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
hath vouchsafed to bear our miseries hath been pleased to speak our language The Church saith that great Doctor is made up of all the Faithful Quia ergo totus Christus caput est corpus Ecclesiae prepter a in omnibus Psalmis sic audiamus voces capitis ut audiamus voces corporis Aug. in Psal 56. because all the Faithful are the Members of Jesus Christ Though her Head be in heaven he fails not to guide her upon earth and though separated by the distance of places ceaseth not to be united to her by charity Wherefore Christ making the Head and the Body we ought not in the Psalms to separate the voice of the Head from that of the Body nor think it strange that he that never deserted the Church never held other language then his Spouse did This it it that he treats of elsewhere in clearer and fuller terms If Jesus be our Head and we his Body the Head and the Body compose whole Jesus Christ nor is Jesus Christ entire if he comprehend not both This Maxime must serve us as a light to explain the Scripture by with which if we are not always enlightned we are in danger to mistake For sometimes we meet with words that cannot be applied to the Head and which would involve us in an errour or in doubt did we apply them to the body there are others that cannot be appropriated to the Body and yet are uttered by Jesus Christ To unravel these difficulties we need but attribute to the Head what cannot agree to the Body remembring that Jesus Christ speaks sometimes in his own person and sometimes in the person of the Church He spake certainly in her name when he complained that his Father had forsaken him because we know very well the Son was never abandoned by the Father were it not when he sustained the person of Adam who was forsaken of God as soon as he became guilty But because this Truth is but too evident let us pass to the Third condition of the Marriage of Jesus Christ with his Church and see how they are two in one and the same passion One of the chiefest effects of Love is Anima est magis ubi amat quà m ubi animat to make us Live where we Love and to make us Suffer where we Live Experience better perswades us of this Maxime then Reason and 't is needless to prove a Truth which every man may evidence in himself A father knows he is more affected with the sorrows of his children then with his own a husband is not ignorant that he sufters less in his own person then in that of his wife and all Lovers proclaim that the injuries or discontents of their Mistresses wound them deeper then those that fall upon themselves Siqua sides vulnus quod feci non dolet inquit Sed quod in facies hoc mihi Paetc dolet Mart. That generous gallant wife was well acquainted with this Axiome who protested she felt not the blowe the Poniard gave her self but onely that which her husband was resolved to receive As Charity which unites Jesus Christ to the Church is stronger then Conjugal love so doth it more advantageously produce this effect in them Their sufferings are common the Son of God suffers no sorrows which the Church resents not and the Church endures no torments which the Son of God complains not of Therefore hath S. Augustine said that the Church suffered in Jesus Christ when jesus Christ suffered for the salvation of the Church and that Jesus Christ suffered in the Church when the Church was persecuted for the glory of Jesus Christ their complaints were proofs of their sufferings and as the Church complained in Jesus Christ when he cried out upon the Cross My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Jesus complained in behalf of his Church when from the midst of his glory he said Saul Saul why persecutest thou me But as Saint Paul had learnt this truth from the mouth of the Son of God himself by whom he was informed that a man could not persecute the Church but he must persecute Jesus Christ there was not any of the Apostles who so highly exalted his labours as he did For knowing very well that he was a Member of the Church in which condition he could not suffer but Jesus Christ must suffer with him he speaks of his own sufferings as of those of his Master and out of a confidence which could arise from nothing but his love he boasts that in suffering he finished the Passion of Jesus Christ Adimpleo ea quae desunt passionum Christi He knew very well that nothing was wanting to the sorrows of the Son of God that the rage of the executioners was glutted upon his person that the Truth of Figures was accomplished in his death and that himself before he bowed his head and gave up the ghost had said aloud Consummatum est But he knew also that Jesus Christ had two Bodies that he suffered in one what he could not suffer in the other and that honouring his Father in both he sacrificed himself in his Members after he had sacrificed himself in his Person S. Augustine happily expresseth the meaning of S. Paul in these words Jesus Christ suffers no more in that flesh he carried into heaven but he suffers in mine that is still persecuted upon the earth nor are we to wonder at it because it is no more I that live but he that liveth in me And if this Maxime were not true Jesus Christ had never complained of the persecution of Saul nor ever Saul have been so bold as to say he had filled up what was wanting in the sufferings of Christ But a little to clear this passage we must say that the Son of God being the Pledge and Surety of sinners was willing to satisfie the justice of his Father and bear all the pains their sins deserved Passio Domini usque ad finem munâ—i producitur sicut in Sanctis suis ipse honoratur ipse diligitur in pauperibus ipse pascitur ipse vestitur ita in omnibus qui pro justitia adversae tolerant ipse compatitur Leo. de pass Dom. Ser. 19. Death being one of the severest and the sentence that designes us to it expresses no one kinde that we might fear all the Son will have them undergo all and by that stratagem of Love change all our Chastisements into Oblations of piety But because the Body his mother gave him could not suffer all these deaths their different kinds being incompatible and that one and the same man could not be nailed to the Cross devoured by wilde beasts choaked in the waters consumed by the flames he was pleased to associate a mystical Body which being compounded of different Members might undergo divers punishments and to satisfie the excess of his Charity might honour his Father by as many sacrifices as there were kindes of death in
