow the grace of Jesus Christ to effect He could boast that he altered the resolution of Caesar defending the cause of Ligarius that he shook the papers out of the hands and the hatred out of the heart of that Conquerour that he made him recal the sentence he had already pronounced in his soul that he overcame him by his Reasons that fubdued all by his Arms and trampled upon the pride of a Tyrant that had triumphed over the Liberty of Rome In the mean time we have much ado to believe that Grace can work miracles we weaken its Vertue to preserve our own Free-will we are not content that Jesus Christ should be as powerful as an Orator and when we hear of these victorious Graces and of these invincible perswasions we imagine as if there were a designe to oppress the publike Liberty Let us ascribe that to Grace which we grant to Eloquence let us confess that the Son of God knows how to imprint Truth in our spirit and Love in our heart to perswade us infallibly let us acknowledge that he is not to seek by what stratagems to gain our inclinations that his Grace more intimate then Concupiscence is able to become the mistress of our Wills and whatever command she exerciseth over us she never destroys our Liberty because she hath no other designe then to enfranchise it out of servitude The Seventh DISCOURSE That we may judge of the power of Grace over the Christian by that of Concupiscence over the Sinner FOrasmuch as the things of the world never appear with greater lustre then when they are set in opposition against their contraries I conceive in this Discourse I shall not do amiss to confront Concupiscence
deceives men by the vanity of its promises This then is uncertain doubt makes up a part of its Essence and by a misfortune inseparable from it it ceaseth to be Hope as soon as it begins to be sure Therefore Seneca said she promised a doubtfull good and to her very favourites leaves all things dubious and uncertain But the Hope of a Christian is sure his certitude commensurate and all men that define it make it synonimous with Assurance That of Men is false what-ever fair colours its promises are dress'd with it cannot avoyd the denomination of a Lye Therefore the same Scripture that calls it uncertain calls it a lying vanity and finding nothing vain enough whereby to expresse its essence compares it to Dreams that abuse men in their sleep Vana spes mendacium viro insensato somnia extollunt imprudentem so that those that give ear unto it are like those poor Dreamers who being rich onely whilest they sleep lose all as soon as they awake their sleep enricheth them and when they awake they are plundred of all and reduc'd to their former poverty But the Hope of a Christian is true and being founded upon the promises of God who cannot lie never deludes the Beleever that listens to them If that of Men be false we need not wonder that it is miserable and for those imaginary contentments it allures us with gives nothing but reall pains For though we may flatteringly apprehend her as the most agreeable passion and endeavour to perswade our selves that she sweetens the disquietnesse of our longings true Philosophy confesseth her the cause of our Fear Desines sperare desines timere Senec. and that the only means to be free from distrustfull apprehensions is to be free from hope But the Hope of a Christian is accompanied with confidence and so close united to pleasure that it passeth for one part of our Felicity Finally the Hope of Worldlings is so often faulty that the Scripture calls it an Abomination and makes us know that all the pretences of sinners are nothing but Crimes The Lascivious promiseth himself nothing but Adulteries the Ambitious nought but Tyrannies the Furious plots vengeance the Covetous feeds himself with unjust gains and all of them saith S. Gregory never acknowledge their sin till the pleasure is past and grief succeds in the place thereof But the Hope of a Christian is Innocent produceth just desires in their souls and the Good they wait for makes them commence Saints upon Earth that they be perfected in heaven The Fifth DISCOURSE The Description of Christian Charity DIvinity teacheth us that God is so infinite that to expresse all his Greatnes he must have as many names as hee hath perfections Therefore is it that the Scripture calls him sometimes a Sun because his brightness dissipates the darkness of our hearts and discovers our intentions from the very depth of our wills Sometimes he is calld a Heaven because his Immensity incircles all his works and comprehends in his Nature whatever he produceth by his Power Sometimes hee is stiled a devouring Fire because he consumes our sins and because his holines more active then that Element burnes the souls of the Saints whom it purifieth Sometimes he is called a Flower because his beauty ravisheth us his odour perfumes us and his splendour dazels us In as much as Charity is his noblest and most excellent expression the Scripture handleth it with the same respect and perceiving that it cannot manifest all its Excellencies by one single name gives it as many Appellations as this Vertue hath different qualities And because every name is a kind of a Definition I beleive I ought to rehearse them in this Discourse which will contribute very much towards the knowledge of the Excellencies of Charity Saint John the Evangelist whom we may call the Disciple of Love as well as of Light Deus charitas est qui manet in charitate in Deo manet Deus in eo 1 Joh. 4. teacheth us that God is Charity and though in this definition he pretends not to perswade us that the Charity which makes us love God is God himselfe yet his design is to inform us that there is nothing can more happily transform us into God then this vertue because he vouchsafes to bear the name thereof and of all the things in the world there is none that expresse his Greatness in so noble an Hieroglyphick Therefore Saint Augustine ravished with this Speech hath uttered that which gives us the meaning thereof God is Charitie a short Elogie but exceeding great short in words but great in sense If you inquire how many Gods there are this Definition will tell you but one and if you ask what he is will assure you he is Love St. Bernard who following the steps of St. Augustine reviv'd his opinions in France Deus Charitas est quid pretiosius qui manet in charitate in Deo manet quid securius Deus in eo quid jucundius Bern. and made us see that in the matter of Grace we need consult no other Oracle heightens this Definition with as much learning as Eloquence God saith he is Charity what more precious he that abides in Charity abides in God what more secure and God abides in him what condition more agreeable Indeed we cannot possesse Charity in our hearts but together with it we must have the Divine Essence and their Union is so inseparable that the one cannot bee lost without the other This gave the Apostle of the Gentiles occasion to call Charity the Fellowship of the Holy Ghost because being the chiefest of his Gifts he never produceth it in a soul but he alwayes enters together with it Light is never dis-joyn'd from the Sun and if it be true that this noble quality subsisted some daies without adhering to that glorious Star the same power that united them may again separate them But the Holy Spirit and Charity are indivisible this fire is never without heat this Sun is never without brightnes and all Scripture would be false if Charity were not a certain proof of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our souls The same Apostle whom we stile the Panegyrist of Charity assures us that it is the fulfilling of the Law and the accomplishment of the Decalogue Indeed he lives holily that loves the Supream Good and at the same time those that may enjoy it with him He is perfect saith S. Augustine that can regulate his affection and govern himself with so much justice that he loves what is amiable and hates what is odious and proportioning his charity to the merit of the objects loves that differently which he cannot love equally Therefore is there not so great a necessity in reading holy Books in diving into the mysteries of Scripture to search out the meaning of the Prophets because in exercising Charity we may boast we have fullfilled all we have understood all Therefore saith the
sinner whose conversion may not be hop'd for she prayes for those that despitefully use her that after the example of Jesus Christ she may make her tormentors her friends In as much as this Discourse draws to an end I must be more briefe in the other definitions of Charity and say succinctly with Saint Augustine that she is the love of the true good because to speak properly she adheres onely to God in consideration of whom she despiseth all other goods which are nothing but lies or illusions The desire and possession whereof she leaves to concupiscence she envies not her false felicity because she knows 't is really but a true misery and by means of those lights that came down from heaven she never troubles her selfe to acquire those Goods which make not the possessours better because they cannot use them well if they be not good before they take them in possession By a necessary Consequence Charity is a love which makes us tender of those goods wee cannot lose against our wills I wonder not that Concupiscence is poore because the preservation of her riches depends not upon her will shee may be rob'd of all that shee loves violence or injustice may spoil her of her treasures calumny may black her reputation grief may damp her pleasures death whose only name brings so much terrour with it may take away her life But Charity who hath this advantage that shee hath chosen the better part is well assured it shall never be taken from her she loves a Good she cannot be plundred of she knows that Fortune hath no Dominion over Grace that the severity of torments and the sweetnesse of pleasures cannot impair her felicity This is it that St Augustine hath so happily express'd in those words which contain the Encomium and the definition of Charity Charitas est amor rerum quas non nisi volentes amittimus 'T is the love of things which we part not with but when we have a mind to it Inasmuch as there is great affinity between the supreme Good and dilection St Augustine hath drawn from one and the same Principle their common advantage for he teacheth us that as Love is not charitable but when it respects a Good which cannot be taken away the Good also is not true but when he that possesseth it cannot lose it but by his own fault Nolite amare praesentia quae possessa onerant amata inquinant amissa cruciant Ber. Solid good saith he is of such a nature that 't is never lost unless a man will The Covetous every day lose their riches with sorrow of heart the Ambitious fall from their dignities with grief of minde and the immodest Wantons testifie by their tears that the deprivation of what they love is no voluntary losse But this Good that inspires us with Goodness can neither be acquired nor lost without our own consent Thence ariseth another Definition of Charity and a second opposition to Concupiscence her Enemy This makes us slaves of what we love finde Servitude where we expect Soveraignty punisheth our Ambition in deceiving it as she imitates the Divel who ruin'd us by his promises she throws us into thraldom by filling us with the hope of Liberty There is no sinner but is sensible of his torment The Covetous are the slaves of their wealth a great Fortune is a glorious servitude and all those that are ingaged in love are intangled in a Captivity Therefore hath Augustine said admirably well Men become vassals of the Creatures when by unjust means they endeavour to make themselves Masters 'T is Charity onely that exalteth us in humbling us and more happy then Concupiscence makes us finde liberty in bondage soveraignty in obedience for submitting to God we soar above all sublunary things by teaching us to obey we learn to command and imposing but one Soveraign over us gives us as many subjects as there are creatures Finally to conclude this Discourse with a Definition which may be called the Panegyrick of Charity we say shee is the Love of eternall Goods as Concupisence is of perishable ones This vertue is so generous that after the example of Eagles which look only upon the Sun shee considers only God when shee expresseth any affection to men or Angels she riseth as high as the Creator she would conceive her self unjust did she love any thing but for God and making her glory of that Maxime she bespeaks God by the mouth of one of his Lovers with these excellent words Minus te amat qui tecum aliquid amat non propter te Aug. He loves thee not at all who loves any thing with thee which he loves not for thy sake Concupiscence on the contrary is wedded to the creatures runs along unhappily with them finds sorrow where shee looks for content and seeing those objects perish which were the Fuell to her flames is forced to wast away in sad lamentations and to begin those complaints here which will last for ever in the dominions of Hell The Sixth DISCOURSE Of the Properties and Effects of Charity IF the Learned Tertullian had reason to call the Devil Gods Ape me thinks I may stile Concupiscence the Ape of Charity because she endeavours to copy her thereby to obscure her promising her slaves the same advantages Charity makes her subjects hope for she takes the same course continues the same designs and in her opposition is so perfect a Transcript of this excellent Original that the most part of Philosophers confound them together Their ends are rather contrary then different but the means they make use of to come thither are altogether alike Their Principles are opposite but their Conclusions run parallel Their thoughts clash but their language agrees so that to compleat the Portraicture of Charity I must draw the Picture of Concupiscence and make use of the same colours to paint them both Concupiscence or self-self-love is active the greater it is in the source the more violent is it in the effects nothing can stop its fury and all the disorders we see in the world are the works of this irregular passion she changeth her name according to the objects she fixeth upon and adhering to Glory or Profit or Pleasure she is styled Ambition Lust or Avarice But in all these different conditions she is ever active and by no means sits still Sometimes she beats an Alarum to war to increase her reputation in enlarging her Empire Sometimes she passeth the Seas to get riches and driven by want which never forsakes her feeds her wolfe supposing to allay his appetite Sometimes she sets upon Chastity and making use of a thousand subtilties to corrupt it troubles whole Nature to purchase her satisfaction Therefore is it that Saint Augustine who was so well acquainted with the humour of Concupiscence says that no love was idle that 't was active assoon as born that the oppositions made against it double its fury and judging its strength by
