God if you be wise I say again once more and I would say a thousand times to all Christians in particular ask often of God his Love if you will work your salvation pray the B. Virgin and other saints to intercede for you give great alms or many little ones that God may give you his love fast sometimes pray vertuous persons to beg it for you and renonce all that displeases him for if God be the object of our love in this life He will be the object of our vision fruition and felicity in the other Amen DISCOURS XIX OF THE LOVE OF NEIGHBOVRS NAture inclines and prompts all creatures to love their like It obliges us to will and also to do good to others and teaches us that we cannot deny them good offices or hate them without renouncing humanity Generosity will that we pardon our Enemies Invites us to do good to those that hurt us and to oblige them to repentance by our favours God to confirm men in this necessary love of others commanded it and made the legitimate love of their own selves the modell and Rule by which they were to regulate their love of others CHRIST in the Gospell confirms and renews the commandements of Love with a great Encomium He says The whole Law and the Prophets depend on them It is then one of our greatest Mat. 22. 40. obligations and debts to love our neighbors as our selves a debt which we must pay but cannot clear always pay and always owe Owe no man any thing but that you love one another says S. Pau. Rom. 38. S. Paul that is pay to every one what you owe so that you owe no more but know that you must pay them the debt of Charity and owe stil more Let us then see who is our neighbor that we may render to him this debt and in the second place how we must pay it to him 2. When a certain Lawyer in the Gospell made this Question who is my neighbor JESUS to instruct him proposed to him Luke 10. 30. this Parable A certain man went down from Hierusalem into Iericho and fell amongst theeves who robbed him wounded him and left him half dead And it happened that a certain Priest went down the same way and having looked upon him passed by In like manner also a Levit when he was near the place and saw him passed on But a certain Samaritan going in his way Came where he was and seeing him was moved with compassion And going to him bound up his wounds having powered into them oyl and wine and setting him upon his beast brought him to an Inn and took care of him Then JESUS demanded of the Lawyer which of These three was in his opinion neighbor to him that fell among the theeves The Lawer sayd he that shewed mercy to him And JESUS approv'd his answer saying go and do thou in like manner By which we see that CHRIST forced him to confess that not only the just not only friends not only jews as the Lawyer thought were neighbours but a Samaritan was neighbor to a Iew that is an enemy was neighbor to an enemy and Consequently every humane creature though Pagan Iew Turk or Heretick is our neighbour And this also is made evident by S. Paul who says that all the commandements Rom. 13 9. are comprized in this word Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy self for if any man whatsoever should not be comprehended under the notion of a neighbor he would not sin against the precept of loving his neighbor who should steal his goods kill him or bear fals witness against him which contradicts expresly the doctrine of the Apostle We are then oblig'd by this precept to love every man be he a friend or an enemy a relation or a stranger a faithfull person or an infidell as we love our selves 3. But when do we love truly our own selves When we love God truly for as S. Austin most judiciously does note no body loves himself unless he loves God and again speaking upon these Ep. 95. ad Innocent Papam words Peter lovest thou me t is most strange says he but very true that he that loves himself if he loves not God does not love himself and he that loves well God and loves not himself truly loves himself For we cannot love God as we ought but at Aug. Tract 51. in Ioan. sub med the same time we repair or preserve our Spiritual life and procure our Soveraign good nor can we fail in this love but we deprive our selves of those goods and truly hate our selves If then we love our neighbors as our selves we must make them to love God if they be unfaithfull we must convert them if sinners correct them and as much as in us lyes make all to obey God to love him perfectly and serve him faithfully 4. But again when do we love well our selves when we make God and his service the But and End of our designes enterprizes and actions when our hearts are in this posture and disposition I will be wholy referr'd to God I will not be in this world but for him if I recreat my self this shal not be only to pass the time but to preserve my health for his service if I nourish children it is to the end they serve him if I gain money it is for a necessary Support of my self in the service of God and to give alms If I pursue an estate or office it is to have an occasion to serve God my neighbour and the Church therein So we should indeavour that our neighbor serve not God accidentally occasionally and secondarily that they make not themselves nor the advancement of their families their chief and principal intention nor the end of their studyes labours and indeavours but God his glory and his service 5. But again when do we truly love our selves We love not well our selves satisfying our senses and our passions taking ease and pleasures and seeking the felicities of this world for he that loves so his life shal lose it Says our Saviour But we love our selves truly when we content our selves with what is necessary and when we mortify our passions and sensualities and labour for grace and vertue in this life and for glory in the other So our love of others must not comply with their sensualities passions or defects but must seperate what is hurtfull and procure them what is good and necessary in this life and what may better them for the other 6. But once more when do we truly love our selves When we love our souls more then all things of this world more then ease pleasure riches honor or life it self and chuse to live in pain and labor in poverty and misery in disgrace and infamy and to lose our life rather than hazzard our salvation or hurt in the least our souls for what does it profit a man says the Son of Mathew 16. 26. God
if he gain the whole world and sustain the damage of his Soul And so if we will be good Christians we ought to love our Neighbors there is nothing that we ought not to lose pleasure riches honor and also if need be life it self for the Salvation of our neigbors And this the beloved Disciple and faithfull Interpreter of his Master teaches us in these clear words In this we know the Charity of God becaus He hath given his life for us and we ought also to give our life for our Brothers He does not say 1. Ep. 3. only that 't is expedient that it is a Salntary counsell but that we must give our lives for their salvation and to move us more He puts before our eyes the example of IESUS-CHRIST S Iohn 13. who made his love of us the rule of our love of others I give you a new commandement that you love one another as I have loved you And lest we should less note it He repeats it again in the Iohn 15. same Gospell This is my Precept that you love one another as I have loved you 7. Though this Vertue be so pleasing to God and so important to our Salvation nevertheless men fail in this the most and to say nothing of all those who live in hatred envie discord contention scandal which are the common pests of the world and the mortal ennemies of charity there are many who seem to have good intelligence who make mutuall visits complements offers of service Yet love but in word and tongue not in work and verity they will not open their purs nor use their power nor apply their pains and labor for the assistance of their neighbor in necessity 8. Others love their kindred and relations but with a natural inordinate and hurtfull love they procure them what is honourable or profitable upon earth though they put them into eminent danger of losing heaven they give them what pleases the senses and satisfys their foolish inclinations though to the prejudice of their souls and their salvation and if they see them desirous to renounce the world and to betake themselves to a vertuous cours of life they call upon them and to shew their love diswade them from it and recall them to the usuall and libertine cours of life so they seem to love but do truly hate to be good friends but are the worst of enemies and the maxim of our Savior is verefyd in them The enemies of a man are his domesticks Matt. 10 9. Others in fine extend their love beyond Relations but to those only from whom or by whose means they expect honor pleasure or profit This is an imperfect love a love of concupiscence and interest and not of charity which seeks not proper interest but loves God and in him or for him or for the love of him all others though they be our enemies becaus they are his images redem'd by the precious blood of IESUS capable to know serve and possess him and becaus it is his Will intimated to us by this general precept to love our neighbors and particularly commanded in S. Matthew I say to you love Mat. 5. 44. your enemies do good to them that hate you pray for them that persecute and calumniate you that you may be children of your Father 10. But the first and most necessary effect of this good will and love which is exacted of us for our ennemies is to pardon them for this is the first mercy and charity that we can doe them and the most necessary alms we can bestow upon them What good can we do them if first we do not pardon them but keep in our hearts odium enmity bitterness and a desire to take reveng of them Wherefore the Son of God who endeavours by all means our Salvation does not only command this charity and mercy but moreover obliges us to it by other pressing motives He promises us his greatest mercy which is the pardon of our sins if we pardon others dimittite dimittemini and he assures us that his Father will treat us most rigorously if we do not Sic Pater meus celestis faciet vobis so my heavenly Father will cast you into the prison of hell if you forgive not others from your hearts And S. Iames tells us judgement Iames 2. 13. without mercy shal be donâ— to them who shal not have don mercy S. Austin praying for the soul of his deceased Mother sayd I know that she led a holy and innocent life but woe to a laudable life if you examin it without mercy Whatsoever life you lead woe to you woe to you if you have enmitie you shal be judged without mercy and woe to a laudable life if judged without mercy What laudable thing do you You pray woe if you have bitterness woe to you notwithstanding your prayer for that he Psal 11â— remembred not to do mercy let his prayer be turn'd into sin says the Psalmist Your prayer condemns you saying our Lords prayer you demand Vengeance against your self you say I pardon such a person but I will not speak to him I will not that he com into my house and after this you say forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us God will hear you He will not speak to you favourably nor admit you into his house and if you be not admitted into heaven whether shal you go What laudable action do you you give alms woe to you if you have malice woe to you notwithstanding your alms S. Paul says if you should give all your goods to the poor if you 1. Cor. 13 have not charity you are nothing and by charity in this place he understands the love of neigbours What vertuous action do you you fast woe to you notwithstanding your fast if you have dissention In Isaiah the Iews Isay 58. 3 complain'd to God We have fasted and you have not regarded us God answers them with all your fasts you do your wills you press your poor debtours you have debates and contentions What laudable thing perform you Sacrifice woe to you if you have malice God says by Osee and twice in the Gospell I love and will rather mercy then your sacrifice And therefore many Osee 6. great Saints offering to God the most meritorious sacrifice that can be offer'd to him the sacrifice of their lives have interrupted it to obey this Commandement of mercy in the hour of their death when they had time little enough to elevate themselves to God to offer and to unite themselves to him they remembred their enemies pray'd for them and desired their good 11. These heroical vertues of the Saints were extracts and copies of those which we admire in IESUS-CHRIST the King of Martyrs and the Saint of Saints He being unjustly and most cruelly nailed to the Cross mock'd blasphem'd did not do as some do they think that they exercise great acts