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
other happily guides us in it The one purifies our soul by Labour the other unites us to God by Prayer The one keeps the Commandments and the other receives the Recompence The one is afflicted with grief because it bewails his sins with the Penitents the other is bathed in pleasure because it participates in the felicity of the Blessed The same Doctor all whose Maximes are Truths gives us another Division of Vertues from the difference of our conditions and being not far from that Principle we are going to explain attributes but one Vertue to the Blessed and leaves all the rest to the Faithful They indeed finde all their happiness in the Supreme Good which they are in possession of their Love makes up the total of their felicity and that ineffable Union that transforms them into him they love is the onely Vertue that for ever takes them up in the fruition of Glory Prudence is not requisite because there is no darkness to be dissipated nor misfortunes to be prevented Fortitude is useless because there are no sorrows to struggle with Temperance serves to no end because all their delights are innocent and lawful Neither is there any employment for their Justice because in the Tabernacle of Glory there are neither miserable to be protected nor criminals to be punished Thus as that incomparable Doctor goes on they practise but one Vertue and by a happie encounter this Vertue is their recompence because uniting them to God it makes them finde their felicity in him 'T is true that as the Supreme Good contains all other Goods we may say also that all the Vertues are comprehended in this and their several denominations may be imposed upon it It is Prudence because it illuminates them with the brightness of God himself Fortitude because it unites them so firmly with him that nothing can separate them Temperance because it makes them chastly embrace the Chief Good and in the delights they taste of they seek not so much their Pleasure as his Glory Justice because it subjects them to their Soveraign making them finde their Happiness in their Submission But as there is some analogie between the condition of the Blessed and that of the Faithful at the same time that S. Augustine separates them he associates them again and confounding their Vertues together saith that during this life Love is the onely vertue of Christians and that there is none other but to love that which is amiable So that to facilitate the acquisition of that object we place our affections upon by chusing sutable and convenient means is Prudence Not to be discouraged or diverted by Grief is Fortitude Not to be drawn away by Pleasures is Temperance and not to be kept off by the vain pomp and grandetza's of the world is Justice He lodgeth these Vertues in Glory which he seems to have banished thence and acknowledgeth that the Blessed enjoy them as well as the Faithful but with this difference That upon the earth they are in Act in heaven in Habit upon the earth they serve for a Defence in heaven for an Ornament upon the earth in Exercise in heaven in their Acquiescence upon the earth they are the sure Land-marks guiding the Faithful to their journeys end in heaven they happily unite the Faithful in an inseparable Bond of Communion But because this Doctrine is not fully conformable to that which is commonly received and that we have borrowed from Philosophers the Division and the Quality of Vertues let us say with them that we judge of their number by our obligations and our necessities We are upon the earth for no other end but to Know and Love to Suffer and to Do our whole life is spent in these two employments and if we be not absolutely unprofitable we must raise our selves to the Knowledge and Love of the Supreme Good and resolve if we be not altogether lazie by our Courage to overcome all the difficulties which occur in the course of our life Thence it comes to pass that we have need of different Vertues Bonam vitam ego puto Deum cognoscere amare mala pati bona facere sic perseverare usque ad mortem Bern. and that according to the designes we form we are obliged sometimes to have recourse to the Divine vertues sometimes to the Moral Inasmuch as God is surrounded with Light that darkens us our Understanding must necessarily be cleared by Faith that we may know him In that he is an Infinite Good our soul must be fortified with Hope that we may search after him and our Will warmed with Charity that we may love him For though Good be amiable and the Supreme Good transcendently amiable yet is it so far above our reach that without Grace we cannot approach unto it and as we must be clarified by his Light that we may know him so must we be warmed by his Calentures that we may affectionately close with him Thus Faith Hope and Charity are the Vertues by means whereof we treat with God But because Man is born for Society in serving God he is bound to assist his Neighbour Charity hath a double respect having united us to the Supreme Good for love of it she unites us to our Like and obligeth us to love them as we do our selves Were this Vertue in its full vigour 't would be sufficient alone Lex venit in subsidium amicitiae Atistot and as Philosophers