its violence finds nothing impossible Thence is it that the ambitious conceive so many designs that surpass humane power and hardning themselves against all difficulties had rather break then bow Thence comes it to passe that the covetous undergoe so many miseries to fill their coffers and are exposed to the fury of all the elements to comply with that passion that tyrannizeth over them These attempts are the images of those Charity effects which is yet more active then Concupiscence For as her hope is founded upon God and the greatness of her Conquests heightens her courage whereby she travels for Eternity she believes there is no pain she ought not to suffer nor difficulties she must not overcome Nothing seems hard when it may serve her turn and measuring her force by her affection imagines nothing ought to check her enterprises Nihil difficile videtur amanti amor enim nomeÌ„ difficultatis erubescit Bern. She chides her laziness when she deliberates she is afraid her weaknesse should be objected to her when she parlies for composition and she is so used to overcome that she looks upon difficulties not so much as a true excuse as a shamefull pretence Thus the Martyrs have traversed the flames to find Jesus Christ The Virgins have provoked wild Beasts that they might be the sooner with their Beloved The Anchorites have contested with grief that they might carry Heaven by violence Finally Charity is of the nature of fire she cannot lie still she sets upon her body when she finds no other enemy and that she may not be unprofitable seeks for occasions of suffering when she wants those of acting And this is the second resemblance between these two Loves For Concupiscence hath her Martyrs as well as Charity she suffers for what she loves and as doing and suffering are mutually in the world she gives proof of her courage in these two different conditions From the evils she undergoes she extracts vanity she makes them her happinesse when they are past and lest they should slip out of her memory she ruminates upon them in her solitudes and entertains her self with them in companies she hath some satisfaction in her Martyrdome when she thinks it will be an argument of her Constancy or of her Fidelity nor is she troubled to be made the prey of Flames or of Lions provided she may evidence her Courage and her Affection Charity thrives better in this design then Concupiscence she hath made many more Martyrs then vain-glory hath as she takes her birth from the Crosse so is she never more vigorous nor content then when she swims in her own bloud she is witty to invent occasions of suffering and becomes her own tormentor when she can meet with no other The absence of her Beloved is the greatest part of her punishment and conceiving that torments may shorten her banishment she is inquisitive after them as the remedies of her languishing Therefore doe these Divine Lovers suffer always upon Earth the peace of the Church frees not them from persecution and though the Princes that govern them are Christians they meet with Tyrants that persecute them Every failing is their torture every moment makes them languish and they die a thousand times in a day because they will not die at last Indeed their Love which is as witty as cruel learns them innocent murders they commit Parricides without a Crime they kill Adam in their person that Jesus Christ may live there they take vengeance of this Father that made them guilty and destroying whatever they received from him of every one of their inclinations they make a reasonable sacrifice But the Master-piece of Love is that it makes that present which we love and in despight of absence unites us with it Remoteness is certainly one of the greatest torments of Love he shuns it as his mortallest enemy and employs all his stratagems to be secured from it he hath recourse to Presents knowing very well that they are the remembrancers of the absent and that 't is very hard to forget a person to whom we are beholding he entertains himself by the commerce of Letters he writes to those he cannot speak to he beguiles his Passion with a picture and not being able to see his friend he is satisfied with beholding his portraicture But when all these inventions content not he reflects upon himself and making use of his thoughts and desires he goes upon the quest and retrives him whose absence caused his punishment For the Understanding is an imperious faculty which by a Natural Magick renders absent things present excelling the Imagery of Painters because her Idea's can speak and the same spirit that gives them life infuses motion into them and speech If Love be not satisfied with this invention he obligeth the Will to enquire out what she affecteth and to quit the body and the soul to be united to the object of her sorrow To obey her Soveraign she commands her desires to bestir themselves to prevent the diligence of the windes and passeth Sea and Land to seek the Subject of her vexation to the worlds end She pursues the Posts she hath dispatched imitates the agility of Angels and like those spirits finding themselves wherever they operate clings in spight of absence to what she loveth In these admirable courses she arrives at her journeys end without passing any middle distance she traverseth Kingdoms in a moment and disengaging her self from the body she informs findes her self miraculously in the subject she loves Concupiscence works the same Miracles every day she makes use of the Understanding and of the Will for her satisfaction she employs these two faculties to content her Passion and when the ears or the eyes can tell her no news of the remote objects that torment her she hath recourse to her thoughts and desire to bring them to her presence But we must confess that Charity acts this part much better for though that which she loves be in heaven she journeys thither without weariness she goes to seek him whom the Angels enjoy Iter tuum ad caelum voluntas tua gradus tui affecius tui ambulas affectibus non pedibus accedis ad Deum amando recedis negâ—igendo stans in terra in caelo es si diligas Deum Aug. and leaving the Sun and Stars belowe her is swallowed up in that Abyss of Glory whose elongation caused her torment For S. Augustine excellently informs me our Affections are our Wings and our Will is our Guide to conduct us to heaven You think perhaps you must build a tower to ascend thither that the Angels must be invited down to assist you or that the wings of a dove must be borrowed to convey you thither but your Love is your Pole-star by your Desires you scale those heavenly regions by your negligence you stand at distance from them and loving God upon the earth you may boast your selves already in heaven For it is not with the
Soul as with the Body this cannot move without changing of place but that needs onely change her affection and presently she ascends she is where she would be her love makes all her objects present and assoon as over she sixeth her affection upon any thing 't is no longer at a distance This is it which he delivers admirably in another passage We can never be better then when we are with him whom nothing can equal in goodness we go thither not walking but loving and he is so much the neerer and at hand by how much our Love is more pure and vigorous Then letting us see the advantage Charity hath above Concupiscence he brings in God speaking these words which evidence an Oracle I command you to love me and I assure you that in doing so you shall enjoy me Sinners possess not all that they love there are covetous worldlings that sigh for gold and yet are poor Ambitious persons that are passionate for glory and yet are infamous but every one that loves me findes me I am with him that seeks for me his love makes me present in his soul assoon as he longs for me I am in his embraces and I leave off to be absent assoon as he begins to be in love with me Though there is not any lover that hath spoken more nobly of this residence of God in our souls by Charity then S. Augustine the Fathers his followers have used the same language and once instructed in the School of Divine Love have acknowledged that 't was impossible to love God and not to possess him Qui mente integra Deum desiderat profecto jam habet quem amat neque enim quisquam posset Deum diligere si hunc quem diligit non haberet Greg. mag in Moral See what S. Gregory saith in his Morals which differs little from what S. Augustine hath delivered in his Confessions The Believer that seeks after God without dividing his affections possesseth him already whom his soul loveth For he could never be amorous for him were he not filled with his love and inanimated with his presence S. Bernard who serves for an Interpreter to the Spouse in the Canticles and expresseth her minde with as much innocent nakedness as winning sweetness brings her in holding the same discourse She comforts her self in the absence of her Beloved by the belief she hath that she bears him in her heart and that she is the living throne of him who never forsakes her but to exercise her patience Let us conclude this Discourse with the highest operation of Love and say that this last effect is to transform Lovers into the things that they love and to stamp them with their qualities This property is so natural to Love that it remains with it even when it exerciseth its power over inanimate things If the Elements jar if they trouble the peace of the Universe by their contestations if these four bodies that compose all others seem to engage whole Nature in their quarrels 't is Love that obligeth them to the combat and when Fire and Water dispute in the bosome of the clouds or in the bowels of the earth they have no other designe but to transform each other Love hath a greater share in their difference then Ambition neither do they strive so much to destroy one another as to be united that they may be but one and the same thing Concupiscence succeeds wonderfully in this enterprise she imprints in men all the qualities of those objects she obligeth them to be in love with and by a strange Metamorphosis deprives them of their proper inclinations to indue them with strange external ones They become abominable as the things that they doat upon they change their Nature in changing their Love and we see by experience that Lascivious persons become effeminate as the women they caress that the Ambitious assume the vanity of that glory they court and the Covetous become as sensless as the metal they adore Similes eis fiant qui saciuns ea omnes qui confidunt in eis Psal 115. Therefore David justly wished that Idolators following the laws of Love might become like their Idols and might lose speech and motion for their love towards dumb and sensless gods that the Israelites might more easily defeat them in the combat But inasmuch as Concupiscence plays the deceiver she makes good but half her promises to her servants For she transforms them onely to their loss she changeth them meerly to make them miserable and of all the qualities the things they love are indued with she communicates none to them for the most part but bad ones The Lustful who contract the lightness of women gain not their beauty The Covetous who grow stupid as their metal extract not its value and the Ambitious who vapour like the glory they feed upon become not always Soveraigns But Charity which is more sincere and more powerful then Concupiscence happily transforms Christians into what they love she imprints upon them the qualities of heaven and makes them heavenly upon earth by different degrees it exalts them as high as Divinity it self she gives them what the devil promised their first father she changeth them into Gods by a holy Metamorphosis and makes them innocently obtain what Pride made them heretofore insolently covet For Mans most ancient passion is to be like God this was his crime and his desire in Paradise 't was upon this consideration that he listned to the devil and under this hope he violated the command of God His Pride was punished with an ignominious brand and he that pretended to an equality with his Soveraign saw himself reduced to the condition of his meanest Subjects This correction made him not forget his desire he preserved his arrogance in the midst of his misery and being but the relique of innocent man he could not forbear to wish to be a God Piety hath taught him an honest means to content his ambition Grace takes pains to assimilate him according to his desire the Vertues are so many draughts compleating this Image but Charity their Queen gives it perfection She it is that satisfies his longings and raising him above himself happily transforms him into God This is the end of all the designes of this august Vertue the Master-piece of her power the triumph of her glory and when she hath brought Man to this height of felicity she is content because he is happie Let us not advance so important a Vertue without caution let us make it appear that he who was so well acquainted with the nature of Love was not ignorant of his effects Let us make use of the words of S. Augustine Men saith he take their name from what they love they owe their condition to their affection as wives take the quality of their husbands and Lovers those of their Mistresses so in loving the earth they become earthly in loving heaven they become heavenly and carrying their