makes our neighbor often lose his life honour temporall goods and sometimes also his spirituall To handle this subject fully and to make it more universall we will consider three sins or falsities which oppose this commandement falsities of heart which are rash judgments falsities of mouth which are lyes falsities of workes or actions which are cheats or impostures 1. An Ancient sayd that there is no art nor occupation of which so many make profession as that of Phisitians so soon as you complain of the toothake collick or gravel you will find fourty who prescribe you remedies all as they think very effectual all or the most part in effect very unprofitable that Ancient had hitt better yet had he saâ—d that 't is the office of a judg that all the world will exercise there is nither vertuous nor vicious person that is not often tempted to judg the actions of their neighbour and the Son of God forbids it when he says Will not to S. Iohn 7. 24. judg according to the exteriour appearance In which words our Saviour expresses 3. circumstances which are necessary to make rash judgment a mortal sin in a matter of importance 2. In the first place 't is necessary that a judgment be voluntary and deliberate for if it be but a thought and a promptitude which we renounce when we perceive it 't is not a sin IESUS sayd not do not judg but he sayd will not to judg It is not in our power not to judg by a sudden motion but 't is in our power not to consent to this judgment and to cast it out of our mind 3. In the second place 't is not a mortall sin when one judges not absolutely but doubts only of a thing makes not a form'd and fixt judgment but suspects only he says not in himself surely it is so but it may be so I fear lest it be so And IESUS did not say suspect not He nevertheless who should suspect voluntarily of a Prelate or such like persons an evill of great importance I know not if one may excuse him from a mortal sin 4. In the third place 't is not a mortall sin nor also often venial when you judg of that which cannot be palliared nor excused by any reason if you see a man kill his neighbor to do ill with a married woman to blaspheme the holy name of God 't is not a rash judgment to thinke that he is a murtherer an adulterer a blasphemer but to judg upon weak appearances is contrary to the word of the Son of God judg not according to appeanance It is an evill effect which proceeds from divers causes and all bad and vicious 't is sometimes lightnes and emptines of spirit when one hath not good entertainments within himself nor in his own house he seeks entertainments without himself wanders about in companies cannot be mute in them tells newes heares other knowes not enough invents more 5. An Ancient in Plautus compares them to waspes which make no hony buzz inceslantly fly up and down upon Altars Miters Crownes and leave nothing but filth upon them so those Idlebees droanes and lazie people who know not how to employ themselves pass their time in judging and detracting Prelats Kings Iudges Priests Religions and since they are light and shallow they believe easily all that comes into their mind with never so little appearance be it good or evill 6. S Paul teaches us another cause of rash judgments the defect of charity 'T is becaus you have in your heart some secret envy bitterness or aversion from your neighbour Charity thinks not ill says the Apostle there needs no other proof of it than experience If a personne that you love well did the actions which you censure in your enemy or corrival you would not judg them criminall as you do those of others you would interpret them in a good sense As he that looks through a red glass all that he sees seems to him red so you judg the actions of your neighbor according to the passion of love or hatred you have for him We believe easily what we desire and see willingly says S. Thomas You have no repugnance but great inclination to believe the vice of your neighbor becaus you wish him ill becaus you are subject to the crimes and imperfections which you imagin to be in him The foole conceives that all others are like himself says the holy Ghost by the mouth of the wise man Eccl. 10. 15. And again the heart of a wise man is in his right side and that of a fool in the left It is certen that all men have the heart in the same place but He does signify that a vertuous man judges in good part the actious of all men the ill man measures every one by his own ell he makes sinister judgements of the most part of men the Bee drawes hony from the most bitter flowers the cantharides makes poyson of the most sweet the same raine falling upon a Vine is changed into pleasant and wholsome wine â—t watering hemlock is changed into mortall poison a good stomack makes good blood of the grossest meats a bad stomack makes peccant humours of the best nourishment 7. And from thence comes the bad effects which these rash judgments produce against God our neighbors and our selves 'T is to usurp the office of the Son of God and to do him injury since the Father hath given to him all judgment Note all Iohn 5. 22. Rom. 14. 4 S. Paul looking upon it as a horrible usurpation cryes-out Who art thou that juggest another mans servant To his own Lord he stands or falls 'T is likewise to be injurious to our neighbor For 't is detraction and injustice to ruine his reputation though it be in the opinion of one man only but when you judg ill of your neighbour upon weake conjectures you ruine his reputation in your self you do to another that which you would not have don to you you do as the Pharisee who disdain'd another only within himself and the Son of God reprehends him for it In fine you do not only injure God and your neighbour by rash judgments but you hurt much also your own self for they fill you with pride vanity iealousy suspicion unquietness and contempt of your neighbour 8. S. Bernard gives us for a remedy of these judgments a most salutary advice If you see your neighbor to do ill think perhaps he does it with a good intention or out of ignorance or through great weakness and without malice or that he was surprized but if the action be so black that it admits none of these excuses think it was à very strong and violent temptation that made him fall and say within your self if God had permitted the like to have assaulted me perhaps J had yielded to it as well as he perhaps he hath many great vertues which counterbalance the fault which he committed perhaps
than Tyrants 257 they censure althings 259 Confirmation obliges us to endure their censures and derisions 259 D Detraction defined 234. T is a mortal sin in a matter of importance 234. 'T is a greater sin than Robbery 235. It kills also the hearers if they oppose it not 335. It kills the Detracted by a triple murder 236. Remedies of detraction 237. E Eucharist containes really the Body and Blood of Christ Dise 44. It is compared to milk in its Production 268. In the manner it ought to be received 269. In the manner of its Operation 271. Communion in one kind defended 271. Examples move more than words 281. F Faith necessary to believe sins may be remitted 72. The Excellency and Necessity of it 88. Divers sorts of it 88. None suffices to salvation but living Faith 89. Many practise not according to their Faith 91. How a good Christian regulates his actions by Faith 91. Exhort to true Faith 92. Fasting necessary 148. The Lent was instituted by the Apostles 149. The motives to institute it 149. Objections against fasting solved 150. It s lawfullness demonstrated 153. Vertues that must accompany it 153. The ends and intentions we ought to have in it 154. Frauds are very common and pernicious 231. G God is necessarily One only 2. He is ineffable 2. Great in Nobility 3. In Power 3. In Wisdom 4. In Goodness 4. In justice 5. In indepedence 5. Documents from these Perfections 6. He is Father for divers reasons 8. He shews an infinite Power in Creating 9. Incomprehensible Wisdom in Governing 9. Ineffable Goodness in designing the Creatures to our service 10. We are obliged to thanke him for all the good He has don to them 11. Motives to Gratitude 11. Grace divided 113. What is actuall Grace 114. In how happy a state man was created and how he fell from it 114. How necessary Grace is and how freely given 115. We must distinguish carefully its motions from those of Nature 117. How they may be distinguished 118 We must be gratefull for it 118. We must not be proud when it had produced good in us but live in feare 118 Sanctifying or Habitual Grace What and how Excellent 113 241. H Heaven How great are the Goods of it 83. Four considerations to guess at their Greatness 84 motives and meanes to obtain them 86 Hell has divers significations 38 What it is to be damned 85 Hope stands with fear 95 What we ought to hope 95 of whom we ought to hope 97 Catholicks are not touched with the malediction of those that trust in men 97 who are subject to it 97 Relyance on our selves is caus of many inconveniences 97 We must hope with great Confidence 98 Exhor to confidence in our Lord 99 Holy Ghost why so called 60 Why called Gift 6 The necessity an excellency of this gift 62 We offend the holy Ghost in divers manners 6â— I Idolatry cannot be imputed to the Romane Church 169. She adores not Saints nor Relicks nor Images 170. 171. She prayes not Saints to give things desired 172. Builds not Temples Erects not Altars nor offers Sacrifice to them 172. 173. Images are not absolutely forbidden to be made but only to the end they may be adored 167. 168. Imitatours of the world reproved and their objections answered 211 212. Iudgment Particular and General 49. Reasons for a Generall Iudgment 50. This is a great Consolation to the Elect 52 Description of the general Iugdment Disc 10. What things will be therein Examined 57. Paraphrase of the Sentence of condemnation 58 Rash Iudgment Three Circumstances necessary to make it a mortal Sin 228 Causes of râ—sh Iudgment 22â— It s bad effects 229. Remedyes for it 330. L Love of God the most Excellent Vertue 100. It s necessity 101. It s necessary qualities 102 motives to love God 10â— Love of Neighbours very necessary vertue 107. Every reasonable Creature is our Neighbor 108. How we truly love our Selves and neighbors 108. 109. How ill this command is observ'd by many 110 The first and most necessary Effect of the love of our Ennemys is to pardon them 111 Motives to love and pardon them 111 112. Lyes of three Sorts 230 We ought not to speak an officious or Idle ly to save a man 231 Mass See Sacrifice M Matrimony a true Sacrement 303. A great One 304. Dutyes to which it Obligeth 305. Honour we owe to it 307. Merit Catholick Doctrine concerning it 12â— See good Works O Oathes Sometimes lawfull 181. Division and Description of them 181. 