have observed that Laws would be useless did Friendship raign in mens hearts I dare affirm did Charity set up her throne in ours the Vertues would be idle among Christians or act onely by her orders and directions But whether we have not as yet attained this Perfection or that the number of Subjects contributes to the Greatness of Soveraigns she hath under her command Four Vertues which are called Cardinal that act by her motions and execute her designes Prudence clears our Understandings to act helps us to discern Good from Evil and Truth from Falshood For as there are Evils which under a fair shew deceive us and Lyes that finde more credit then some Truths Prudence must serve us for a Guide and in so important an election secure us from mistakes Justice gives every one his due makes our Interests yeeld to Reason preserves Peace in the inequality of our conditions and taking original righteousness for an example which made a harmony between foul and body this sets Man at union with himself and by a necessary consequence accommodates him with his neighbour Therefore is it that Repentance and Humility are as rivulets flowing from this Fountain and as rays issuing from this Sun For Repentance is nothing but a severe Justice that animates the sinner against himself that obliges him to act the part of a witness in accusing of a judge in condemning of an executioner in punishing himself Humility is nothing but a modest and true Justice which considering the Majestie of the Creator
forceth the Creature to fall down before him and upon the sight of sin and nothingness to adore the Power and Mercy that drew him out of these two Abysses Temperance regulates our Pleasures and moderates our Delights lest their disorder obstruct our salvation and out of a blinde impetuosity finde Pain and Sorrow where we look for Pleasure and Content 'T is true she is not so taken up with Particular good as not to watch over the Publike For without encroaching upon the rights and priviledges of Justice she calms the Passions allays the storms and producing a tranquillity in the soul of Particulars contributes to that of Kingdoms because the quiet of States depends upon that of Families and 't is very hard that those Subjects that yeeld not obedience to the laws of Temperance should to those of Justice But as since the Fall of Adam Sufferings are as common as Actings and man spends his life in Pain as well as in Labour to these Three Vertues is added Fortitude as a Supply to combat and vanquish Griefs that set upon us Indeed the chiefest employment of Fortitude is to wrestle with whatever is most troublesom in the world It skirmisheth with those accidents that disquiet our Health or concern our Honour is armed against Fortune and defying that blinde potentate that seems the enemy of Vertue stands ready to receive all the assaults this insolent Tyranness makes upon those that slight her Empire Indeed when Valour is enlightned by Faith she laughs at an Idol who subsists onely in the mindes of those that fear it and may be called the work of their Fancie and Imagination she trembles not at the attempts of a false Deity and being assured that every thing is regulated by a Supreme Providence which cannot fail lays an obligation upon us to adore his Decrees though they condemn us and kiss his Thunders though they strike us dead Thus under the favourable shadow of these Vertues the life of a Christian passeth on calmly Faith affords him light to illuminate him Charity heats to inflame him Hope promises to encourage him Justice and Temperance their severall supplies to put him in action and Fortitude who her self is a whole Army gives undauntedness of spirit to fight and to triumph To all these Divisions this may be added namely that man being compounded of a body and a soul hath need of Vertues that may unite them together and subjecting the soul to God may subject the body to the soul For there is this order between these two parts that the body respects not the laws of the minde but as far as the mind respects the laws of God assoon as one dispenseth with his duty the other failes of his obedience and at the same time that the soul rebels against God the flesh maketh an insurrection against the soul To this day we bewail the mischiefs of this rebellion and all the Vertues are given us only to re-instate us in our Primitive Tranquillity The Theological Vertues undertake to subject the mind to God Faith captivates the Understanding and obligeth it to believe those verities it comprehends not Hope fils the Memory with the Promises of Jesus Christ and Charity sweetly divorceth the will from all perishable goods to fixe it upon the Supream Good The Vertues that are called Cardinal Prudentia se habet ad vera faâ—sa temperantia fortitudo ad prospera adversujustitiase habet ad Deum Proximum D. Thom. 2.2 have mixt employments exercising their dominion over soul and body Prudence enlightens them Justice accords them Temperance regulates their pleasures and Fortitude combats their griefs so that all these Vertues associated together restrain man in his duty and make him find his happiness in his obedience But because I destine another Discourse to treat of these last Vertues I conceive my self bound to bestow the remainder of this upon the former and to shew the reasons wherefore it was requisite that the Christian must be assisted with Faith Hope and Charity Grace hath some resemblance with Nature and we find in man some Image of a Christian Man cannot come to his End unless he know it and have some assurance of a possibility to obtain it The Christian cannot move towards God his sole end unless he know him by Faith love him by Charity and promise himselfe the enjoyment of him by Hope Man that he may work aright hath need of three succours he must know what he does he must be able to doe it and he must will it