his Obedience or his Rebellion and thus it is always true that Repentance is a favour reserved for man and if it leane not upon the unconstancy of his mind it is founded at least upon the length of his life which seems therefore prolonged that he may have time to repent But if Repentance be not natural to man 't is at least necessary for a sinner if it be not his difference 't is his remedy if it be not his propriety 't is his only refuge and as Tertullian saith 't is the Table after the Shipwrack Man in Paradise might save himself by his Innocence this acceptable convoy had brought him through a Garden of Roses he had found pleasure with vertue he had conquered without fighting and though he had had no enemies he had not failed to triumph But now there remains only Repentance which swims in bloud or in tears which is covered with earth or with ashes which blots out no transgressions but by lamentations satisfies not the Justice of God but by preventing his arrests nor gaines any battles but those that cost him fighs or wounds The sinner following the Counsels of this austere Vertue is always animated against himself his whole life is spent in sorrow and since he lost Grace he is obliged to bid adiew to all pleasure his very reconciliation with God dispenseth not with him from this severity To be a Christian Nullus hominiū transit ad Christum ut incipiat esse quod non erat nisi eū poeniteat fuisse quod erat Aug. intitles him to be a Penitent 't is enough that he hath sinned in Adam to live in sadness and being a member of Jesus Christ he is bound over to penance For though the union he contracts with this adorable Head in Baptism happily deliver him from all his sins that he recovers Innocence with Grace and be freed from all those pains which are prepared for offenders in Hel he becomes Penitent in becoming Innocent and the same Sacrament that ties him to Jesus Christ engageth him in griefs and sufferings The Son of God uniting the Divinity with the Humanity in his Person is pleased also to unite all things that seemed incompatible Having surpassed the difficulties that withstood the accomplishment of this mystery having accorded power with weakness Non-Entity with Beeing Life with Death he would make Innocence friends with Repentance and charge himself with the pains our sins deserved without interessing the holiness that made him impeccable he was the most just and most afflicted of all men he was equally divided between the blessed and the penitent his soul resented grief with joy and at the same time that he reigned with the Angels he suffered with Mortals According to his example the greatest Saints have laboured to joyne Repentance with Innocence His Mother the purest of Virgins the Holiest of Women bare the infirmities of our nature without contracting the obligations and to imitate her Son was content to be miserable though she were not criminal Saint John Baptist who was a sinner but for some months who received Grace in his mothers belly who after the Virgin was the first object of the miracles of Jesus who was born without sin nor brought into the world with him the ignominious quality of a sinner This great Saint I say was the example of Penitents he spent his whole life in the Desarts he had no other covering then that of Trees or Rocks Earth served him for a Bed Sackcloth for a Garment Water for Drink and Locusts for Food He added the labours of preaching to the austerity of penance he reproved sin with boldness his generous freedome procured him the hatred of the great ones and for a recompence of so many vertues he lost his head at the intreaty of an incestuous woman Thence it comes to pass that the Christian having the honour to be a member of Jesus Christ is obliged to Repentance the favour he hath received in the Church gives him no dispensation from this duty and if he have the use of Reason when admitted to Baptism his Contrition must precede that Sacrament and recover his lost Innocence by the assistance of this vertue His obligation continues with his life For as the Grace of Christianity does not enfranchise him fully from Concupiscence but he groans still under the weight of his irons sees his heart divided between Self-love and Charity that both these principles make him act successively and having obeyed Grace obeys Sin again he is bound to run to sorrow to deface his light offences with Tears and to spend his whole life in Repentance It is the opinion of S. Augustine who carries this truth on farther and imposeth a more severe law upon Christians for be will not have Innocence it self to exempt them from Grief he will have them sigh not because of their sin but because of their banishment he will have them bewail their exile as long as long as it lasts and condemning their coldness that can finde any pleasure in this sad abode saith that the Believer who hath not an aversion for this mortal and perishable life can have no love for the Eternal and Beatifical his regret ought to be an argument of his love and that it becomes him to bemoan his abode upon earth if he have a real desire of being speedily translated to heaven This great Master of Grace seeks no other motives of Repentance then the miseries of life he thinks it sufficient to sad our hearts that we live under the tyranny of sin that we feel the rebellions of the flesh and suffer the persecution of the Elements the justice of these continued pains teacheth us that we are guilty the Prayer that Christ taught us confirms us in this belief and seeing we cannot be his disciples except we daily say Dimitte nobis debita nostra we must confess we are not free from sin otherwise the Church would abuse the Faithful the Son of God himself had involved us in an errour and as S. Augustine saith asking pardon for a sin we never committed we should utter a blasphemy because we should lye in the midst of our most august mysteries We cannot doubt then that Repentance is necessary for a Christian nor can we deny that to the end it may be profitable it must be severe especially if the precedent sins have been notorious For as Repentance is a kinde of Justice it proportions the Punishment to the Offence it respects the quality of the delinquents considers the Majestie offended and casting its eyes upon the torments of the damned strives to make some resemblance of them in the revenge it takes upon Criminals Let us carefully examine all these Reasons see the just motives we have to punish our selves and not to slatter our lazie negligence in so important a concernment let us consider the qualities of this Vertue Repentance is a Judgement where contrary to the ordinary Laws the same Delinquent is Witness
away his desires and his hopes to give Jesus Christ some testimonies of his love Therefore doth the Scripture inform us that there is no Vertue receives a greater recompence then Self-denial The Man that is knockt off from himself is united to the Son of God the creatures respect him the Sun obeys his word and 't is in this sense that the Scripture to make his Panegyrick is not content to say that he pronounceth Oracles but addes that he gains Battles and bears away victories by speaking All things stoop to his commands and more glorious then the first man who could not use the creatures but according to their inclinations he disorders them to make himself feared and testifies the power he hath in the state of his Master by the command he exerciseth over all the parts of the Universe Thus Self-denial which seems to abase men raiseth them up the Vertue that entertains them in the distrust of their weakness gives them admittance into the power of God and that which obligeth them to renounce their own will makes them find the accomplishment of all their desires The Sixth TREATISE Of the Nourishment and Sacrifice of the Christian The first DISCOURSE Of Three Nourishments answering the Three Lives of a Christian. SOme will wonder perhaps that in the same Treatise I joyn two such different things together and that speaking of Nourishment which preserves the life of a Christian I treat of a Sacrifice that engageth him in Death But the wonder will cease if we consider that these two things are united together in Religion and that the same Sacrament that feeds us obligeth us also to die For the Son of God upon our Altars is as well our Nourishment as our Victim inviting us to a Feast he bids us to a Sacrifice and his Love associating two Subjects which have so small a relation he makes use of one and the same body to destroy our sins and to preserve our souls He offers himself up to his Father as an innocent Sacrifice and gives himself to the Faithful as a delicious Viand His Power which equals his Love takes from this Sacrifice whatever might render it horrid and removes from this Banquet whatever might make it sensual In both of them he satisfies his Father and his Children and exalting us in the light of Faith makes us believe what we cannot conceive Following therefore his intentions I have joyned in the same Treatise what he hath joyned in the same Mystery and resolve to manifest the wonders of this Food and the Prodigies of this Sacrifice Reason that teacheth us that Nourishment is the staff of Life teacheth us also that every living thing hath need of Nourishment and that the Divine Providence whose care is extended over all the Creatures hath left none without aliment This feedeth the Fowls of the air and the Psalmist confesseth it provided for the necessities of their young when forsaken by the dams It maketh Grass to grow in the desarts for the Cattel and Rain which seems unprofitably to fall into the Sea serves for refreshing and meat for the Fishes Inasmuch as Men are Gods master-pieces he takes a particular care to nourish them whole Nature labours to furnish their Table her fruitfulness is onely to satisfie their hunger or content their appetite and every Creature she teems with seems a Victim to be immolated to preserve their life But as they have Three Lives that answer to the Three Orders of Nature of Grace and of Glory God hath given them Three sorts of Food which in the difference of their qualities cease not to have wonderful Correspondencies The Earth is the Nurse that furnisheth us our chiefest nourishment that Divine word Crescite multiplicamini which enricht her with fruitfulness in the very birth hath preserved this prolifical vertue in the succession of so many yeers and if the Justice of God make her not barren for our punishment she returns with usury the laborious pains of the Husbandman Corn which is our principal support is multiplied by its corruption 't is born by death and making us see an image of the Resurrection perswades us our bodies may rise out of the Grave after they have been resolved to dust because the Grain springs not up till it be putrified in the earth This production would pass for a Miracle were it not so common and to observe the wonders thereof would be sufficient to oblige all men to reverence the power and wisdom of the Creator For when the Corn is corrupted it puts forth a bud which cleaves the earth and covers it with a tuft of Grass which preserves its verdure in the midst of the sharpest Winters At the Spring it thrusts forth a stalk which riseth insensibly and from time to time is strengthned with joynts to resist the violence of the windes Upon the top is formed an Ear wherein Nature seems to employ all her industry Seritur solummodo granum sine folliculi teste sine fundamento spicae fine munimento aristae fine superbia culmi Exurgit autem copia faenâ—ratum compagine aedisicatam ordine structum cultu munitum usquequaque vestituÌ„ Tertul. every grain is inclosed in a husk that if one be corrupted the rest may not be infected and the evil prove not a contagion each husk is fenced with a prizly sharp to guard the inclosed fruit from the injury of the air and the rapine of birds The heat of the Summer compleats the whole work gives it Colour in giving it Maturity and gently opening the several cells which lock up the treasure of the Husbandman admonisheth him to prepare for the Harvest If this Wonder ravish us and if we are bound to reverence the Divine Providence which makes the earth fruitful to nourish us we are not less concerned to admire the prodigious alterations it causeth in Nature to increase provision For it makes use onely of Rain to enrich us and from this inexhausted source draws so many different Fruits that if their number please us their qualities astonish us Rain is nothing but a Vapour in the conception the Sun sports with it in the air thickens it into a cloud to take it out of our sight then destroying his own work dissolves it into showers to water the thirsty earth In the mean time this Rain is turned into all things it toucheth takes the nature and quality of those things it bathes and by a miraculous Metamorphosis is changed into Wine falling upon grapes into Oil upon olives It contracts the taste of all Fruits and the colour of all Flowers It grows yellow upon the Marigolds red upon Pinks white upon Lilies and though when it falls it have neither taste nor colour yet may it boast it gives both to all Fruits and all Flowers This prodigious change which is daily wrought upon the earth is but an overture of that which is made upon the Body of Man to maintain it For all the Nourishment he