182. Conditions requisite to make them lawfull 182 183. We cannot Swear to confirm a palliated untruth 183 Divers bad causes of Swearing 185. Order a true Sacrament 298. It Confers to Priests two singular favours 299 300. P Parents Why God has not recommended to them in the Decalogue their duty in respect of children 198. They owe them Nourishment 198 Instruction 200. good Examples 201. correction 202 Exhort to educate well children 202. Penance Necessary 134 279 Conversions it makes 137 138 Two dangerous Errours concerning Penance into which we are apt to fall 138 Fruits of true Penance 140 means to obtain true Penance 140 Exhort to do Penance in the present time 136 Prayer Very necssary 141 What things are to be asked in Prayer 141 How we ought to pray 142 143 144 Excuses of indevout removed 146 R Religion Vertue may be practised in all Occasions and Times 175 The practise of it by the Vnderstanding 176 By the Will 176 by exteriour Actions 176 177 The practise of it in respect of Gods Attributes 177 It obliges us to honour God also in his Friends and Servants in Times and Places particularly consecrated to his service 177 Irreligion indevotion and irreverence reprehended 178 Exhort to honor God c. 178. Restitution must be perfect 224. 'T is absolutely necessary 224. All that concurr to an injury are obliged to it 225. It obliges always 225. Motives to avoyd injustice 225. Resurrection proved 79. the words of the article declared 80 We shal rise in the same Bodys but without defect 81 The Resurrection of the Elect and that of the Repâ—oâ—ate very different 81. Robbery defined and its definition explicated 222. It obliges to perfect Restitution 224 S Sacraments all instituted by Christ 238 He shews therein divine Perfections 239 They represent their effects very properly 240 They conferr sanctifying grace more or less according to the disposition of the Receiver 241 They give also auxiliary graces 242 Exhort to frequent them 242 Sacrifice in the new Law 273 T is very acceptaâ—le and glorious to God 275 greatly advantagious to men 276 Very beneficial to Souls in Purgatory 277 How to be offered 278. Salvation of men earnestly desired by God and the most important worke Epist to the Reader 'T is to be procured by the securest way 43. Satisfaction third Part of Penance must be made according to the multitude Enormity and diversity of our offences 283 We may satisfy the divine Iustice by all Crosses that befall us 28â— Motives to fly sin and to returne to God by true Penance 285 Scandal What properly 210 'T is sometimes a Word 211 Often Actions 211 Othertimes Omissions 213 What Actions are not to be omitted and what are to avoyd Scandal 214 Motives to avoyd it 215 Sin the greatest evill 245 248 In Christians t is far greater than io infidells 248 By sinnlng mortally we hazard Salvation 76 Carnal sins Contrary to mans nature and abominable to God 216 Species or Kinds of them 217 218 Individuums or particulars innumerable 219 Remedies of them 219. Sunday why instituted 189 How to be observed 189 190 Exhort to observe it well 191 T Tradition necessary to excuse Christians from observance of the Iews Sabbath 187 188 189 V Vnction of the Sick a true and proper Sacrament 292. It s Saving Effects 203. 294. 295. Dispositions requisite in the Receiver 296 297. Exhort to Charity 297. W Works of supererogation proved 121 good Works necessary to Salvation 122 123 Why God requires them 123 'T is necessary to be fruitfull in them 124 We must apply our Talents in them faithfully 124 Many Christianâ— lofe or abuse them 125. Exhort to practise good workes 127 We must not defer our Conversion and the practise of good Works Discours 22. FIN
for a scepter and thorns upon his head for a crown as if He were a king of the Theater To be decry'd and condemn'd as a blasphemer as a seducer as ambitious as sedicious as an Imposter What confusion greater then to be dragd through the streets of Hierusalem with hues and cries as a fool and as an extravagant person from Caiphas to Pilate from Pilate to Herod from Herod to the Pretory To be less esteem'd then Barrabbas a seditious person and a murtherer to be esteem'd more wicked more unworthy to live and more worthy of the cross then he What indignity more intollerable than to receive foule and fiâ—thy matters in token of vility and baseness not upon his garments or hands only but upon his most venerable and adorable face this indignity was so ignominious in Israel that if a child receiv'd it from his father he was to bear the confusion Numb 12. 14. of it at least seven daies To be short What greater contempt than to die not the death of Nobles nor with honourable persons not in private and in prison not in the night by torch light but the death of slaves with infamous persons in a high and publick place at mid-day in the sight of more than two hundred thousand persons 7. What shal I say of the punishments receiv'd in his sacred Body He suffered more horrible harsh and bitter torments than were ever suffer'd by any creature upon earth The Prophet Isaiah calls him by excellence the man of Paines Abel was murthered c. 33. 3. Zachary was stoned Isaiah sawed Lazarus covered with ulcers and not one of them is called the man of Paines We have heard of men to whom their vertues or their vices their birth or their condition have given honourable or shamefull Names But we have not heard but of IESUS-CHRIST only to whom Paine hath given a name He is the Man of Pains because He did bear all our paines He is the man of Paines becaus He suffered in all his members and He is the man of Pains becaus He was pierced through with Pains exposed Sacrificed and given wholy over to sufferances and Pains 8. But the sufferances in his soul will make appear yet better the Greatness of his Paine He sayd in the Garden my soul is sorrowfull to death It would seperate my soul and Body if I shoul not hinder it for to endure yet more To whatsoever part He casts his sight He sees objects of the greatest sorrow His soul is nail'd to a most hard Cross before his Body is Crucifyd and the Cross of his Soul is much more harsh and insupportable then that of his Body The three nails of this interiour cross are the injuries don to his Father the Commpassion of his Mother and the damnation of his brothers Philosophy teaches us that a paine is more sharp and bitter when 't is received in a power more pure and immaterial IESUS was pierced with paine not only in the inferior part of his soul but also in the superior which is wholy spiritual in the part in which He was blessed and his Beatitude also contributed to the increas of paine says S. Laurence Justinian He de tryumphali Christi Agone saw by the light of glory God face to face He knew clearly the Greatness of his Majesty the outrage and the injury that sin does him he loved him with a most ardent and excessive love and therefore He could not be but excessively afflicted seeing the Ocean of sins committed against that most high adorable and amiable Majesty The wounds of his Body were made by hands of Torterers hands indeed most cruell and inhumane Yet their activity had stil limits But the wounds of his heart were inflicted by the hand of love by the love which He had for his Father a love ineffable and incomprehensible If a soule that loved God well could have as much contrition as she would desire ô how would she pierce herself with sorow How willingly would she bathe herself in her tears ô how would she calcinate her poor heart JESUS had as much of sorrow as He desired and He desired as much of it as He had love for his Father his sorrow was equal with his love If He had seen but one only mortal sin committed against him whom He so loved He would have grieved infinitely ô how then was He afflicted when He saw so many so different and so enormous 9. The love which he had for his Mother was another nail that pierced his heart and which fastned him to this interior Cross He sees her present at all the Misteries of his bitter Passion He sees all the wonds of his Body united in her heart and we may say that his compassion was another Passion 10. He looks below His soul is sorrowfull He sees the torments of hell wherein so many shal be plunged notwithstanding his sufferances for them He sees that their wounds are incurable that they abuse his Blood death and merits and that after so many remedies they damne themselves for trifles and what He indured for them would serve but as oyle and sulphur to inflame the divine Justice to punish their ingratitude more rigorously 11. S. Austin wholy astonished at the sight of CHRISTS sufferance cry's out ô Son of God whither hath your humility descended whither hath your charity been inflamed whither hath your piety extended it self The Wiseman sayd that you have don every thing in number weight and measure But in this work of your Love You have observ'd neither number nor weight nor measure You have exceeded all hopes and desires You have made an excess that could not be imagined The Angells were astonished considering this wonder a God whipt a God cover'd with spittle the King of kings crown'd with thorns a God crucifyed for slaves a God pierced with sorrows for worms of the earth of whom He had no need and knowing that they would be ungratfull for so great a Benefit What transport what excess and if He were not God I might say with Pagans what folly of Love Gentibus stultitia 12. After a love so cordial undeserv'd and so excessive shal we not love him If the least slave had don the same for us He would be Master of our hearts and seeing a God hath don it shal He not be Qui non diligit Dominum Iesum Anathema sit 1. cor 16. 22. says S. Paul since JESUS suffer'd for us if any one love him not let him be Anathema Curs'd excommunicated and abhorred of all creatures But if any one should not love him and moreover be so ungratfull as to offend him what punishment would You wish him holy Apostle He adds it not nor can one wish him a pain so great as he deserves there should be a new hell to revenge an ingratitude so monstrous and enormous 13. For as S. Bernard sayd if Moses speaking to the Iews who had but a gross and imperfect Law who had