otherwise all his designs will be unprofitable nor will he form any enterprise which will not confound or grieve him The Christian whose salvation is his chiefe business hath need of the same aids but because his enterprise is extreamly difficult and sin that hath made strange devastations in his soul hath spread darkness over his Rational thrown weakness into his Irascible and scattered malice into his Concupiscible faculty Faith must enlighten the one Hope satisfie the other and Charity which is nothing but an effusion of the Divine Goodness shed it self into the last and amend it Or let us say that Faith discovers the Supream Good to the Christian by its Lights that thence there arise two affections in his soul the desire of possessing it which is love and a confidence of obtaining it which is Hope These three Vertues doe consummate the Christians perfection Faith illuminates him Hope elevates him and Charity uniting him to God makes him partake in same sort of the felicity of the Blessed The Third DISCOURSE Of the Excellency and Necessity of Faith GOd is so far above our apprehension by the Greatness of his Nature that in whatever state we consider him we have only a borrowed light to know him by In that happy condition wherein Innocence dispell'd all mans darkness suffering neither ignorance nor infirmity to engage him in these sins which are rather naturall then voluntary he had need of light to know him whose Image he had the honour to be Those infused verities he received in his Creation those faithful glasses that presented him his Creator and all the beauties of the Universe that expressed his Divine perfections had imprinted in him but a faint knowledge if Faith elevating his soul had not clarified him with its brightnesse But when man shall pass from Earth to Heaven and removing from the Order of Grace shall enter into that of Glory In lumine tuo videbimus lumeÌ„ Psal 35. he shall still have need of a borrowed light to behold the Divine Essence Though he be then a pure Spirit and his soul abstracted from matter act as the Angels yet all our Divines confess that his darkness must be enlightned his weakness supported that he may contemplate this Divine Sun who by a rare Prodigy hides himself in light and covers himself with his Majesty We are not therefore to wonder if Faith be necessary for man in the state whereto sin hath
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
affection higher in loving God they become Divine But there needs no other proof of this verity but the Mystery of the Incarnation where Love triumphing over God himself made him assume the form of a Man invested him with our nature and our miseries loaded him with our sins and obliged him to appear before his Father as a Penitent or rather as an Anathema This prodigious change makes us look for another For God was not made Man but that Men might be made Gods he was humbled that they might be exalted he took their nature that he might bestow his upon them nor did he suffer his love to render him like Man but to perswade them that the same love may liken them to God The Seventh DISCOURSE Of the Prudence Justice Fortitude and Temperance of a Christian THough sin hath committed so many outrages against Nature divided her Forces obscured her Lights and weakned her Liberty yet hath he not been able to destroy the workmanship of God There remains to man since his Fall some strength to combat his enemies some light to discover errours and some liberty to defend him against evil After his Transgression his misery opened his eyes when seeking out remedies for his disease he made himself a Morality which taught him vertues to rectifie those disorders his disobedience had occasioned in his person Some call them the Reliques of Innocence Virtus ars est nou natura Senec. but without any reason Because the Vertues that accompanied that happle condition having no enemies were not obliged to stand upon their guard Others call them the Succours of sinful Man and that very justly Because they help him in his necessities and comfort him in his misfortunes They believe that Adam receiving them from God after his repentance for his fault taught them his children and left them these arms to combat their Passions But inasmuch as they went not to him who had bestowed them upon their father and had reserved himself the power of dispensing them to their children there remained nothing but the appearance and the name Concupiscence took the place of Charity and animating her false Vertues made them true Sins This made S. Augustine so often profess that the Prudence of the Heathen is blind and interessed that their Fortitude is upheld meerely by Vanity that their Temperance overcomes one passion with another and that their Justice being arrogant seeks only fair pretences to authorise its usurpations So that these Vertues have not recovered their Primitive purity but by the grace of Christianity They owe all their worth to Charity they are acceptable to God because they proceed from Jesus Christ nor can they hope for an eternal recompence but because they have a Supernatural and Divine Principle Therefore the same Doctor mingles Charity always in the definition of these Vertues Definitio brevis est vera virtutis ardor amoris propter quod dicit sponsa ordinate in me charitatē Aug. lib. 15. de Civ cap. 12. Prudentia est in eligendis Temperantia in utendis Fortitudo in tolerandis Justitia in distribuendis Aug. and makes them passe for so many severall motions or functions of Love In this conceit he cals Prudence an illuminated Love Justice a regulated Love Fortitude a couragious Love and Temperance a faithful Love But because this definition seems to limit these Vertues and many think they are not so much the Impulses as the Ministers of Love Let us say that Prudence is a Practicall Science teaching the soul what it