the Eucharist the Consummation hereof we have engaged our word when we were admitted into the Church and receiving the character of our servitude we have given bond for our Faithfulness But in the Mystery of the Eucharist he deals with our souls as with his Spouse we become flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone he enters into our bosome and we into his his body and ours are animated with the same Spirit and partaking in all the qualities of our Beloved we have right to his most glorious priviledges But so noble an Alliance requires a great affection and much fidelity This Lover is jealous he will raign alone in the hearts that he possesseth as he cannot endure a Competitor in his State so neither can he a Rival in his Love he will have nothing loved but for his sake and because our adhesion to the Creature is not without imperfections he never beholds it without grief nor leaves it without punishment Whatever is prejudicial to Fidelity displeaseth he never breaks his word and therefore cannot endure we should fail of our duty He will keep what he hath once gotten and seeing his Power is equal to his Love he is as severe in his Revenge as he is liberal in his Favours When I consider the obligations we have to his Goodness I never wonder that his Justice corrects us but I am ashamed there should be any souls so negligently careless as to provoke him and that after so many favours any should be so wretched as to betray their duty and abandon Jesus Christ Nevertheless this crime is so common among Christians that those who will not break their word with an Enemy take no care to be true to the Son of God basely desert his party lodge the devil in the same Throne where they had seated their Soveraign and take an Adulterer into the bed from whence they have driven their lawful Husband If the remembrance of his favours cannot produce love in our souls the terrour of punishments must beget Fear For if he be our Beloved in the Eucharist he is also our Judge and having fruitlesly exhibited testimonies of his Goodness Qui enim manducat bibit indigne judicium fibi manducat hibit non dijudicans corpus Domini 1 Cor. 11. will sensibly inflict marks of his indignation The great Apostle of the Gentiles tells us that he that receiveth unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself that the Devil being the Minister of the Divine Justice takes visible possession of the soul of that Delinquent that he erects an Altar in his heart and of his slave making his victime engageth him in despair having engaged him in Sacriledge Et post buccellū introivit in cum Satanas Joan. 13. Thus dealt he with Judas when he had communicated unworthily The Evangelist observes that he entred into his soul urged him to execute his abominable design for a light interest obliterated out of his mind the remembrance of all the favours he had received from his Master and tumbling him from one precipice to another from Covetousnesse tempted him to Treachery from Treason to Sacriledge Diabolus intravit in cor ut traderet eum Judas quomodo intravit in cor nisi immittendo iniquas persuasiones cogitatienibus iniquorum Aug. de Consen Evang from Sacriledge to Parricide and from Parricide to Desperation For when the wicked spirit that possessed him had counselled him to betray the Son of God he counselled him to hang himself and setting him against himself made him make use of his own hands to inflict a just and cruel death upon himself Finally there is no mystery wherein the Son of God manifests more love or more severity where he obligeth more dearly or punisheth more strictly or pardons more rarely and because the crimes committed here are the greatest it seems the vengeance inflicted upon them is most memorable The first of all sinners is a great Saint in Heaven The man that was our Father and our Parricide both together De illo quidem primo homine patre generis humani quod eum in inferno solverit Christus Ecclesia fere tot a consentit quod eam non inaniter credidisse credendum est Aug. Epist 99. ad Enod The Criminal who is accessory to all the transgressions of the world The Father that engageth all his posterity in his offences and his punishment The Rebel who makes an Insurrection of all his Descendants against their lawful Soveraign That unfortunate Chief who lives yet after his death sins still in his members and by a dreadful prodigy being happy in his person is miserable and guilty in his posterity That old man who is new born in every sinner and in one word That Adam who committed a fault whole nature bewails to this day found his pard on in his repentance and whiles he sees Hel pepled with his off-spring enjoys glory with the Angels in Heaven That great King whom God raised to the Throne against all humane probability That Stripling who without arms gave a Gyant battle That Shepheard whose Crook was turned into a Scepter who reckoned his victories by his combats and boasted that the Lord of Hosts had trained him up in the Discipline of War This Prince who forgetting all these favours joyned Murder to Adultery and made an Innocent dye to cloak the dishonour of a debauched woman This glorious Criminal who saw all the Vials of Heaven poured down upon his Head his Kingdome divided his subjects revolted and his own children in the head of an Army against him This famous Delinquent reigns in glory with the Son of God his tears have washed away his iniquities and his grief more powerful then his offence opened him the gate of Heaven That Apostle who having received so many testimonies of affection from his Master forsook him so shamefully in the Garden of Gethsemane denyed him so openly in the house of Caiaphas is as great in Heaven as he was upon Earth The Church to this day reverenceth his Injunctions the Popes boast themselves his Successours and all the faithful glory in being his children That young man full of zeal and and fury who intended to strangle Christianity in the very Cradle who was the boutefew of the first persecution against the Disciples of Jesus who stoned Saint Stephen by their hands whose cloaths he kept De caelo vocavi una voce percussi alia erexi elegi tertia implevi misi quarta liberavi coronavi Aug. hath found his salvation in his sin He was converted when he went about to plunge himself in the bloud of the first believers he received Grace when he was upon the very point of encreasing the number of Parricides in one moment he became a Preacher of the Gospel an Apostle of the Son of God and the Master of the Gentiles But the first that ever profaned the Body of Jesus Christ and committed a Sacriledge in approaching the Altar
different ways make two contrary sacrifices This faculty calls to mind the benefits received from its Creator and forgets the injuries received from Enemies Between these two exercises it is equally divided and whatever outrage sin hath committed in our soul she finds that the art of oblivion is harder then that of retaining or learning 'T is upon the first that the love of enemies is founded which seems the most troublesome sacrifice of Ghristian Religion and upon the other acknowledgment or the action of thankfulness which is the justest duty of the creature towards his Creator Though the body be the least moity of man yet is it not destitute of Victims which it furnisheth him with to appease God and according to the different vertues that inform it offers sacrifices which are little inferiour to those of the minde Repentance afflicts it a hundred severall ways and this vertue no less austere then witty invents every day new means to tame its rebellion and of a disobedient slave to make a voluntary sacrifice Sometimes she punishes his boldness by fasting sometimes abates his strength by watchings sometimes lets him bloud by disciplines sometimes tames his pride with ashes Finally by these divers artifices she lets us see that a penitent is nothing but a man armed against himself who offers a sacrifice of Justice when he is more offended at his own sins then those of his neighbour Repentance cals in Continence many times to her aid for when this rebel resists grief she forbids him the use of the most lawful pleasures and depriving him of whatever he loves makes a victim of him which suffers the more the slower his sorrow is and his sacrifice more sharp and irksome But because the eye and the mouth are the most guilty parts of man repentance obligeth the first to bewail his sins changeth his fountain of flames into flouds of tears compels this complice of impurity to become the Minister of sorrow forceth this faithful Interpreter of the heart to betray it no more with his glances and to be closed to all objects which might trouble his rest or pervert his good designs she deals more imperiously with the mouth for seeing this is guilty of two contrary evils and his silence is sometimes as criminal as his words this part is condemned to two different punishments sometimes being obliged to keep silence sometims to speak of his silence and of his discourse is composed one and the same sacrifice The mouth is obliged to open in chanting forth the praises of its Creator and having discharged this part of duty when the words are no longer answerable to the greatness of the subject it hath recourse to silence and by wonder and astonishment makes amends for those faults committed by too much liberty This double sacrifice hath its value and its price and the Scripture which tels us that God is pleased with praises acquaints us also that silence when arising from a great respect is not unacceptable to him By the first we profess that he is the Authour of all perfections that ours are derived from him and because speech is an advantage we hold from his goodness it ought to be consecrated to his honour By the second we tacitly confess that as his Divine Essence cannot be known neither can it be expressed and that of all the ways we have to magnifie him by silence is most agreeable to his greatness and our humility After that man hath immolated his body and his soul he is obliged to tender his goods and to offer him a sacrifice of all that he possesseth Alms and Poverty are his assistants in so pious a design and these two vertues by different mediums arrive at the same end for Alms parts goods with God and looking upon Jesus Christ in the person of the poor restores that to his indigence which he received of his bounty 'T is true in this point his meaning is much different from those that address themselves by way of sacrifice for they when they offer a victim slay him at the Altar to testifie that their presents are useless to God because being the source of all good nothing can be given him which he possesseth not in himself But he that doth Alms hath this satisfaction Noli contemnere Christum in coelo sedentem in terra egentē veniet cum retributione vita aeterna igne aeterno Aug. that his sacrifice is not unprofitable to Jesus Christ because though he be happy in his person he is indigent in his members Poverty out-bids Alms despoils a man of all is of the nature of the Holocaust where he that sacrificeth reserving nothing to himself gives all wholly to God This forsakes not goods only but the very desires also renounceth all pretensions to the Earth and not content to offer God what is in possession bestows upon him whatever may be hoped for so that this sacrifice being as large as Hope we may say it comprehends all that this passion which is boundless promiseth the Ambitious or the Covetous Thus the Christian acquits himself of the promise he made in Baptism and consecrating his soul by Charity his body by Repentance and his Riches by Alms or Poverty satisfies both his obligations and his promises Ipse homo Dei nomini consecratus Deo devotus in quantum mundo moritur ut Deo vivat sacrificiū est Aug. For Saint Augustine teacheth me that he that dies to the world to live to Jesus Christ is a true sacrifice when following the motions of Grace he useth his body to the Glory of his Creator striving to quench the fire of self-love by that of Charity making his members servants to justice in being serviceable to repentance he becomes a sacrifice wel-pleasing to God and may boast that in satisfying the duties of Christianity he acquits himself of the obligation of the sacrifice with which Christians can no way dispense The Seventh TREATISE Of the Qualities of the Christian The first DISCOURSE That the Christian is the Image of Jesus Christ ALthough men are dignified by Qualities being the marks either of their Birth or Desert yet must we confess that they adde nothing to their Persons nor imprint any Character upon their Soul or Body They are fair illusions which pleasingly deceive us Dreams that amuse men awake Charms that inchant those that are in love with them They owe their Lustre to our Blindness their Grandeur to our Ignorance For the highest dignities which so much disquiet the Ambitious are but the Errours of their Understanding and the Idols of their Imagination should we pare away from Great Personages the attendance of their followers the pomp of their habits and the magnificence of their houses Magna Fortuna magna Servitus Senec. we should finde their Charges meer Chimera's and that which we call Fortune nothing but a False Greatness or a Real Slavery But inasmuch as the Qualities of a Christian are not the works of