not been redeem'd by IESUS-CHRIST sayd to them Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy foul and with all thy forces what ought Christians to do after the Incarnation Redemption and Passion of our Saviour Ought they not to burn with love should they not if it were possible love JESUS above all their forces thoughts and activity of their hearts If I owe my self wholy to him for making me what shal I add now for repairing me and repairing me in such a manner 14. Let us love him then since He so loved us let 's not love him only in words and compliments let us not content our selves to say I honour much my Saviour I love him with all my heart But let us love him in worke and Verity in doing in giving and in suffering for him for so He loved us And since his goodness is so infinite and his love to us so excessive that He preferred us not only before Angells but also before himself it would be a horrible blindeness to preferr any other good before him it would be a strange folly to offend him to disoblige his goodness to lose his amity and his favour for honour pleasure profit or satisfaction of a Passion Do not so if you be wise Say rather with S. Austin all abundance all honour all felicity that is not you my God is but poverty vanity and misery say as S. Francis did my God You are my All Love him with all your heart since He his all your good love him with a sovereign love since He is sovereignly good love adore bless prayse glorify him now and ever Amen DISCOURS VII OF THE FIFTH ARTICLE He descended into Hell the third day He rose again from the dead IESUS appli'd himself so earnestly to our Salvation that whilst He was on earth He let not a moment pass without labouring for it And for this effect whilst his Body lay'd in grave He descended into Hell This world Hell signify's an inferiour and low place And therefore the holy Church makes use of it in divers occasions to signify divers inferiour places By this word she most often understands the place of everlasting damnation And so our Saviour called it in 1. Luke 36. S. Luk. where speaking of the unfortunate rich man says he was buried in hell Other times she uses this terme to signify Purgatory where they are who died in the grace of God but having not fully satisfyed the divine Iustice are further to be punished so in the Mass of the dead she prayes free ô Lord the souls of the faithfull departed from the paines of hell She makes use of it also to signify the place whither the souls of holy and just persons who were not subject to purgation or had duely satisfyd for their offences went before the death of the Saviour of the world expecting He should open them the gates of Heaven by his Passion 2. He descended not only by effect into these two last places making his power and goodness to appear by delivering the soules in them detained But in substance He descended into them his soul was really in those places and He honoured the soules that were in them and made them happy by his presence The third day he rose again from the dead He rose no sooner for to testify that He was truly dead and to fulfill the figure of Matt. 12. 40. him As Ionas was three days and three nights in the belly of a whale so shal be the Son of man in the bowells of the earth He would be three days subject to the law of death to teach us mystically that by his death and Passion He had satisfyd the three Persons of the B. Trinity for the sins committed in the three states of the world in the Law of nature in the Law of Moses and in the Law of grace And to shew us that his Passion was the cause of the delivery of the ancient Fathers out of hell of the Redemption of men on earth and of the reparation of the Angelical thrones in Heaven He rose again By which words the Apostles teach us that He S. Iohn 10. return'd to life by his own power He sayd also in the Gospell I have power to lay down my life and to take it up againe and in another place I will raise up my Body in three daies after death 3. I know well that S. Peter and S. Paul teach in many places that his Father raised Him up to life because this miracle S. Pater is an effâ—ct of the omnipotency of God which thô common Ast. c. 3. 26. and c. 5. 30. S. Paul in the 4. 8. and 10. to the Rom. Phil. 28. and 9. to all the 3. Persons of the B. Trinity yet is attributed commonly to the Father 'T is true then that He rose up by his own Power and 't is true also that the eternal Father raised him to the end He might shew his goodness both ro him and us 4. First to him that his Body might receive the Glory which He merited by his labors humiliations and sufferances For He humhled himself says the Apostle being obedient unto death for the which thing God hath exalted him Note exalted him for his Resurrection was not a simple return from death to life but an entrance into a glorious life That Body which He layd down passible and mortall He receives impassible and immortal that which was inglorious now is glorious which was infirm now is powerfull which was a natural Body now is becom a spiritual These are the excellent qualities which S. Paul attributes to every 1. cor 15. matt 13 43. glorifyd Body But that of Glory or clarity delights me most for the body of every saint shal shine by it as the sun fulgebunt justi sicut sol and nevertheless one shal differ from another in this Quality as much as he exceeded him here in good works or as S. Paul says as one starr differs in glory from another What glory then what admirable splendor what ravishing beauty was given to the adorable Body of JSUS in recompence of his merits And what satisfaction and felicity will it be to see it when our eyes shal be able to behold it as hereafter they shall be by their impassibility These four qualities belong to the Body of the Son of God as a body glorifyd But as a Body Deifyd as subsisting in the Divinity it hath yet a farr other Glory Jt hath a supereminent ineffable and incomprehensible Glory as we may see in the next Discours 5. Wherfore the Son of God thanks his Father for that He brought his soul out of hell and his Body out of the sepulcher and that He raised him up again Exaltabo te Domine quoniam suscepisti psal 29. me Eduxisti ab inferno animam meam And He esteems so much this favour that He exhorts us to thanke God to praise and glorify
most holy Spirit and the Son likewise is a most holy Spirit But they appropriate this name to him because his Emanation or Procession is so farr above our thoughts and our expressions that there is no language in the world that can express his Person for want of a proper name And becaus we are accustomed to call those things spirits of whose origin and manner of production we are ignorant So we call the wind spectres Angells and our souls spirits and we are likewise very ignorant in the production and procession of the holy Ghost 4. Secondly the Apostles appropriate this name to him because He proceeds from the Father and the Son as from one only Source and not as made or created nor as begotten but produced by the Will by an ineffable way which Divines term Spiration a breathing and impulse of the Will towards the thing beloved 5. Thirdly this name is appropriated to him becaus He is the Spirit of our spirit the Soul of our soul the Life of our life For He is given to the Souls of the just to animate and govern them He is not given so to a Bishop or a Priest in his ordination if he be in the state of sin He is not in him to sanctify him but to operate and act by him Hence it is that a Bishop or a Priest that is in sin and hath not grace gives nevertheless the grace of God by the Sacraments becaus he is the instrument of the holy Ghost as a penne gives to paper characters which it hath not becaus it is the instrument of rhe Writer 6. The Church moreover appropriated to this glorious and holy Spirit the name of Love and Charity becaus He is produced by the Will the authour of Love or by the mutual love and dilection of the eternal Father and the Son 7. From this second name which the Church attributes to the holy Ghost proceeds the third which is that of Gift Donum Dei Altissimi the Gift of the most high For that which is dō by pure love is dō freely and liberally and donation is a free and liberal action The two first names appropriated to the holy Ghost referr him to the Father and the Son but this of Gift relates him to Creatures that are capable to receive him and to enioy him as are men and Angells only and this Gift is the first the most necessary and the most excellent of all gifts that God ever gave or can give to us 8. He is the first and cause of all the rest for there is a great difference 'twixt the love of God and the love of men When we love any one 't is becaus we find in him some goodness some beauty or other Perfection Gods love supposes not its object in any creature but He puts it in them God begins not to love us with a love of Benevolence becaus we are good but we are good becaus He loves us so when the eternal Father gives us his only Son in the Incarnation He gave us first his Love and He gave not to us his Son but by his holy Spirit and by his Love He was conceived of the holy Ghost So God loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son 9. This Gift is so necessary that without it all the other Benefits profit very little the work of creation is appropriated to the Father the Incarnation to the Son the Sanctification to the holy Ghost the two first Benefits are unprofitable to us without the third In the creation God gave us Being He made and design'd for our service all the creatures of this world But our Saviour says to us What profit hath a man if He should gaine the whole world and lose himself and he will lose himself infallibly Luke 9. 25. if the holy Ghost sanctifys him not The Incarnation and the Death of the Son of God would not much availe us without the comming of this holy Spirit the torments of JESUS would have made him die and not have made us live He might have satisfyd without restoring us to grace a king offended by his Vassal may receive from him satisfaction and not receive him into favour nor restore him to his former state and to the priviledges which he had lost When I see the Saviour in the Crib or on the Cross I know not whether it be to satisfy only or moreover to restore us to the rights we lost by sin when He rises up again from death I know not whether it be for recompence of his death or to give us life When He ascends to Heaven I know not whether it be to give a convenient place ro his Body or to prepare also a place for us But when He sends the holy Ghost to sanctify us He ascertains us that we reenter into grace and that He applys to us his merits He hath sealed us and given the pledg of the Spirit in our 2. Cor. 1. 22. 1. Ep. 4. 13. hearts says S. Paul And the beloved Disciple In this we know that we abide in him and He in us becaus He of his Spirit hath given to us 10 What admirable favour and what incomparable grace that God vouchsafs to give us his Spirit Love divine and admirable Heart If one should give to a Philosopher the spirit of Aristotle or of Plato to an Orator the spirit of Cicero or Demostenes to a Phisitian the spirit of Hypocrates or of Galen and to a Divine the spirit of S. Thomas or of S. Augustin would not this be a singular favour God gives you not the spirit of Aristotle Cicero Hypocrates but his own Spirit the Spirit of Verity Wisdom and Sanctity When one hath the heart of a person one hath all If you be in the state of grace you have the heart of God for properly speaking the holy Ghost is the heart of God ô Father of mercies and Father of the miserable how deigne you to give them your heart T is that chosen souls are your treasure and you put your heart upon your treasure Quid retribuam Domino 11. What acknowledgment what satisfaction and what return can we make Love is not pay'd but by love nothing corresponds to a heart but another heart and what heart can correspond to the heart of God What love can answer his Would you not desire to be all heart Would you not wish to have as many millions of hearts as there are drops of water and grains of sand in the sea would you not referr apply and consecrate them to the love of God And what would this be compared to the heart of God which He hath given us It would be less than a grain of dust compared to all in Heaven and in Earth But He desires not so much He demands but only one but He will have it all He commands you to give it him Thou shalt love thy God with all thy heart and if you refuse it him He will damn you