ought to doe inspiring her with a love of good things and a detestation of bad and carrying light into the understanding teacheth it to discern what is profitable from what is hurtful Fortitude is a couragious Vertue making us suffer with an evennesse of mind affronts and griefs 'T is a victorious habit that triumphs in suffering and owes the best part of her advantages to the bitternesse of the afflictions that persecute her 'T is a stability of spirit against all the miseries of the world a resolution to fight and overcome all the labours that accompany life 'T is a Vertue whose generous humour makes us desire great things contemn low things and endure hard things or it is a Vertue that raiseth the soul above Fear apprehending nothing but dishonour and which instructs us to carry our selves equally in favours and in disgraces If we will shut her up within the bounds of Christianity we may say it is a Vertue inform'd with Grace preparing us to undergo all things rather then fail of our duty Temperance is a just dominion of reason over the passions but especially over those that flatter us by the pleasure they promise and employ voluptuousnesse to seduce us 'T is a Vertue that teacheth us to wish nothing that may cause shame in us or regret not to doe any thing that exceeds the bounds of reason to suffer nothing that may diminish her authority and foment the rebellion of her lawful subjects Or to use Saint Augustines expressions 't is an affection that subdueth the Concupiscible appetite and gives it not leave to hunt after those pleasures which are accompanied with shame or followed wich repentance Justice is a Vertue that prefers the publick interests before private and many times punisheth a Delinquent with more severity then his fault requires to stop the course of evil and to astonish other offenders According to the opinion of Saint Ambrose it is a Vertue which hath more respect to the service of others then of it self and considers more the advantages of her neighbour then her own According to Aristotle it renders every one their due punisheth Vice rewards Vertue maintains the peace of the State by the severity of punishments and the liberality of recompences Let us adde with Seneca though very blind in the knowledge of Christian Vertues that Justice is a secret Convention Nature hath contracted with men for the succour of the innocent or distressed that it is a Divine Law that entertains humane society preserves every man his right and not respecting the quality of the persons considers only their merits Finally 't is a Christian Vertue which enlightned by Faith animated with Charity obligeth man to satisfie at once God himself and his neighbour Having examined the nature of these Vertues it remains that we take notice of their use and the profit that ariseth from them S. Augustine whom in Morality I look upon as my Guide and in Divinity my Master saith that these Vertues are given to the soul to imbellish her and to arm her against Vices Prudence teacheth her what she is to doe is in stead of a Torch to light her in the darknesse of the world Temperance learns her not to bee charmed with pleasure Fortitude not to be vanquished with griefs and Justice not to be transported with her own interests or to expresse another way no lesse solidly and more pleasingly the obligations of these Vertues it concerns Prudence
the heat of self-love makes in our souls In which respect 't is certainly the truth of the Tree of Life and the accomplishment of that figure For though Innocent Man had other meats besides that and excepting the forbidden fruit all others that Paradise afforded were allowed him yet was he obliged to take of this from time to time as a medicine which the mercy of God had prepared for him to defend him against the Natural heat which insensibly wasted him Whence it is easie to infer that in the state of Innocence the body of man was composed of parts that could not agree That fire which makes man live devoured the radical moisture on which it feeds and though he daily took in nourishment which being much purer then ours might preserve life much longer yet had he need of an extraordinary diet which might repair the ruines the natural heat made in his body and Divines Providence which never abandons that sinner provided the Tree of Life for Innocent Man to defend him against the internal enemy who had insensibly brought him to death by means of old age and consumption Thus may we say that the body of the Son of God shields us against that forain heat Concupiscentia carnis in Baptismo dimittitur non ut non sit sed ut non obsit non imput tur Aug. lib. de Nup. Concup cap. 25. which setting upon the warmth of Charity threatens the Christian with death For though Concupiscence since Baptism be no longer sin and if sometimes they give it this name 't is because it is the principal effect yet is she not idle in our souls she makes strange progresses when her fury is not stopt she makes use of all occasions that are offered and holding under her command the passions and the senses she endeavours by their mediation to enslave the understanding and the will Though never so weak and langnishing in Christians she hath still vigour enough to engage them in sin if their reason assisted with grace continually oppose not her designs The little remainder there is makes them they cannot live secure and as long as they nourish the least degree of self-love there is no crime whereof they have not the seeds in them What the Son of God hath said of the grain of Mustard seed which is so small at first and so prodigious in the progress is not comparable to Concupiscence whose least sparks are able to kindle mighty conflagrations which only the Grace of Jesus Christ can extinguish Indeed his Body the noblest Organ of his Spirit moderates daily these heats in the Eucharist smothers