it which is displeasing to God But in expectation of this happy houre they must begin their sacrifice here and by little and little destroying what is contrary to Grace make Holocausts of all their inordinate inclinations For we learn from Origen that though we are no longer under the Law of Moses we are not dispensed with for sacrificing but as the Law of Grace is the accomplishment of the other we ought to immolate all those passions that were represented to us by the Beasts they slaughtered at the foot of the Altar We satisfie this duty when we set upon our criminal affections and full of zeal and courage we endeavour to stifle them We immolate a Bull when we tame our pride and labour to kill this sin that gives life to all others we sacrifice a Goat when we quench the lustful flames of impurity and by a divine fire mortifie this infernal one which devours all vertues we slay a Ram when we subdue our anger disarm this seditious passion calm this raging sea and manacle this fury which troubles the tranquillity of our mind we offer Pigeons and Turtles when we banish those volatile inordinations which divert us from piety and engage our minds in the affairs of the world But if we have subjected our passions to the dominion of reason and by a happy barrenness the Earth of our Intellectual part breeds no monsters which we may offer up to God we must seek into our body and of our members make innocent sacrifices For the great Apostle of the Gentiles teacheth us that we are obliged to offer our bodies a lively sacrifice and to pacifie the anger of Heaven by a holy oblation acceptable to him Vt exhibeatis corpora vestra hostiam viventem as if he would say that we ought to die to sin that we may live to Grace and the members which have served heretofore to the tyranny of Concupiscence may now become serviceable to the lawful power of Charity or he would advertise us that if in the Old Testament only dead Victims were offered up to God in the New we must offer up living ones and that mortification working in the Christian what death did in the Beasts we must joyn the two sacrifices together and accord death with life to satisfie the Divine Justice Thus the whole exercise of a Christian is to make war upon their bodies and to gain victories over themselves they vanquish their enemies in facrificing their members and they may boast that in offering sacrifices to God they erect trophies to themselves In consideration of these Truths me thinks we may say with Origen that all the faithfull are Victims and that in the difference of their conditions they agree in this common quality If any thing distinguish them 't is the degree of their love and the perfection of their Sacrifice The Apostles saith He were the first Victims because they forsook all to follow their Master and having given him their heart by Charity their spirit by Faith their goods by Poverty they moreover consecrated their bodies by the Repentance of their life and by the cruelty of their death The Martyrs immediately succeed them because having a long time laboured by Grief at last they have perfected their sacrifice by Martyrdom The Virgins hold the Third place because they triumph over their bodies tame a hundred severall ways this domestick Enemy and not content to consecrate him by purity borrow the assistance of pennance to mortifie him by contrition The Continent and the Married follow these close and if in their sacrifice they destroy not the Victim they put it at least in a condition that it no more rebels against the Sacrificers and where it expects with patience for death Castitas viduitas de bonis carnis Deo adolentur Tertul. to finish that which Continence hath begun Tertullian was much of this opinion when he said That our bodies furnished us with Victims as well as vertues and that Fasting Silence and Chastity were fruits of this Tree which might be gathered to make an offering for Jesus Christ For though the Body be the least part of man 't is not the most unprofitable its imperfections are advantageous to us its rebellions serve us for Tryals and Grace which is ingenious turns the most part of its miseries into remedies The infirmities which trouble its health help our Sacrifice and the diseased person that suffers his afflictions patiently is a victim who though not innocent is notwithstanding well-pleasing to Jesus Christ Poverty which strips us of superfluities or of necessaries which reduceth us to the condition our Birth found us in and whither Death will bring us is a sacrifice which gains us as much merit as it procures us inconvenience Nay Death it self which seems the eldest daughter of sin who shews all the horrours of her father upon her countenance is not so much the destruction as the sacrifice of our Body she imitates the severity of fire and sword she she alone does what the knife and the pile of wood somtimes did and reduceth the victim to ashes having deprived it of life she serves for the Divine Justice and Mercy together Deficit homo ad Gloriam moritur a◠vitam perit ad salutē mors per Christum commendatio facta est Charitatis Chrysost she prepares the body for Immortality nor despoils it of corruption but to apparell it with Glory This is it that imprints so violent a desire of Death in the hearts of the faithful which makes them in the midst of their prosperity call her in to their assistance and wish that comming to end their life she may come to perfect their sacrifice For it seems she hath changed Nature since Jesus Christ consecrated her in his person she is like those waters that take the taste and colour of those Minerals through which they pass she hath lost all her gastliness and hath some secret beauties which beget love in the soul of all Saints She that led us to the gates of hell lifts us up to heaven she that was the mother of shame and sadness is now the mother of joy and glory she that filled us with despair buoys us up with hope she that established the Empire of sin destroys it in a word she that was the Chastisement of our Crime is now the Sacrifice of our Love For this end have all the greatest Saints made the Panegyrick of death they have rendered thanks to the Divine Justice that inflicts a punishment upon us which shortens our misery and advanceth our happiness which separates us from the world and unites us to Jesus Christ and under a false appearance of rigour delivers us from the dangers that threaten us the griefs that torment us and the sins that tyrannize over us This made that famous Penitent say He was just that expected death but he was holy that desired it Finally this drew that Elogie out of the mouth of S. Paul
the Captives that pine away for the loss of Liberty in prisons and those Miscreants that are broken upon the Wheel endure the extremity of Torments but because their sin is the cause of their punishment they may be sufferers but they cannot be Martyrs To deserve this Quality Nemo se extollat glorietur de passione nam si attendamus solâ—s passiones coronantur latrones si de passione gloriandum est potest ipse diabolus gloriari Aug. the interest of God must be mixt with Grief and the suffering takes its estimate from the justice of the Cause The Macchabees are Martyrs because they suffered for the Law of God and rather then violate it courageously lost their lives S. John Baptist augments the number of these glorious Champions because he died for the defence of Chastity and is the first victim this excellent vertue receiv'd The Saints who have spilt their blood in the Churches quarrels and have fought against Infidels or Hereticks for the interest of Faith justly deserve the quality of Martyrs and the Christian happily shares it with them because he suffers in obedience to Jesus Christ For when he pardons those that persecute him stifles those just resentments which are occasioned by injuries when he gives Calumny leave to blast his reputation and loseth Goods or Honour because he will not break the Commandments or violate the Counsels of the Son of God Non Martyrium sola effusio sanguinis consummat necsola dat palmam exustio flammarum pervenitur non solum occasu sed etiam contemptu Carnis ad Coronam Aug. Ser. 46 de Sanctis he is not less worthy of the name of Martyr then those that have shed their blood for the defence of his honour 'T is of such a one that we may say Occasion was wanting to his Will and that he had been in the Catalogue of Martyrs had he lived in the time of persecution But not to betray the Cause that I defend I am obliged to say that to be vertuous is title enough to be a Martyr For since Nature is corrupted by sin there is no Vertue that is not accompanied with Grief We learn Vices without a Master we carry the seeds of them in our souls and preventing bad examples we act wickedness before we have seen it But Christian vertues are so difficult that their conquest costs us much labour and travel we learn them with much ado forget them easily preserve them with care neither is it Nature nor Art but Grace and Sorrow that forms the Habit in us They cross our Inclinations we must fight to gain them and seeing wickedness is passed into our Nature Vertues are become our Torments The Darkness we come into the world with clouds the light of our Prudence the infirmities we have inherited from our first Father make the victory over Strength extremely difficult Interest which is inseparable from self-Self-love is an opposition naturally set against Justice and this heat without which we cannot live and by a deplorable unhappiness entertains the flames of Impurity is an obstacle to Continence It produceth thoughts which stain the lustre of this Vertue motions which trouble its rest so that S. Augustine had great reason to say that of all the Trials of a Christian the most furious was that of Chastity where the Conflict is so long the Victory so rare and the Danger so great I would adde to the words of this holy man without varrying much from his conceit that 't is the sharpest Martyrdom a Believer can endure because he confesseth in another place that to mortifie the Flesh to tame Pride makes up the best part of the Martyr 'T is perhaps upon this ground that the rigid Tertullian who hath defended the advantages of Chastity with the prejudice of Truth it self hath acknowledged this vertue so austere that 't is easier to die for her Majus est in castitate vivere quà m pro castitate mori Terâ— then to live with her As if he would tacitely insinuate that 't is a harder matter to be chaste then to be a Martyr and that a Christian who hath overcome impurity may easily subdue grief If having considered the severity of the Vertues we consider the rigour of the Gospel we shal finde it cannot be obeyed without the badg of Martyrdom Every People hath its Laws and there are none so barbarous whom Nature or Custom have not furnished with some Policy The Greeks lived according to the Laws of their Sages The Romanes followed the Twelve Tables and those that had neither Kings nor Law-givers have had for their guide the light of Nature which is a relique of Innocence The Jews were governed by the Law of Moses which if it gave them not strength enough to combat sin it gave them light enough to know and avoid it But the Christian hath so severe a Law that if Love did not sweeten the severity thereof it would drive men to despair and more tragical then Judaism would occasion not onely prevaricators but obstinate and hardned disciples For it hath not one Article which is not a Paradox and which thwarts not the Reason as well as the Inclinations of sinners The First is that to love God aright we must hate our selves and bestowing all our affection upon him reserve nothing but hatred for our selves The second is to renounce our Will that is to say to quit all the advantages Nature hath endued us with not to reason in our Mysteries not to listen to our Inclinations in the practise of Vertues The Third which is not less rigid and seems to violate the sweetest Laws of Nature obligeth us to forsake father and mother and to trample upon the belly of her that bare us to follow the voice of him that calls us to his service But the Fourth which hath to deal with the dearest and most violent of our Passions commands us to pardon our enemies to forget the injuries they have done us and to stifle all those just resentments the love of honour or of life can possess us with Who will not pronounce these Laws so many tortures these Commandments so many Pursuivants making inquisition after our Inclinations into the very inmost recesses of our Wils and one while lopping of love another while Hatred subjects us to as many sufferings as Martyrs undergo whose arms or legs were chopt off by the cruelty of Tyrants This made S. Augustine confess that the life of a Christian was a painful Martyrdom Vita Christiani si secundum Evangelium vivat crux est Martyrium Aug. nor that any man could observe the Laws of the Gospel but must condemn himself to a punishment as grievous as that of the Cross For this reason also will I make it appear in this following Discourse that Christians suffer more then the Martyrs These glorious Heroes of the Church suffered for the most part but in the body their souls were quiet in the midst of