ascertain'd testimony of God who cannot deceive or be deceived Habitual faith is when 't is permanent as a habit and remains in us ' til we lose it by infidelity Actual faith is when we exercise formally and expresly an act of beliefe upon a revealed Verity Implicite is when we believe not the Articles of Religion but confusedly in general and in gros as when we say I believe all that the Church believes Explicit is when we believe distinctly and in particular that there is one God in three Persons that the Son of God was made man and the like important verities Interior faith is when we believe in heart without making known by any signe whether we believe or no. Exteriour is when we make profession of our belief by words or by external and visible actions dead faith is when it is depriv'd of the love of God and of other vertues Living faith is when it is animated by charity and the practise of good works 6. Humane faith conduces not to justification nor consequently to salvation this the Apostle expressly teaches when he says By Ephes 2. 8. 2. Cor. 5. 2. grace you are saved through faith and that not of your selves for it is the gift of God And again we are not sufficient to think any thing of our selves but our sufficiency is of God 7. Habitual faith suffices not for an Adult or one that hath sufficient use of reason but he must believe actually the Mysteries of faith For he that coms to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of them that seek him says S. Paul And S. Heb. 11. Iohn .. 3. 18. Iohn He that does not believe is already judged He says not he that hath not faith but he that does not believe which expresses a formal act I sayd habitual faith suffices not one that hath sufficient use of reason for infants and such as have not the use of reason may be saved by habitual faith which they receive when they are spiritually regenerated by Baptisme For this habitual gift of faith and the other habitual and supernatural gifts of Hope and Charity which they then by the merits of CHRIST receive justify them makes them adoptive children of God heires of his kingdom and remains in them for these effects and to be the sources of correspondent acts when they shal com to the use of reason 8. Implicit faith suffices not to be saved It is not enough to say I believe all that the Church believes you are oblig'd to know and believe explicitly that there is one God in three Persons Father Son and holy Ghost Creatour Saviour Sanctifier the Incarnation of JESUS-CHRIST his Nativity Death Resurrection Ascension his comming to Judgment if any one committed to your care should be ignorant of these Misteries you would be more culpable then if you should permit them to work on Christmas day this being only against a precept of the Church that against a Commandement of God And for the same reason if others who do not particularly pertain to you should be ignorant of those mysteries you would offend against charity if you instruct them not more then if you should leave them in ignorance of their obligation to hear Mass on Easter day 9. Interior faith suffices not It is not enough to have a firm faith in our heart we must make a profession of it by our words Rom. 10. 10. and actions For with the heart we believe vnto justice but with the mouth Confession is made to sâlvation says S. Paul We receive body and soul and all from God we must acknowledg and honour him as He commands us though with the loss of all 1. Cor. 13. Galat. 5. 6. S. Iames. 2. 14. Matth. 7. 21 S. Matt. 25. 41. Aug. Lib. de Fide Oper. C. 15. Tom. 4. ◠med 10. Dead faith in fine suffices not for if a man hath all faith and have not charity he is nothing says S. Paul And in another place he assures us that the faith only which works by charity is that which profits and conduces to salvation S. Iames confutes largly dead faith and thus concludes You see then Brethren how that by works a man is justifyd and not by faith only Our Saviour himself declares it insufficient to salvation when He says Not every one that says Lord Lord which is not sayd without Faith but he that does the will of my Father shal enter into the kingdom of Heaven And in the same Gospell He blames those He sends into everlasting fire not becaus they believ'd not in him but becaus they did not good Works and this passage S. Austin also urges much against the Solifideans 11. Catholicks believe this but many among them fail in the practise of it What Christian works what supernatural works conformable to their faith and what works more perfect than those of Pagans do they Tbey labour to maintain themselves to nourish and provide for children and the Pagans did so They honor their Parents the Pagans respected also theirs they injure none and honest Pagans did not They love their Benefactors I will not say what Pagan but what Tyger does not They love their friends and such as do love them the Publicans or Pagans do they not the same and what reward shal you have sayd our Saviour You must do works conformable to your faith supernatural Matth. 5. 46. heroical and worthy of the recompence we pretend to 12. A good Christian acts not by natural inclination nor by humane reason nor by maxims of policie nor by temporal interest but hath faith for the Principle of his actions and for the Rule of his life He labours and gains money not for the love of it nor of any honour or pleasure he may get by it but for a necessary entertainment of himself in the service of God and to give Alms because faith teaches him to use it for these ends He nourishes and provides for children not because they are his but because they are Gods creatures his Images and the Members of JESUS-CHRIST He abstains from sensual delights and carnal pleasures not because a man is too noble and born to higher things than to be a slave to his body but because JESUS-CHRIST recommended it He does no injury to any not because he would have the repute of an honest man but becaus JESUS hath forbidden him He suffers injuries and affronts and pardons them not because it is the property of a great courage to contemne and look upon them as unworthy of his anger as a Lyon or an Elephant slights the cries of little dogs but because CHRIST commands us to pardon injuries to do good to those that hate and persecute us He serves faithfully his Master not becaus his Master nourishes him well and gives good wages but becaus God sayd by the mouth of S. Paul Servants render obedience to your Masters as to JESUS-CHRIST He gives alms to
as well as learn'd weak and sick as well as strong and healthy and in a word all the world may have by his Grace And because He desires that we bee perfect and wills that we be happy He commands us to love him 3. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God Vpon which S. Austin Quid mihi es miserere ut loquar Quid tibi sum ego ut amari te jubeas a me nisi faciam minaris ingentes miserias parva ne est ipsa miseria si non amem te O my God! have pity on me pardon me if I am bold to speak being but dust and ashes what is this to say that you command me to love you ought one to command a Vassal to love his Prince an Infant to love his Father a Spouse to love her Espouse a Creature to love the Creator are not you my Soveraign my Father my Espouse my All and my Creator Nevertheless you threaten me with great miseries if I love you not is there in the world a greater misery then not to love you is it not the misery of miseries to be depriv'd of your love You command me to love you what mercy 'T is too much honor to have the permission of it a Vassall would not dare say to his Prince Sr. I love you he may say I honor your Majesty I have much affection for your service but not I love you and I may say it to my God not only without temerity but with much merit He permits it He desires it He commands it 4. Nevertheless we have this misfortune among many others and which is not of the lesser that we often make more account of things which we ought to consider less You find many who say this day is the feast of S. Matthew to morrow Ember day or Easter is at hand we must hear Mass fast prepare our selves for communion You find very few that ever sayd in their lives we must make an Act of the love of God and nevertheless it is a commandement of God which obliges more stricly than those of the Church it is the first and greatest commandement it is an affirmative commadement Note affirmative the affirmative Precepts are those which command some action the negative are those which forbid to act to obey negative commandements we need not but abstain from acting to observe these commands Thou shalt not kill Thou shalt not swear Thou shalt not Steal there is no need to do any thing 't is enough to abstain from killing swearing robbing It is not so in the affirmative We fulfill them not by doing nothing but by practising Acts which they command Now the Commandement of loving God is affirmative which obliges to expresse and formal acts and without doubt obliges sometimes and men think not of it They employ every week half an hour at least in hearing Mass to obey the command of the Church 't is well don and if they did not they would offend God But how coms it to pass that they employ not half a quarter of an hour nither every week nor every month nor every year to make an act of the love of God to obey this commandement of God which our Saviour published with is own mouth thou shalt love thy God 5. Belive me and you will believe one that desires your salvation with all his heart resolve from this present to employ some little space of time in the exercise of the love of God and give it the qualities and conditions of true love els it is not Charity and loses its value and its merit The love of God must have at least three qualities It must be a love that is Soveraign Pure and Active 6. The love of God is a love of preference it will be a king or nothing it cannot live without reigning and it cannot reign but Soveraignly The Son of God says in the Gospell He that loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me Matthew 10. 37. and he that loves son or daughter above me is not worthy of me And to shew that we ought not only not prefer them before God but that we ought to postpose them much and to neglect them for him He says in S. Luke if any one com to me and hates not Luke 14. 26. S. Iohn 12. 25. his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters and his own life he cannot be my Disciple And in S. Iohn he that loves his life shal lose it and he that hates his life in this world does keep it to everlasting life S. Austin explicating these words sais they are to be understood of the love of preference which we ought to testify to our Savior Aug. trâ—ct 51. in Io. in occasion when his commandement is in opposition with the love of any Creature whatsoever that is Your heart ought to be in this disposition that in case you must lose your suit goods husband wife children honor life or commit a mortal sin you will chuse rather to lose all than commit it if you have not this sincere and cordial Will you have not the true love of God you are in the state of damnation if you die in it your process is wholy ended you are condemn'd and damn'd eternally 8. He that loves not God more than himself inverts the order of charity says S. Prosper he had reason to say inverts Is not this a horrible inversion perversion and a prodigious disorder to love a particular good more than the universall the stream more then the source the ray more then the sun the image more than the prototype the nothing more than the All the creature which is but dust and putrefaction more then the most high most excellent and infinite Majesty of the Creator 9. It is this disorder that makes that a mortal sin also in a thing which seems not to be of great importance does merit hell It seems very rigorous to damne one for stealing a crown but you must not only regard the value of a crown but that you make more account of a piece of a silver then of God himself since you will lose his amitie and Him for it 10. In the second place the love of God must be a pure and disinteressed love S. Paul says nor only that charity seeks the 1. Cor. 13. 5. the glory of God and his divine interests but that it seeks not its own interests Non quaerit quae sua sunt S. Thomas treating of this Verity concludes with all Divines that charity is not a mercenary love a love of profit and of interest but a free and disinteressed love a love of amity and benevolence a love by which we will good to God not for the love of our selves but for the love of him we love him not in regard of our profit but in regard of his goodness not becaus He does good to us or that He may do us good but becaus He