the flames Concupiscence stirs up to consume us he gives beeing to that vertue that fight obscenity weakens that strange burning which glows against divine heat without which a Christian cannot live He produceth two contrary effects which manifests his power to be infinite For by kindling one fire he quencheth another and warming us with his own love happily delivers us from that of self 'T is a a wonderful Wine which contrary to the nature of ordinary wine bears Virgins and renders them pure thereby to render them pregnant in Vertues Finally 't is a Bread of Life that nourisheth soul and body carrying vigour into the one and light into the other to the end that preserving the whole man it may be his food in health and his remedy in sickness Having contrary to the Laws of Physick cured him contrary to the Laws of Nature it endeavours to make him young For Religion more powerful then the Fable hath found out a secret to renue the Christians youth in the Eucharist and to discover in Mysteries what it made us believe in Types and Figures Indeed all the Fathers are of opinion that the Tree of Life defended man from old age and preserved him from that languishing consumption which disposed him insensibly to his death if common fruits could preserve his life they were unable to maintain his vigour Though they had all the purity Innocent Nature could furnish her works with yet in repairing mans strength they had not restored that freshness which accompanies youth To secure himself from that mischief which had not respected his Innocence he was obliged to have recourse to the Tree of Life and from time to time to take an agreeable Physick which being no way distasteful restored him his primitive vigour and re-instated him in that flourishing age he was at first created in It is true that as Prudence was natural to him he never expected length of days to impair his beauty nor that old-age should print wrinkles upon his face he made such seasonable use of this remedy that the freshness of his complexion never faded The Roses and the Lilies were always mingled on his cheeks age and deformity never seized a body whose soul was exempt from sin and the fruit of the Tree of Life seconding his ordinary food maintained him in a vigorous constitution which was afraid neither of Sickness nor Weakness In this happie state Man had the advantages of the Aged and not their imperfections his Reason without the tedious trouble of Experience was furnished with all Lights requisite to conduct him he had no need to enfeeble his body to fortifie his minde but both the parts that composed him being equally innocent he had no occasion to wish that age might weaken the one to make it more obedient nor strengthen the other to render it more absolute Thus the fruit of the Tree of Life maintained Man in Youth and Innocence and these two inseparable qualities combating Old-age and Sin made him spend his life happily and holily Although Christians have not this advantage upon the earth and that their body being still the slave of Concupiscence cannot avoid the infirmities incident to old-age yet in their souls they fail not to enjoy the priviledges of Innocence they finde in the holy Sacrament what Adam found in the Tree of Life they receive a new vigour in the Eucharist their souls grow young as often as they approach to Jesus Christ when like Eagles they soar as high as this Sun lodg'd in a cloud they are astonished that in the infirmity of their flesh their spirit is renewed and that the outward man falling to decay by yeers and penance the inward man recruits by the heavenly meat he feeds upon This Miracle passeth sometimes from the soul to the body yet there have been some holy persons who taking no other sustenance but what is offered upon our Altars have lived many yeers Many times this Nutriment hath imprinted its qualities upon their bodies and darting forth certain rays of Grace upon their countenances communicated to them a part of that beauty which the blessed spirits shall possess Post primā caenam it a similes evascrunt Christodiscipuli ejus ut vix ab illo possent discerni Chrys S. John Chrysostome was of opinion that the Apostles participated of this priviledge in their
being trodden in the same Press sends forth that juice which is exhibited in this oblation So that the Son of God prepares the heart of the Faithful by a sensible union to a spiritual one and teacheth them that he will unite them with him in a Sacrament whose outward appearances breathe nothing but unity The Flesh which the outward species cover is so one that its multiplication cannot divide it it is produced in a thousand places to re-unite those that receive it and contrary to that of Adam is one in its substance Omne bellum oritur ex carne homo enim si carnalis non esset nunquam cum alio homine pugnaret Aug. as well as in its effects For the flesh of our first Father is a fruitful and unhappy spring of division it is parted into as many bodies as there are children and we may say that all men are the wretched portions of this guilty flesh The souls are divided with it to inanimate it and acting by its Organs contract its bad qualities whence arise quarrels and disputes that distract States and Fam lies But the most Tragical division is that being the channel of sin it makes the souls guilty assoon as they touch it and separate them from God by an offence which was free in the first man and natural in all his posterity For 't is enough that they are blended with the flesh of Adam to make them become guilty 'T is from this unhappy mixture that those fatal rents issue and proceed which occasion all our disasters and if we did not communicate in flesh with Adam we should not partake of his sin nor be liable to his punishment But this of Jesus Christ more happy and more innocent then his heals our division and leads us to unity