or serve him he cannot refuse Heaven to those that die in love with him Thence it comes to pass that Christians who know that all their advantage consists in Charity make this vertue their principal employment they despise not others for they possess all in this one But being fully perswaded it must be their felicity in heaven they make it their business whilst they are upon the earth These Divine Lovers can do nothing but love they imitate the Seraphims whose Essence and Exercise is Love they burn with the same Fire that makes them live they swim in flames and as if they had forgotten all the vertues to learn one they spend their whole life in this amorous entertainment If they fear 't is to offend him whom their soul loveth if they hope 't is to possess him if they rejoyce 't is for being united to him if they are afflicted 't is for being separated from him When they have to do with their Neighbour 't is upon this wheel that they move they look onely upon God in his Creatures and upon Jesus Christ in his Members if they sometimes adhere unto them out of a natural inclination Divine Love furnisheth them with wings to soar above them and with strength to be disentangled from them Finally Love so well manageth the whole course of their life that leaving Respect to Domesticks Hope to Mercenaries Fear to Slaves Light to the Learned they reserve onely Charity for themselves and are of the humour of that faithful Lover who being confined to solitude had no other diversion but her Love In consideration whereof Dei unicum opus est se intueri se amare Plato I finde their condition very glorious because they treat with God as God doth with himself for his whole happiness consists in knowing and loving Himself and should he intermit this employment he would cease to be happie He sees the Creatures in seeing himself he loves Them in loving Himself and without going forth of his own Nature he findes his felicity in his Knowledge and in his Love The Christian by an admirable priviledge is advanced to this high degree of glory Solus est Amor ex omnibus animae motibus in quo poteâ— Creatura respondere Creatori de simili mutuam rependere viâ—eÌ„ Bernard he enters into society with God treats with him as with his Peer and it seems being no longer his Slave becomes his Equal in becoming his Friend Greatness is so opposite to Love that Kings are fain in a manner to depose themselves when they have a minde to love their Subjects That Majestie wherewith they are encircled is fitter to strike Fear and Consternation then Confidence If they descend not from their Throne lay not by their Crown and Scepter they can have no Friends because no Equals Therefore hath Aristotle observed that Subjects could not contract Alliance with their Soveraigns that the disparity of their Conditions permitted not those privacies which maintain Friendship among men and as long as Kings remain in their Grandeur Subjects must continue in their Respect In the mean time Charity findes out an Expedient to unite the Christian with God exalteth the One without debasing the Other equals in some sort their conditions and as it obliged God to make himself Man hath given Man a power to make himself God Nor must we think it strange that this Vertue is the original of our Happiness because it is the source of our Merit and nothing makes us more commendable then Love Though every thing have its estimate in the Church Order banisheth Confusion and in this vast Body every part hath its priviledge and employments nevertheless the whole perfection consists in Charity he that knows best how to love is most accomplisht and without respecting his actions or his sufferings we consider onely the measure of his Love The Son of God would not have our merit fastned to those conditions which depend not upon our selves nor that Greatness or Riches should difference his Subjects He would not place Perfection in Alms because the Rich onely can dispense them he would not tye it to Preaching because that Gift is reserved for his Ministers he would not limit it to Austerity because that requires a strong Constitution he would not fix it in Martyrdom because that depends upon Persecution with which the Church is not always afflicted But he hath established it in Charity where nothing is easier then this Vertue The Ignorant and the Learned are equally admitted to it Kings are not more capable of it then their Subjects and if Martyrs pretend some advantage above the rest of the Faithful they have a greater obligation to their Love then to their Torments The greatest Saint is not he that hath Suffered most or Done most but he that hath Loved most All his Merit consists in Charity if occasions be wanting he hath recourse to his desires and he may boast that being a Lover he is Liberal in Poverty Learned in Ignorance a Martyr in the Serenity of conversation Though all these advantages oblige us to Love that which God witnesseth to us is the greatest endearment of affection for there are conditions in his Indulgencies which cannot be found in our Expressions and his love is so powerful and so noble that 't is easie to judge it cannot proceed but from an abyss of Goodness It is Eternal and before all worlds God expects not till we subsist to shew his kindness towards us his love makes inquisition after us in the confused heap of Nothing as well as his power he cherisheth us in what he is pleased to put into us and separating us from all those Creatures which shall never see the light makes us the objects of his Liberality Our Crimes stop not the current of his Love he loves us in our Delinquency and that which ought to provoke his Justice to punish us provokes his Mercy to deliver us In Non-entity he loves Ignorant Creatures in Sin he loves ungrateful ones to the former he gives Being to the later he gives Grace and to both of them he makes it appear that his Love is Eternal and Fruitful Men Love nothing but what is lovely either really or in shew they discover in their friends those qualities they plant not there and whatever height of greatness fortune shall advance them to they can bestow upon them only riches or honour if their favorites have any blemish in soul or body they cannot mend it and unhappy in their affections they are constrained either to hate the man for his imperfection or to love the imperfection for the man But God whose love is equally powerful and pregnant makes that amiable which he pleaseth to set his love upon he himself forms his own object he puts that in his friends which he means to esteem and by a prodigy which surpasseth all wonder Meretricem invenit virginem fecit faedam amavit ne faeda remaneret Au. he
Christ we have Jesus Christ in us This vertue makes him present in our souls and the belief we conceive of him is his other self in our hearts Thus the Believer is happie because he possesseth the Son of God and is possessed by him as long as he preserves a vertue which so closely unites them together Hope which is bred with Faith increaseth this happiness and makes our condition more resemble that of the Blessed For that which seems most to separate them from us is that they enjoy that happiness we expect that they languish not as we do and that they have received seisen of the Supreme Good we still hope for They feel the truth of that speech the Scripture hath recorded for our consolation Intra in gaudium Domini tui Their Desires disturb them not and Fear which always accompanies Hope troubles not their content They are above all their wishes and being in full possession of the Supreme Good have neither Miseries to fear nor Blessings to desire It is true the Believers enjoy not all these priviledges neither does their condition suffer them to live without apprehensions and longings They work out their salvation with trembling Ille bene novit in miseriis exterioribus subsistere qui scit de spe interna semper gaudere Greg. Mora. and as they possess not all that they love they give themselves leave gently to consume away in the flames and desires of their Love But withal we must confess they have a part of this felicity for all Philosophers know that Hope is the flower of Pleasure that it gives a taste of the pleasure it promiseth that to stir up the appetite of our Soul it indulgeth a kinde of sense of the felicity prepared for us and that the strength she inspires us with proceeds from the sweetness she charms our expectation with I know prophane Authors affirm that the overtures of Hope are but pleasing Lyes Spes vigilantiū somnium Plut. that she engageth us in dangers with vain promises and finding us over-easie abuseth our credulity But the sounder sort of Philosophers acknowledge that Hopes animates us sowes pleasures amidst our pains nor ever carries men on to generous and difficult actions but in making them taste a part of the recompence she promiseth But admit this Passion had not all the power attributed to her we must by no means question it as belonging to that Hope which is grounded upon the words of God This confers things in promising them makes us feel the happiness we expect and as the Air and the Windes carry the Odours of Arabia into the neighbouring Provinces we may say that this vertue carries the felicity of the Beatified into the very heart of the Faithful Thence it comes to pass that Saint Paul many times in his Epistles mingles Joy with Hope as if he would teach us that we cannot hope but we must possess in part what we hope for Spe gaudentes and in another place Gloriamur in spe gloriae filiorum Dei Finally if it exclude not all Evils as Beatitude does at least it sweetens them and turns them into remedies S. Gregory goes further for he will have it happie because certain and wiping away the tears of Christians crowns them with a joy which comes neer that of the Angels Inasmuch as Charity is nobler then Hope she contributes more liberally to the Happiness of the Faithful For besides that it makes the holy Trinity present in their souls renders their Exile a Paradise she unites them to God and by a happy Metamorphosis findes out an expedient to transform them into him All the world knows that love is the tye of hearts and that his principal effect is to unite together all the Subjects that live under his Empire To accomplish this design he equals their conditions debaseth great persons and exalteth mean ones enricheth the poor and impoverisheth the rich sets slaves at liberty and makes Masters slaves But Charity effects all these things more happily then profane love she humbles the Almighty without interessing his Greatness obligeth him to comply with our weakness Quis me amavit non ad me pervenit quisquis me quaerit cum ipso sum ipse amor tibi praesentem me facit Aug. and reduceth him to a condition wherin he enters into commerce with us not dazling us with his light nor astonishing us with his Majesty He infuseth himself into our souls by grace is linkt to us by his love and in this union communicates to us all his Divine Qualities For he lifts us above our selves to transform us into him draws us out of our misery to make us capable of his happiness and takes from us our own affections to give us admittance into his inclinations when we are arrived to this height of perfection we behold all earthly things under our feet we breath nothing but Heaven we discourse onely of the subject of our love and we are so perfectly filled with him that we may say without offence our desires are alike our conditions equal and our interests common Though all Christians cannot pretend to this high degree of Happiness it seems yet that having the Grace of Jesus Christ they have one part of that felicity which the Saints possess by Charity For in the judgement of all Divines Grace is Glory begun Glory Grace consummated the former gives that a being here below which the second finisheth above and maugre all the miseries that afflict the children of Adam makes us finde Happiness in the midst of our sorrows 'T is perhaps upon this ground that Saint Paul calls Grace Eternal Life Gratia Dei vita aeterna and insinuates to all Christians that being Saints here below they are already Blessed Beatitudo in quodam illapsu Divinae Essen tiae intra animam consistit Henri à Gau. Indeed Essential Felicity consists in a certain emanation of Divinity into the substance of the soul when she as the iron by the fire is penetrated therewith she happily loseth her own qualities to assume those of God she is swallowed up in this Ocean of Glory and having no longer any thing of mortal nor humane is entirely Immutable and Divine What Glory operates in the Blessed Grace works proportionably in the Faithful she sheds abroad the Divine Essence in their souls communicates to them a new being and changing their nature and condition makes Gods of them which may die indeed because they may sin and being not inseparable from the Supream Good are not yet fully impeccable Nevertheless Divines confess that as Grace is a participation of the Divine Nature it communicates Immortality as well as Sanctity and the life it produceth in our souls carries along with it no principle of death The life of the body is not a true life because the same elements that preserve it destroy it and the corruption that accompanies it leads it insensibly to a dissolution But the life of Grace is exempt