is good and deserves to be loved for God is so good great holy powerfull and worthy to be loved that if He did desire it we should sacrifice our selves for his service though there were neither heaven for those that love him nor hell for those that love him not 11. We should do as the blessed Spirits do it is IESUS that gives the Counsel putting these words into our mouths Your will be don in earth as it is in heaven that is as the Angells do it they do the will of God and obey his Orders with a free pure and disinteressed love all that they pretend is to obey God to do his will all the recompence that they passionately desire is to receive new Orders to be employd again in his service purely for the love of him 12 This is not sayd that a faithfull soul may not hope and keep the commandements for reward or retribution as the Prophet says he did But that it be not the principal yet less the only aime of our love for as S. Bernard says perfect love of God intends no recompence but merits much The loving soul receives from the hands of God ineffable and incomprehensible goods but though she should not though there should be no Paradise nor reward she would not omit to love God serve him and to be pleasing to him and if she practises vertue for reward the reward which she desires is the increase of her love if she is glad to merit to be higher in heaven this is not to have there more of honor and glory but it is to have more of love if I merit much says she I shal see God more clearly and perfectly in heaven I shal glorify him more excellently I shal praise him more advantagiously I shal be united to him more strictly and intimatly I shal love him more ardently and so love is the true salary of love 13. In fine your love must not be idle and paralitick but active to render service to God and to do good works for his glory Charity works great things where it is and where it works not there it is not says S. Gregory S. Iohn 14. 23. 1. Ep. 3. 18. Psai 96. 10. He that loves me will keep my word says IESUS My little children says his beloved Disciple let us not love in word and tongue only but in work and veritie and the Royal Prophet You that love our Lord hate ye evill he says not only commit not evill but hate it He says not hate it in your self but absolutely hate it If you love God you will hate sin wheresoever it is found you will destroy it in your self and in your neighbor also if if you can if one should say I abuse not my friend but is not sorry that another does nor hinders him when he can may one truly say he loves him Let us conclude with a reflexion upon these words of JESUS I Came to cast fire upon the earth and what desire I but that it be inflam'd Luke 12. 49. And does He not move solicit and stir up our hearts to this fire and flame of love by all possible wayes 14. He prevents us with great love He lou'd us more than riches He was made poor for us more than honours He suffered a thousand infamies more than his ease and pleasure He led a life in pain and labor more than his body He depriu'd it of glory and of life more than the Angells He redeem'd them not And though we are so ungratful and unworthy as not to return love for love He tryes yet other means 15. He heaps Benefits upon us and makes us presents to engage our mercenary hearts He practises the counsel He gives us by the Wiseman and by his Apostle Give meat and drink to your enemy Prov. 25. 21. Rom. 12. 20. when he hath need and you shal heap upon him burning coales to heat his love to you so many prosperities that are sent you so many morcells of bread you eate so many creatures that serve you are so many burning coales He heaps upon you to heat your love so many presents He makes you to gain your affection so many baits he laies to catch your heart Et si parva sunt ista adiiciet majora And if it seems to you that all this is too little and that your heart is yet worth more He assures you that all the favours whiich he hath don you and which he does you yet every day are not but gages and pledges of the great Goods He hath prepar'd and promis'd you if you love him Neither eye hath seen nor eare hath heard 1. Cor 2. 9 nor the heart of man can comprehend the things which God hath prepar'd for them that love him says S. Paul 16. But since we esteem not these promises enough and are like those Israelites who contemn'd she desirable land He lifts up his hand He commands us ro love him and threatens punishments if we do not Is not this to be extremly desirous of our love to put as it were a dagger to our throats and say to us love me J will kill you if you will not He does not only say it but he does it he damnes us eternaly if we love him not 17. And when He sees that fear of future punishments doe not sufficiently move our hearts He sends us sometimes afflictions to force our love He takes away all you love in this world becaus you love not well that which ought to be loved above all things He removes from you all that may amuse and employ your heart that it may be in a manner forced for want of other object to unite it self to Him ô great God what can you do more to have this heart which you so passionately desire you besige it on all sides and it renders not neither the preventions of your love nor the attractives of your benefits nor your promises of paradise nor your strict commands nor threats of hell nor constrains of afflictions can open this lockt heart Extremis morbis extrema remedia 18. When a passionate lover hath tryed all wayes and finds them unsuccesfull he coms to the last makes use of a charm composes a love potion JESUS makes use of this artifice to gain our affection He puts himself upon our Altars and into our Tabernacles there he is the charm of love They say that in a charm of love to render it more powerfull the Lover ought to mix with it some of his own substance some drops of his blood and JESUS puts all his blood into this potion not a part of his substance only but all his substance Body Soul and Divinity 19. What think you Judg you not that God ought to have your heart after so many pursuances do they not inflame you to beg that of God which is so necessary and which you cannot have of your own selves Aske it of God fervently humbly frequently aske it of
objection which the Catholicks de Ieiunio C. 1. 3. 13. cont Psychicos made against him who would have had them to keep three Lents the Apostles sayd they imposed no other Lent common to all then that in the time when CHRIST was taken from the Church his spouse by his death and Passion S. Hierome in Europe speaking of the Novelty of the Montanists says they observ'd three lents as if three Saviours had suffered but we observe but one of them according to the Tradition of the Apostles And the same holy Father writing to Marcella tels her the Ember dayes as well as the Lent were instituted by the Apostles In Asia S. Gregory of Nazianzen reprehending a Perfect named Epist 74 Celusius sayd to him you dispensing with your self from fasting do injury to the Lawes how will you keep humane lawes since you contemne divine 4. You wiâ—l not thinke the precept of fasting too severe if you consider the reasons which moved the Apostles to institute the Lent It was first to commemorate and honor the retreat and the penance of our Saviour in the desert to honor it I Rom. 8. 26. say by imitation according to our power For S. Paul says his servants must follow and imitate him to be one day with him In what must they follow and imitate him Not in preaching and in working miracles but in fasting or suffering for the love of him his Apostle declares it in these express words Let us shew that we are the Ministers or servants of God by our fasts our watchings our labors and other practises of 2. Cor. 6. 6. vertue Note in Fasts not in fasting once or twice a year as many do when they form some designe but many dayes as our Saviour hath given us example In the second place the Lent was instituted for the conversion of souls to purify our consciences from the ordure of sin by the practise of penance and by this sanctification to dispose us to receive worthily the Eucharist For the Prophet Ioel says fasting conduces much to a true conversion that it is one of the parts of penance convert your selves to me in fasting Ioel. 2. 14. The Lent is moreover fasted to make the anniversary funerall of our Saviours death But sorrow and funeralls are incompatible with good cheer for the holy Ghost distinguishes and opposes them to one another It is better says He to go to the house of mourning then to the house of banqueting 4. S. Paul tels us that many have their Belly for their God for this reason they are very eloquent and zealous to plead its cause they fight for their God with many arguments With some they would shew fasting to be superfluous or superstitious with others hurtfull or pernicious If you are predestinated will you not be saved say they without your fasting do you thinke God did expect your fasting to predestinate you Answer God did not expect our fasts but He foresaw them and other good workes for which He predestinated us to glory or this He did predestinate and this He does decree that by these means we shal obtaine that end not otherwise CHRIST fasted for you to deliver uou from this labor Why do you then afflict your selves in vain by fasting as if Christs fast did not suffice for your salvation without your little fasts Answer CHRIST also would be baptised and indeed for us not for himself and yet it follows not that I ought not to be baptized so though He fasted for me yet I ought to fast by his Example He suffered for us says S. Peter leaving us an example S. Peter 1. 2. Rom. 8. 17. that we may follow his footsteps and S. Paul if we suffer with Him we shal be also glorifyd with him Since you are resolv'd to fast why do you not chose rather to fast voluntarily than necessarily Have you not read in the Psalmist I will Sacrifice to you voluntarily Answer a fast commanded by the Church is better than that we take up by our own election for this proceeds out of one vertue to wit Temperance that from two Temperance and Obedience And if a commanded fast should proceed from obedience obly yet it would be so much better and more Excellent than the other how much the vertue of obedience is better than that of Temperance Obedience is I. Kings 15. 22. better than Victimes sayd Samuel to Saul And obedient Souls fast not as you suppose unvoluntarily with regret and sorrow but voluntarily with alacrity and gladness 5. The Epicurians and the Advocats of self love urge as they imagin yet more forcibly and to justify themselves make this remonstrance We must love our bodys as well as our souls for God created both and loves both and wills that we do love them But fasting and other austerities hinder sleep punish the body and weaken it prejudice health and shorten life and consequently by fasts and other austerities we act against the will of God the law of nature and are injurious to our selves Answer a fool according to his folly lest he seem to himself wise God Would have us to love our Body True but He wills us to love it truly and to love it truly is to procure it by the means of fasting prayer and other exercises of vertue true perfect and everlasting health What does it profit the flesh that You nourish it delicately if you nourish it for hell If you feed it so that it becoms the fuel of eternal fire would you not love it better if you curb it and afflict it here a little with hunger and with thirst to have it sound and glorious for all Eternity This is that which our Saviour says Qui amat animam suam perdet eam et qui odit in hoc mundo animam suam in vitam Eternam 1. Iohn 12. custodit eam He that loves this temporal life and therefore permits not his flesh to be molested nor afflicts it with fasting watching and other vertuous labors does not keep it to everlasting life Fasting hinders sleep I believe it and it was also instituted to hinder too much sleep that so you may have more time for prayer spiritual reading and other exercises of a Christian Fasting punishes and afflicts the body I doubt not of it if well practised And do you thinke it was instituted for other purpose than to punish it you will not then go to heaven if the way be not easy and pleasing to the flesh if it be not strew'd with flowers and sweet herbs And where then is the law of christianisme which is a law of mortification and of the Cross And what will becom of these words of our Saviour Strive to enter by the narrow gate You say fasting does prejudice health and shorten life The Church the Canon law good Phisitians and experience Quicqd Etc. legimus de Consecra dist 5. say quite the contrary the Church in the Collect of