it is one in substance and though a part of Adams is exempt from all sin because the work of the Holy Ghost and the Word that sustains it renders it impeccable He that communicates life to it communicates innocence in so high a degree that he imparts it to those that receive it It s multiplication dissolves not the unity the same Word that produceth it upon our Altars gives it the impress of its qualities and contrary to all the rules of nature which cannot multiply things without dividing them finds a secret to give it a Beeing in a thousand places without impairing its unity There is this difference between Nature and a Word the former is fruitful only by division 't is wonderful how from a grain of corn she extracts a whole Harvest pays the labour of the Husbandman with usury recompenseth his pains with plenty and imitating the power of her Creator which makes all things of nothing makes a great deal of a very little But she cannot accord multiplication with unity she must divide whatever she produceth and her liberality is founded upon the fraction of her Presents A Word more powerful then nature is brought forth without partition it is communicated through the fullest Auditory without wronging its Unity and though always one fils the ears of all those that are within the sound of it It seems that the Body of the Son of God which produced by the Word Vnusquisque accepit partem suam unde ipsa Gratia partes vocantur per partes manducantur manet integer totus per partes manducatur in Sacramento manet integer totus in coelo manet integer toâ—us in corde tuo Aug. Serm. de Verb. Evang. hath borrowed this Vertue from its cause is multiplied in the world and is not divided it is received into the heart of all the Faithful and this kind of Immensity that multiplies its presence alters not its unity It is whole and entire under every part of the Hoast though they break it they cannot divide it but preserving its unity in the fraction of the species remains always the Numerical body of Jesus Christ Thence it comes to pass that it unites all the faithful that receive it For though they be as different in conditions as generations as contrary in humours as interests as great strangers in their inclinations as climates they doe notwithstanding make up one body because they are nourished with one bread and all eat the same meat which having the power to assimilate the feeder into the food communicates unto them a wonderful unity which composeth all their differences But to comprehend this last miracle we must remember that this viand being of another nature then common meat is not disgested by the natural heat nor converted into the substance of those that take it only the accidents that cover it resent that injury and yielding to that fire that animates and consumes us becomes a part of our selves Being impassible and glorified 't is free from corruption acting upon those that eat it and having the same effect upon them they have upon other nutriments converts them miraculously into it self Thus every Christian if he bring not resistance with him becomes another Jesus Christ he parts with the bad qualities of Adam to assume the glorious ones of the Son of God if he share not in his impassibility he does in his innocence if he become not immortal he becomes in some sort glorified and if he change not nature he alters at least his inclination Therefore is it that all the Fathers of the Church admiring the holy stratagems Jesus Christ makes use of to unite us to himself Qui vult vivere habet unde vivat accedat credat incorporetur vivificectur inhaereat corpori vivat Deo de Deo nunc laboret in terra ut postea vivat in caeâ—o Aug. call this Sacrament a Divine Transformation wherein man losing what he had of corruptible and criminal gains the advantages of the Blessed and is happily changed into him that nourisheth him Indeed experience teacheth us that nature and love have found out no better invention to convert Essences then Nutrition Every day the meat we eat is assimilated into our substance the wine altering its qualities by a natural Chymistry is turned into our bloud bread without any other additional supplement then the natural heat becomes our flesh and all the nourishments we take by a wonderful metamorphosis pass into our nature The union they contract with us is so great nothing can break it all the endeavours of men cannot dissolve it and it is easier for the cruelty of the Executioner to bray the chains that fasten the soul to the body then to unravel those links that doe consubstantiate the food with him that hath disgested it Being changed into his substance and blended with all the parts that compose him the inquisition must search for it in his Arteries and break his very bones to extract it with the marrow Love also that takes pleasure to imitate nature hath found out no more powerful means to unite lovers together when one of them hath bid farewel to the world then in making the
their affections upon the supream good and seeking their felicity in God say with David Mihi autem adhaerere Deo bonum est 'T is in this point properly that holinesse consists he that wisheth any thing else is blind or wretched and he that wasts himself with other desires is not yet fully informed that the supream good is the end and rest of the Christian Therefore is it that Saint Augustine speaking to his Auditors uttered these notable words Let us be grieved to see men distracted with the diversity of their desires Let us see their different conditions which arise from the difference of their designs Let some take arms and seek for Glory in the mouth of Danger hazard their lives to get themselves a Name and place their happinesse in killing and slaying Let others more harmlesse but not lesse ambitious plead at the Barr gain reputation in defending Innocence and aspire to the Glory of