from this misfortune it carries Eternity along with it and were it not engaged in a subject changeable and obnoxious to mutability it would be as Immortal as it is Holy Let us adde to this advantage that Grace cannot be taken from us against our will 't is a treasure we never lose but by our own default Perishable goods cannot be preserved with all our care cunning or violence may rob us of them and whatever prudence we use to keep them we are many times constrain'd to fear or feel the loss of them Calumny takes away our good name Injustice or misfortune spoils us of our riches a disease deprives us of health and death of life All these goods though precious cannot avoid the disasters that threaten them The Innocent lose their honour as well as the Guilty The rich are as much afraid of sickness as the poor nor are Kings more secure from death then their Subjects But Grace is a good which cannot be taken from us without our consent Potes aurum perdere nolens potes domum bonū autem quo bonus es nec invitus accipis nec invitus amittis Au. There is no violence can plunder us of it and men though in league with the Devils cannot make us lose it if we favour not their design by our weakness This is the difference Saint Augustine hath put between earthly goods and heavenly Those are many times lost in spite of the owners these are never lost but by the fault of those that neglect them so that the condition of the Faithful is very little inferiour to that of the Blessed because that if the one be certain their glory shal never have an end the others are sure their Grace shal never be lost unless they wil not preserve it out of malice or not consent to secure it out of cowardise Indeed inasmuch as they know that their wils are impotent and their inclinations bad they place all their confidence in the mercy of God they hope that he that converted them will make them persevere and having assisted them in the combate will crown them in the trumph The Fourth DISCOURSE That Happinesse consists not in Pleasure but in Grief OF all the Sects which have opposed Truth the most dangerous is that of the Epicures For though base and unjust in that it gave the Body preheminence over the Minde and Pleasure the right hand of Vertue Nevertheless it surprised men at first sight and seduced them by a name which bears some analogy with that of felicity For whatever Idea men fashion of this it is impossible to separate it from Pleasure and very casie to confound them together We cannot imagine such a thing as the supream Good but we must conceive it agreeable nor can we perswade our selves that there is felicity where there is not content This hath procured more Disciples to this shameful Sect then to all the rest and made it triumph over the reason of the Academicks and the supercilious vanity of the Stoicks Allsinners took part with this Philosophy Christian Religion which destroyed Idolatry hath not been able to ruine this and the Church bears those in her bosome who boast themselves Christians but are indeed Epicures The whole world courts pleasure by different addresses 'T is the Idol that hath most Altars and receives most Sacrifices The Ambitious are her slaves they adore Voluptuousness under the name of Glory and suffer themselves to be charm'd by the allurements that attend a great reputation The Covetous are her Votaries they offer Incense to this false Deity they seek for pleasure in the arms of profit nor do they so much doat upon riches because profitable as because agreeable Indeed the Supream Good is inseparable from pleasure and as you cannot see the Sun but must be enlightned no more can men behold the Supream Good without being charm'd Delectatio ex fruitione summi boni necessario sequitur Aug. If delectation be but a consequence of Happiness as some Philosophers affirm it is at least necessary and I account it no more impossible to see God and not love him then to love and see him without receiving contentment in him Therefore the errour of the Epicures consists not in placing Beatitude in Pleasure but in placing pleasure in the body because man being compounded of a body and a minde ought to be happy in both these parts Let us combate this Monster which against nature destroys not men but because he flatters them nor is dangerous but because he is over complacent There is no body but confesseth that Beatitude consists in a union with God by means of the understanding and the will we must renounce reason to oppose this truth and cease to be men to doubt of a Maxim authorised by all profane Philosophy God is the Ultimate End of his creatures and consequently their perfect Happiness The Understanding and the Will are the two noblest faculties of the soul the wings that make her soar aloft and the chains that fasten her to the object she loves so that she is never more happy then when united to the Supream Good by Knowledge and Love whatever hinders this union is contrary to it and whatever separates or removes her from God is the enemy of her felicity It is easie thence to infer that sensual pleasures cannot cause our felicity because they suffer not our souls to be united to God and imbark her so strongly in the flesh that she seems to have lost all the qualities of a spirit Impurity produceth store of miseries in the world nor can we invent too many invectives against a sin that defiles a man and of an Angel makes a Beast But the greatest of its enormities is that it inebriates our soul with its poison and makes us lose the remembrance of all Divine things Nothing pleaseth the slaves it tyrannizeth over but sensuality whatever affects not the senses seems not true they take the pleasures of the minde for meer illusions and as if the glory of Heaven were but a fable or an imposture they are less affected with the consideration of them then reasonable men with the reading of Romance This misfortune produceth another For as pleasure separates men from God it fastens them to the creatures their inferiours and debasing them below themselves Quisquis quod seitso est deterius sequitur fit ipse de erior Aug. communicates the bad qualities of the things they doat upon Love is a kind of medley it confounds those subjects it unites and by a wonderful Chymistry makes them pass one into another Thence it comes to pass that Kings become Slaves when they love their Subjects and renounce their power when abandon'd to dalliance They fall from their Greatness when they engage in an affection and as the noblest metals lose their purity when mixt with those of a baser allay Soveraigns quit their Majesty when allied with their Subjects Thus the man who gluts
us more happie They promise pleasures to the Wanton Inflant animos divitiae superbiam pariunt invidiam contrahunt luxui serviunt Sen. and conspire with him to corrupt Chastity they furnish Arms and Seconds to the Furious to take vengeance on their enemies they raise the Ambitious to offices and employments and complying with all Passions engage men in all kinde of impiety Therefore he judged aright who said that to give a sinful man Riches was to put a Sword into a mad mans hand or present poyson to a Desperado because not being under the command of Grace he will make use of them only to satisfie his ambition or to content his brutality So that the Philosophers preventing the Divines rightly discovered that Poverty was more Innocent then Plenty and that it was easier for men to preserve their liberty in the leanness of want then in the affluence of riches For besides that they wed us to the earth Multis parasse divitias non finis miseriaruÌ„ fuit sed mutatio Senec. Epist 17. they expose us to a thousand accidents which can neither be foreseen nor avoided and give fortune game at our person Therefore is it that Seneca said Those that will be happy must either be poor or like those that are so they must possesse their goods without being possessed by them and use them as Stewards rather then Proprietaries and they ought to be alwayes ready to part with them because they have them but in trust Religion out-bids Philosophy and requires farre other dispositions from her Children then this does from her Disciples For she will have them acknowledg that in Adam all is lost that they are fallen from their rights by his sin and being guilty are become miserable Perswaded of this Truth they live in the world as in a strange Country they possesse riches upon Loan and since their Goods were confifcated to their soveraign they enjoy them meerly from his mercy Though Jesus Christ re-instate them in their goods and being made Co-heirs with him may dispose of heaven and earth as their Inheritance yet are they obliged to regulate themselves by his Example and not to make use of their rights till after the generall Resurrection He carried himself thus during his life though Heire to his Father he disposed not of his estate a Cratch received him at his birth and a Cross served him for a Death-bed he lodged in a borrowed house and was buried in a strangers Sepulchre If he wrought some miracles for the Glory of his Father he did none for his own Interest when he created a piece of money in the mouth of a Fish it was to pay Tribute and when he commanded his Disciples to take the Asse which served to carry him in his triumph it was with the consent of the Owner Paupertate Christi non additur pecunia sed justitia Divitiae verae immortalitas ubi enim vera copia ibi nulla indigentiâ—â— Aug. He put not his absolute power in execution till after his Resurrection nor did he enjoy the priviledges due to his Birth till he was entred into Heaven The Christians tredding in his steps pretend nothing in this world but reserve the fruition of their right for the next They are content with the promises of Jesus Christ and living here upon hope expect the effects thereof in glory During this time they look upon Poverty as an innocent Usury which gives a value to what they give or part with here for the Son of God for they know saith S. Bernard That Jesus Christ who is a New Man is come down here below to teach us new things and that those that obey him finde rest in labour liberty in servitude and abundance in Poverty Their Goods are multiplyed in being distributed and as the husbandman casting his seed into the earth promiseth himself a hapgy harvest the Christian in communicating his goods to the Poor expects a great recompence at the generall Resurrection Till then he comforts himself with the advantages Poverty bestows upon him for he perceives that if riches have their good use they have also their bad They acknowledge the Custody of them troublesome the love of them contagious the losse of them sensible and if there be pain to get them there is more to keep them This made some Philosophers rid themselves of such attendants and gave comfort to others whom injustice or fortune had made bankrupt for as Seneca sayes excellently well We gain much in losing our riches if with them we lose our covetousness and we fail not continually to gain something even when we lose it not because the subject that entertained it being taken away there is some ground to hope either that it will dye for want of nourishment or at least do no hurt for want of power The Poverty of Christians is happier in this point then that of Philosophers for being inanimated with Grace they lose the desire of evil with the meanes of doing it nor are they innocent only out of impotency but out of deliberation They make their Poverty meritorious in making it voluntary if they choose it not they endevour to accept it and a misfortune or a chastisement they husband into a vertue The losse of their Goods causeth the assurance of their salvation and the rest of their souls they cease to fear assoon as they cease to love and they draw this advantage from their poverty that being no longer engaged to the Earth by their affection they are no more troubled with fear nor abused with hope But their greatest happiness is that they learn from Scripture that their condition is a holy Asylum and that heaven hath promised a particular protection to the Poor Evangelizare pauperibus misit me Luc. 4. They know that Christ came down from heaven to instruct them that his care of teaching them is a proof of his Missions that he hath pronounced them happy in his Sermons chose them for his Disciples hath designed them his favours made them the objects of his love and hath so particular an affection towards them that a man must be poor in deed or in desire to be taken notice of in his State Let us love Poverty then and despise riches seek Felicity in want and if Nature hath not brought us poor into the world let us become like those that are poor either by unbottoming our selves of our Goods or distributing them that raking part in the reproaches of Christ upon Earth We may be partakers of glory in heaven The sixth DISCOURSE That the Happinesse of a Christian upon Earth consists in Humility rather then in Glory THe Ambitious will hardly agree as concerning this Maxime and it will pass into their minde as an Errour rather then a Paradox Merces virtutis gloria honos alit artes omnesque incenduntur ad studia gloriâ For they believe that Honour is the nourishment of Vertue that she droops and languisheth when deprived of