perseverant In the first place blind to the motives of the Command It must propose no whyes no questions and no reasons All your why and all your reason ought to be the will of your Parents representing to you the will of God Be subject says S. Paul in all things pleasing not contradicting or murmuring Tit. 2. 9. Secondly your obedience ought to be amorous and to proceed out of a filial heart when you do the things commanded out of humane considerations out of servil fear or with a mercenary spirit you lose the fatte of your sacrifice the grace of your action and the merit of your good worke You must offer marrowie sacrifices you must obey your Superiours with a good will says S. Paul with a sincere and cordial affection acknowledging and honouring in them the soveraignity of God Thirdly your obedience must be perseverant it must continue to the end of your life 'T is true that Iustinian in his Institutes and after him other Lawyers have taught divers wayes by which a child may be emancipated But there is no civil Law nor humane power that can free a child from the obligation he hath by this commandement and by the Law of nature to honor and obey his Father and Mother unto the last moment of his life Wherefore Venerable Tobias thinking that Tob. 4. 4. he should die amongst other admonitions which he gave his Son sayd to him with great tendernes Thou shalt honor thy mother all the days of her life Is it not then deplorable to see children who during their minority are humble respectfull and obedient to their parents But being becom men or women married and elevated to offices when they thinke they have no more need of them forget and neglect disdain and contemn them our Saviour does not so He being elevated to the Throne of glory to the right hand of the Father adored by all the celestial Powers forgets not his mother He honors her more than ever accomplishes her desires favours and assists those who honor and invocate her and works more miracles for the honor of her than for the honor of his own Body there is no Kingdom Nation or Province in the Catholick world where there are Churches or Chappell 's consecrated to God in honor of the Virgin that God does not render famous by certaine miracles 6. In fine this Commandement obliges us to honor Parents by helping succouring and assisting them Wherefore Christ Matth. 15. S. Hierom and. S. Bede Tim. 5. 3. reprehended the Pharisees as transgressors of this Commandement for denying them this honor And the holy Fathers have truly noted that the word Honour in the Scriptures signifys not so much salutations and profers of services as giving alms and making presents Honour Widows that are truly Widows says S. Paul to his disciple Timothy that is nourish them with alms and recommending to him Priests Let them that rule well especially they Tim. 5. 17. that labor in word and doctrine be esteemed worthy of double honour that is of a greater recompence or reward than others 7. If then we will observe this Commandement we ought not to content our selves with Ceremonies we must not thinke it enough to say that we honor and respect our Parents but we must shew it them in effect We must recompence them says the holy Ghost by the mouth of Ecclesiasticus Them who brought us Ecclus. 7. 31. into the world who have loved us so long so cordially and effectually When then they are broken with old age think it not a burden to entertain them be not more voyd of reason than animals that have none you who are humane creatures and by your nature ought to have humanity you who are Christians and by this quality ought to have charity be not less charitable than storkes that nourish their parents in old age have not less piety then a pagan woman who depriv'd her child of nourishment to give it to her father say no more we have children we fear they will want we cannot nourish Parents without injuring our families For Divinity also teaches you to D. Tho. 2. 2. q. 26. ar 9. ad 3 m. Coloss 3. 21. let your children dye with famine to assist your Parents in extream necessity 8. To excite Children to acquit themselves worthily of these dutyes S. Paul proposes three motives to them The first is that by so doing they please God and we see this clearly by the benedictions which God bestows upon those that are respectfull and obedient But would you believe that God worked miracles also amongst Infidells to approve this piety of children Aristotle in the book of the wonders of the world and in the abridgment of Philosophy which he sent to Alexander the Great reports that a raging fire devided and gave passage to a young man that retarded his flight and neglected his own life to save his aged father and reunited it self upon those that ran before them 9. On the contrary the impiety of a child is so abominable in the sight of God that in the ancâ—ent Testament He condemn'd him to death not only if he killed or beat but if he cursed them or was notably rebellious or disobedient Exod 21. 17. Deut. 21. 18. Ephs 6. 10 Secondly the holy Apostle tells us that it is just to honor them Consider I pray what languishings what faintings what loathings and incommodities your poor Mother suffered for you whilst She did bear you in her womb what paines what dangers and what feares of death she had in bringing you into the world what uneasy nights what toyles what vexations she had and what ordures cryes and importunities she suffered to nurse and nourish you Consider what cares what troubles what watches what journeys what suits what labours your poor Father hath embraced to get and keep a few goods for you God willing to afflict the son of Pharao sayd by Moses to this king I will send my plagues upon thy heart becaus a father and a mother love their children as their hearts you will be never able to return the tendernesses which they had for you when you were sick they were ill when you were contented they were joyfull when you discontented they sorrowfull and after so many testimonies of affection not to love them not to rejoyce them not to comfort and content them to the utmost of your power but to be the cause of their sorrow and affliction is not this to be more cruell than Tigers and more monstrous than monsters themselves 11. But if your duty and the strict obligations that you have to them do not touch you let at least the love of your own selves and your proper interest move you through hope of the promises which God hath made you He promises you long and happy life if you honor your Father and Mother S. Thomas says he that is gratefull for a benefit merits to have it continued Ephes. 6. and
cause by its effects the original by the copy such a Master such a man such Parents such children commonly speaking It is the gain of the Parents you will gain the affection and the praises of your children They will say after your death Thankes be to God who gave us Parents so exemplar vigilant and vertuous It is your gain you will gain Heaven for S. Paul says if a woman continue in faith and love in sanctification and sobriety and breed up her children in the same she shal obtain salvation 1. Tim. 2. 18. Amen DISCOVRS XXXIIII OF THE FIFTH COMMANDEMENT Thou shalt not kill THis Commandement forbids us to kill without legitimate Authority either our own selves or any humane creature either positively by putting the cause of death or negatively by not removing it if in our power To which the Son of God hath added But I say to you Whosoever shal be angry shal be in danger of judgment Nevertheless since our Saviour Matth. 5. is the perfect modell and Idea of the elect and that we see in the scripture He hath been sometimes angry It seems that imitation of him in this point is an action not permitted Mark 3. 5. only but vertuous and meritorious To clear this point in which the difficulty of this commandement consists and to make this discours beneficial We will see first whether or no there was any anger in IESUS-CHRIST Secondly the difference of his and ours and thirdly the remedies of ours Lord rebuke me not in thy fury nor chastise me in thy anger says the Royal Prophet Our Saviour IESUS-CHRIST is He transported with fury Is He subject to any passion as to Psal 6. make his blood boil his eyes sparkle his mouth froth to set his face on fire and afterwards to make it pale to disorder his soul in her functions and to deprive her of her empire and command for these are the proper effects and symtoms of anger which made the Stoicks after many disputes upon this subject say a wise man is not subject to these passions It is certaine that in our Saviour as he is God there is no such Passion for his Divinity being most pure simple and invariable cannot be subject to these transports and alterations 3. Nevertheless the holy Ghost in the Scripture to condescend to our infirmity and to accommodate himself to our manner of speaking and understanding attributes to God many things which pertain not to him properly but only by Analogy and likeness to that which is seen in creatures so He attributes to him anger which is no other thing in him than his justice which is called anger becaus it hath the same effect as anger but not the weakness and imperfection of anger He that is angry revenges the injury receiv'd but with transport and commotion God by his justice punishes sin but with tranquillity without passion Thou judgest with Wisd 12. 18. tranquillity says the holy Ghost in the book of Wisdom 4. But if we consider JESUS-CHRIST as man I will say with Divines that the passions love hatred choler and joy sorrow desire and fear being appurtinances to humane nature certainly were in IESUS-CHRIST as man But without the imperfections wherewith original sin hath soiled them which hath made them in us strong and vigorous and to revolt continually The Passions of IESUS were not such He had absolute command over them they were perfections natural organs and instruments which He apply'd to holy uses Wherefore the Saints dared not call them simply Passions but Propassions to signify that in this holy Soul there were some dispositions which held the place of passions and therefore are called propassions as the Pronounes are so called becaus they hold the place of Nounes So the sacred Historians recount that IESUS entring into the Temple raised in himself anger ouverthrew the tables of the Marchands and chased them out as doggs May we imitate him in this Is it good to raise anger in our selves ought we not to confess it We need not absolutely speaking 't is neither vice nor imperfection but a good action and a vertue to raise anger provided it be seasoned with all necessary circumstances and like to that of IESUS But becaus we are commonly so frail and so imperfect that we know not how to use this knife without cutting our own selves all things well considered it is better to deprive our selves of it and not be angry 5. For the anger of JESUS was furnished with two conditions which commonly ours does want wherefore his was most vertuous and laudable ours vicious and reproachfull That of IESUS never prevented or surprized Him He had it not but when in what manner and so much as He would In in effect 't is sayd in the Gospell that He troubled himself and not that He was troubled S. Iohn 11. 