Orators being not able to purchase that of Conquerors Let others more humble but not lesse interessed hold commerce and Traffique with Strangers passe the Seas to content their Avarice descend into the bowels of the Earth to dig out Treasures Let others more Innocent but not lesse miserable till the ground master barrenness by their laborious Improvement and at the years end reap a rich and plentifull harvest Let all these different Conditions divide the heap of perishable Goods between them but let Beleevers instructed in a better School protest that God is their portion and that now and for ever they will have no other Inheritance These last words insinuate to us the last circumstance of Holiness which is not true if it be not Constant and pertinent A little to clear this Truth we must know there is no Christian that is not united to God the Character he received in his Baptism is a mark of his dependance Faith which he retains with sin is a sacred tye fastning him to Jesus Christ and gives him the honour to be a member of his Body Charity is a perfect Bond compleating what the others have begun which knits him so close to his Head that their Good and Evill are indivisible But if the Christian intend to be Holy Perseverance must second Charity and this faithfull vertue link them so constantly to the son of God that nothing can separate them Many heard his words admired his miracles loved his person who because they fell off attained not to that excellent title of Saints 'T is this last Condition which Crownes Holinesse the ultimate Character distinguishing the Elect from the Reprobate Finally Absque perseverantia nec qui pugnat victoriam nec palmā victor consequitur Bernard 't is this glorious mark that finisheth our salvation and begins our Beatitude It depends absolutely upon the good pleasure of God and as he refuseth it not without Justice neither does he indulge it but out of exceeding mercy It fixeth our will without constraining it renders it immoveable without taking away its liberty and gives it so much force that it equally triumphs over Griefs that astonish us and pleasures that corrupt us He that hath not this Grace cannot complain nor can he persevere He cannot complain because God denies it not but to his sin nor is his Reprobation founded upon any thing but his Infidelity He cannot persevere because this assistance depends not upon his Merit It being the immutable Decree of Gods good will and pleasure which makes men Saints and blessed It is by vertue of this Eternal ordinance that they resist temptations ouer-rule Tyrants and vanquish Devils 'T is by vertue of this internall Grace that they defie all Creatures and say with Saint Paul That nothing can separate them from Jesus Christ I am sure saith that Great Apostle that Death with his terrors Life with its charms Angels with their beauties Devils with their deformities Things present with their allurements Things future with their promises Heaven with its glory Hell with its torment can never separate me from the love of God And indeed how should they saith St Augustine because Death though never so hideous leads us to Him Life is found in his possession Angels and Devils are the Ministers of his Justice or of his mercy Things present are false Things to come uncertain Hell with God would be my Happinesse and Paradise without him my Torment Or if we will take this passage another way let us say again with Saint Augustine That nothing can separate us from Jesus Christ Not Death because there is none so dismall as to be deprived of his Love Not the Angels because being united to him we are stronger then all Spirits combined together Not the vexations of life because they are sweet when undergone for his Honour and serve only to give us a nearer conjunction to his person Not things to come because nothing can be bestowed nor promised which can countervail him Not Heaven because it is the recompence of those that serve him Not Hell because it is made for none but those that forsake him From all this Discourse it is easie to judge that the perfect Christian is a Saint that he ought to be wholly unbottomed from all things and so closely united to Jesus Christ that nothing can remove him But 't is easie to judge withall that we are at a great distance from Holiness because a small Interest a weak Temptation a shameful pleasure a light Injury separates us daily from him for whom we ought to sacrifice our Interests renounce our pleasures subdue our Temptations and forget our Injuries The Sixth DISCOURSE That the Christian is a Martyr THe condition of Christians would be very miserable did their vertue depend upon their Enemies and were they so streightened that they could not compass the Crown of Martyrdom but must be beholding to the Cruelty of Tyrants But the Peace of the Church hath her Martyrs as well as her Persecution Love is witty enough to exercise their Courage without employing the fury of Infidels Every Christian may without Impiety be his own Executioner and provided he live according to the Laws the son of God hath prescribed him will finde his punishment in his obedience All the vertues of Christianity will assist him in this designe Every Maxime of the Gospel will make a part in his Agony and having practised all that Jesus Christ commands or counsels he may boast though he be an unprofitable servant he ceaseth not to be a faithful Martyr For if it be true that the Cause and the Punishment makes the Martyrs we must confess that all they that live according to the Laws of Christianity may lawfully pretend to this glorious quality because they suffer much and for the height of their happiness they suffer for the Son of God This last condition is so necessary that in the judgement of S. Augustine 't is not so much the Punishment as the Cause that makes the Martyr The Gally-slaves that tug at the Oar