so excellent that we cannot so much as form an Idea of it we want words wherewith to expresse its excellencies and the Scripture tels us That eye hath not seen Eare hath not heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive the happiness God hath laid up for them that love him This last condition would impose silence upon us if the liberty we take to speak of God though incomprehensible did not permit me to write of Blessedness though unconceivable But as we cannot fail when treating of the perfections of God we follow the light of Faith I believe neither shall I wander in this vast Ocean of Glory Qui ducem sequitur fidem à veritate nunquam potest aberrare Aug. if I sayl by that Star and however shipwrack is not to be feared upon a sea where all those that are Drowned may boast themselves Happy Scripture which is our guide in the mysteries of Religion teacheth us that Beatitude consists in the love and knowledg of God For that which hath deliver'd these words Haec est vita aeterna ut cognascant te solū verum Deum hath told us also Qui manet in Charitate in Deo manet Deus in eo Knowledg would cool without Love and Love would be blinde without Knowledg All the faculties of our soul must finde their satisfaction in felicity The Understanding must see the Truth it believes the Will possesse the good it loves the Memory be filled with these two Things it hath so carefully recorded Ita sunt potentiae in essentia anima inter se conjunctae ut quicquid unam laedit alias laedat necesse est Mars Fisc If these Three Faculties be not content something will be wanting to the Christians felicity and as they are united in one and the same soul the pain of the one would be the Torment of the other When the Scripture seems sometimes to give the advantage to Knowledg over Love or to Love over Knowledg it is only more strongly to express the excellency of both and to make us comprehend that as he that clearly sees God is happy he that perfectly loves him cannot be miserable Thence it comes to pass that the Fathers of the Church are divided upon this subject whereof some have taken the part of Knowledg others that of Love Del visio sumnum bonum Aug. S. Augustin though the Panegyrist of Love hath notwithstanding so fully expressed himself in many passages of his Writings in behalf of Knowledg that he seems to have forgotten what he delivered elswhere concerning Love For he will have the End of all our Actions and the repose of all our Desires to be found in beholding the supreme Good That as he is miserable who knowing all things knows not the Creator that made them he likewise is happy that knows the Creator nor is there any addition to his happiness in that he knows the creatures together with him Finally he saith in another place that the clear vision of God is the whole recompence of a Christian and that nothing can be wanting to his happiness when he fully contemplates the Divine Essence But there are a thousand places beside where this Great Doctor placeth Felicity in Love and represents the Blessed to us as so many Lovers who finde their contentment in the possession of the Supream Good Thus saith he true Happiness consists in that joy which ariseth from Truth known and Goodness beloved Beata quippe vita est gaudium de veritate hoc enim est gaudium de te qui veritas es Aug. He assures us that the Blessed have no other employment then to love God and that all the vertues are useless in Heaven except Charity He teacheth us that enjoyment which is the Rest of Love is also its Recompence that as desires disquiet Lovers when they possess not what they long for the Divine Essence would be a torment to the Blessed if from their understanding it past not to their will and if having illuminated them with its light it warmed them nor with its flames Knowledge then and Love make up the felicity of the Saints in glory but both of them are very different from that which is found among the Faithful Our knowledge is always mixt with darkness faith though certain is notwithstanding obscure and though an effusion of the light of glory hath not its extent nor evidence We see God but in Enigma's upon Earth the species that discover him conceal him These glasses are too narrow to give us a full representation of his Greatness and our spirits are too weak to bear the lustre of his Majesty But in Heaven he fortifies the Blessed by the Light of Glory gives them a capacity to look upon him and piercing their understanding is himself both the species and the image There are three things in the world which oppose our Happiness and suffer us not to know God perfectly The first is his Greatness which dazies or astonisheth us whence it comes to pass that the Scriptures assign him for his abode either light that hides him from us or darkness that robs us of him The second is his absence for though he be every where yet is he at a distance when he will and as his presence is not fixed to the Earth which he fils so is it true to affirm of him that he is no where as to say he is in all places Nullibi est qui ubique est The third is the weakness of mans soul which cannot suffer the presence of his God finds the condign punishment of his pride where he sought for the satisfaction of his curiosity But all these impediments are taken away from the Blessed The Majesty of God is no longer formidable his Greatness which occasions our astonishment gives being to their felicity and love having banished from their hearts all fear they treat with their Soveraign as with their Beloved The absence of the Supream Good causeth not their doleance They are possessed by him whom they possess his Divine Essence penetrates their very souls and they are so full of him that those who see them are obliged to reverence them as Gods Finally the weakness of their faculties hinders not their contentment the same fire that burns them inanimates them the same light that clarifies strengthens them and the same God that searcheth all their inward parts preserves them If their Knowledge have this advantage their Love hath yet more and their Charity is much perfecter then ours Whatever pains we take to love God upon Earth our Love is never without some notable defects which enfeeble it It is blind because Faith that enlightens it is a candle whose lamp is always surrounded with a cloud or smoak It is faint and drooping because we possess not the Supream Good which we passionately affect and being separated from him we are as well his Martyrs as his Lovers It is divided because self-self-love is not
yet extinguished and the greatest Saints if they manage not their intentions well rob God of all the Love they indulge themselves Finally it is almost ever interessed Quicquid creatura sui amori concedit hoc amori Dei eripit Bern. we love not God so purely as not to seek our own pleasure with when his glory and we are more earnest with him for riches or honours then for graces we make it appear that Concupiscence bears a greater part in our prayers then Charity But the Blessed have not one of these imperfections in their Love It is not blind because they love him whom they see and the brightness of glory that enlightens them is a ray dispelling all darkness of their understanding It languisheth not as ours doth nor spends it self in its own longings because they possesse what they love and being intimately united to God are eternally inseparable from him It is not divided because self-love enters not into Heaven but is quenched by the flames of Charity or purified when the souls of the Blessed quit the Prison of their body Finally it is not interessed because the honour of God is the end of their desires and in felicity it self they seek not so much their own happiness as his glory From this Knowledge and this Love is derived the resemblance the Blessed have with God which is the accomplishment of their desires and the perfection of their Beatitude For though the Faithful be humble aspire not to the vain pomps of the world and being conscious of his misery knows very well that Nothingness is his Original and sin his work yet ceaseth he not to wish by the motions of Grace what he sometimes coveted by the impulses of pride He would have the same thing that Adam would like the Angel he pretends to be like God but he desires that with Justice which the two others did with Insolence The holy Scripture authoriseth his appetite and the promises of Jesus Christ make his hopes lawful He knows very well that the Happiness of a reasonable creature consists particularly in this point and that being the Image of God in Nature and in Grace he ought to resemble him in Glory The beloved disciple comforts us in the expectation of this happiness and speaks so confidently of it to all the Faithful that he seems rather to have received the Earnest then the Promise of his Master Scimus quoniam cùm apparuerit similes ei erimus Though this similitude constitute our principal happiness yet is it easier to hope for it then to describe it and being an expression of the felicity of God himself is as much unknown to us as his Nevertheless we may say it is an effusion of his Essence into the soul of the Blessed an emanation of his Divinity communicating all his perfections lifting them above themselves and transforming them into him without destroying them makes as many Gods as there are Saints in Glory The Fire which imprints all its qualities in the Iron it makes red-hot the Sun that communicates all his light to the Crystal he penetrates and the Persume which sheds its fragrant odour thorow all the rooms it embalms are but faint comparisons to express the intimate communication of the Divine Essence to the Blessed It is enough to believe in the simplicity of Faith that all our desires shall be fully compleated that our happiness shall surpass our hopes and raised to a higher condition then that the devil promised our father in Paradise we shall be Men and Gods both together Though we are not idle in so happie a condition S. Augustine teacheth us that the knowledge and love of God shall be our sole employment Tantum gandebunt Beati quantum amabunt tantum amabunt quantum cognoscent Deum Aug. lib. Medit. we shall finde all our contentment in this one exercise and as we shall possess All Goods in the Supreme Good so shall we taste all Felicity in this one diversion The good works we have been conversant in upon earth shall be banished from Glory and Mercy shall be useless in a state whither Misery cannot approach we shall have no need to visit the Sick where Immortality provides for the Health of the Blessed There will be no burying of the Dead in the land of the Living Hospitality will not be practised where there are no Pilgrims We shall not clothe the Naked because the light of Glory will be the garment of the Saints We shall not be troubled to reconcile Enemies because Peace shall raign there eternally We shall be no longer obliged to instruct the Simple because the Beatifical Vision will eliminate all Ignorance If the works of Mercy be useless all actions wherein Necessity engageth us will then be superfluous The miseries of life compel men to till the earth for their nourishment to build houses to defend them from the injury of the weather to make clothes to protect them from shame and cold But all these employments shall have an end in a Kingdom where he that governs is both the Nourishment the Cloathing and the Habitation of his Subjects His Goodness which penetrates them is their Aliment his Glory that invirons them is their Apparel and his Essence which includes them is their Lodging They need fear nothing in a condition where the possession of All Good necessarily produceth the exclusion of All Evil. We shall have no apprehension then saith S. Augustine that Hunger or Thirst shall persecute us because we shall lodge in the house of a Lord where there is plenty of all things where we may bathe our elves in the River of his Innocent Pleasures Nor Heat nor Cold shall once dare to annoy us because by a strange wonder the same Sun that shall shelter us with his shadow shall warm us with his heat Weariness shall not weaken us because God shall be our strength we shall not be forced to sleep because Labour shall never need repose nor shall the night ever draw a curtain over the day There shall be no Commerce because we shall possess All in God there shall be no Servitude because all the Subjects of this Kingdom shall be Soveraigns If you ask me saith S. Augustine what we shall do then in a place whence pain and travel are banished I will answer with the Prophet that the whole enployment of the Blessed is to think of God and to rejoyce in his glory Vacate videte quoniam ego sum Deus This meditation shall altogether take them up it shall produce all pleasures and constitute all their vertues Every Beatified person shall imitate Mary Magdalene and as with her they shall have but one Object they shall make use but of one Vertue Porro unum est necessarium The calamities of the Earth oblige us to employ successively all the Vertues sometimes we borrow aid from Prudence to dissipate the darkness wherewith we are blinded or to scatter the dangers that threaten us sometimes we call in