13. S. Marke 14. 33. And again in the Vigill of his Passion He began to fear not before though He had a longtime the object present in his Spirit Anger did not prejudice the use of his reason it cast no darknes nor obscurity into his understanding it hindred him not to proceed most wisely and with entire circumspection in his actions His rod says Hieremiah is a watching rod which Hierom. 1. 11. hath open eyes to see where it strikes and how it strikes his anger is a zeal and not a passion most reasonable and most just Ours on the contrary is generally blind inconsiderate and rash It prevents the judgment and darkens reason and is the cause we know not what we do and that we do nothing that is good 6. All that you say or do in passion is never well sayd or well don and though you should speak golden sentences though you should do wonders they make no account of them they attribute them to your passion and not to you as they attribute to the liquor all that a man says or does in drink becaus they know a man drunk with liquor or with passion is uncapable to say or do any thing of worth So the Civil Laws I. Quocqd Si. de Reg Iur. 4. king 3. declare we ought not to regard what you say or do in the heat of passion if you persever not in it when your anger is allayed Eliseus finding himself moved by a just anger would not pronounce his Oracles and instruct the Kings but called a Musitian to appeas first the commotion by the gravity of his musick He knew well that a soul troubled with passion is uncapable Psal 106 27. S. Iames. 1. 20. of celestial lights And that anger of man works not the justice of God It belongs not but to IESUS and to his holy Mother to do a thing well in the heat of passion 7. Moreover there is a second difference of his and our anger His is never mixt with bitterness nor exercised with a desire of vengeance when He is angry and punishes us it is not out
more secure to go by the way of Innocencie than by the way penance to everlasting life Amen DISCOURS XLII of the Oblgations we contract in Baptisme I Will poure out upon you clean water and you shal be cleansed from all your contaminations I will give you a new heart and a new spirit sayd God by Ezechiel Which words the holy Fathers and the Interpreters of Scripure understand unanimously of Baptismal water He had reason to make this promise with so great pomp and majestie of words for if we cosider attentively we shal see that after the Incarnation of the Son of God and the Redemption of manking He never more oblig'd humane nature than by the institution of the Sacrament of Baptism which purges us from all sin makes us adoptive children of God members of IESUS CHRIST coheires of Heaven and Temples of the holy Ghost What honor what dignity and what admirable prerogatives They that are members of IESUS CHRIST and the children of God ought they not to lead a life conformable to this dignity thy that receiv'd the Spirit of God in Baptisme should they not act and speak according to this divine Spirit T is is that to which all Christians are oblig'd by Baptism It obliges them to die a morall and vertuous death and to lead a new life conformable to rhe excellencie of this birth as shal be shewn in this Discours 1. Before I proceed to the proofs of these important Points I explicate my self By the sin of the first man and by our own crimes we deserve to die effectually the death of soul and body and to be bâ—ried in hell eternally But the Son of God out of his infinite mercy to the end we might live and merit the crowns of heaven changes by Baptisme that horrible and eternall death into a morall and vertuous one He will that we die to sin to the world and to our selves To sin that is to all sorts of vices To rhe world and its pomps that is you must not set your heart upon the pride riches and passtimes thereof you must reject superfluities and content your self with necessaries and not according to the rules of the world but according to christian frugalitie modestie and humilitie To our selves this is that we call dying to the old Adam that is you must die to ill humours irregular passions vicious inclinations to the love of your own selves which we contracted by our carnal birth and extraction from the first man for by his sin our nature hath been so corrupted that if we follow it we have no other object of our thoughts words actions and affections than our selves and our own interests To all the aforesayd things we are oblig'd to die and see here the proofs of it 2. For when S. Paul says in the 6th chapter of his Epistle to the Romans that we are dead and buried with IESVS CHRIST Rom. 6. by Baptisme It is to prove what he would perswade us in the whole Chapter that we are oblig'd to kill in our selves sin with all its appurtenances and for ever so he says since we are dead to sin how shal we live therein We know that by Baptisme our old Rom. 6 man hath been crucifyd with IESUS CHRIST that the body of sin and the mass of evill inclinations may be destroyed And to the Galatians they that pertain to Christ have crucified their flesh with its vices and Gal. 5. concupiscences Can we be good Christians and not appertain to IESUS Nevertheless the Apostle of JESUS says that we appertain not to him if we crucify not our flesh He says not they that appertain to him in the quality of Religious or Priests But all they that appertain to IESUS CHRIST Crucify their flesh And S. Chrisostome Baptisme is to us that which the Cross and Sepulcher was to IESUS 24. hom 10. in ep Rom. C. 6. it ought to have in us the same effects it ought to crucify us to make us die and to hide us from the world 3. It imports much to note what is the Grace of each Sacrament and what charg it puts upon us for each sacrament conferrs a special grace and to this grace some charg is annexed to which we oblige our selves T is a Talent given us with a strict obligation to employ it The grace of Confirmation is a spirit of Fortitude which obliges us to make profession of the Faith in Presence of Tyrants also with perill of our lives The grace of Confession is a spirit of Penance which obliges us to satisfactory workes to fasts alms prayers and other actions which S. Iohn Baptist terms Fruits worthy of penance the grace of Baptime is a spirit of the Cross and death which obliges us to die to sin to the world and to our selves if then we have any voluntary affection to the Pomps of the world to the delights of the flesh to the satisfaction of unruly passions if we are wedded to our own conduct to our proper judgment and not to that of our Superiours we are wanting to the grace of this Sacrament for we are baptized to be made Christians that is Disciples of Christ and He says to us expresly He that renounces Matth. 16. Luke 9. 23. not himself note himself his unbridled passions bad humours his own judgment and self love and carrys not his Cross daily cannot be my disciple 4. But this death is like to that of the Phenix which dies not but to acquire a new life 'T is as that of IESUS who was spoyled of a mortal and fading life to resume a glorious and immortal We die not to sin to the world and to our selves but to live to God and to his grace we are not crucifyd with IESUS CHRIST but to rise again to a new life we devest not our selves of the old man but to put on the new For we are buried by baptisme with IESUS to die to sin that as the Son of God is risen by the glory of his Father So also we may Rom. 6. Ephes. 4. 24. walk in newness of life says S. Paul to the Romans And to the Ephesians Put ye on the new man which according to God is created in justice and sanctity When the Apostle commends to us a new life he demands of us a great change and an admirable metamorphosis says S. Chrysostom Then he adds I have great S Chrysost hom 10. in ep ad Rom. 6. Gal. 5. 3. caus to groan and weep abundantly considering on the one side the great obligations we have contracted in Baptisme and seeing on the other our great negligence For as S. Paul in the Epistle to the Galatians says every man that circumcises himself engages himself to observe all the law of Moyses So whosoever receives Baptisme obliges himself to keep the law of Christ Now since Christian Religion is a profession of penance mortification sanctity and perfection these things are not indifferent to them that
depart out of this world they will remember your courtesie will returne you the like and receive you into the eternal Tabernacles Amen DISCOURS XLIX of Extreme Vnction AN Ancient being asked what is the touchstone of perfect amity He answered wisely that it is adversity a true friend does as the heart inclines always to the left side and places more affection where he sees more affliction IESUS then loves us with a sincere and cordial love since He instituted a Sacrament expressly to comfort us and to strengthen us in our last infirmity when honors dignities offices and riches fail us Though this Verity be assured us both by the greek and Latine Church as appears by the general Councel of Florence in the Instruction of the Armenians which was without contradiction admitted by the Grecians Nevertheless Dissenters endeavour to take from us this signal demonstration of Christs Providence and love and to deprive us of this powerfull help in time of our greatest need Wherefore in the first place I will shew yet farther that 't is a true and proper Sacrament in the second the effects of it and in the third the dispositions we ought to have to receive it 2. To evince the first I need no other proof then the clear words of S. Iames If any one be sick amongst you let him bring in the Priests of the Church and let them pray over him anoiling him Iames. 5. 4. with oyle in the name of our Lord. And the prayer of Faith shal save the sick and our Lord will alleviate him and if he be in sins they shal be remitted him Here we have all that Dissenters themselves require to the essence of a Sacrament to wit an exteriour signe or symbole a promise of Grace and divine institution The exteriour signe or Symbole is Vnction with oyle and the prayer of Faith the promise is Alleviation of the sick and remission of sins and the institution thereof is gathered from the constant and firme promise of the Apostle for he would not have promised so confidently and absolutely had not our Lord instituted and commanded it Innoc â—p ad Decentium c. 8. Hence S. Innocent says expressy and clearly that this Vnction is a Sacrament declared by S. Iames and therefore not given to them that are yet in penance since the other Sacraments are refused them This Testimony of antiquity shal suffice since the Epistle is certaine He an ancient learned holy man wonderfully commended by S. Austin S. Hierome and S. Chrysostome and never reprehended by any of the Ancient for teaching the Vnction of sick to be a Sacrament Wherefore the Magdeburgenses prove by this Testimony that Christians of the fift age had a custome to annoynt their Magdâ—bur Cent. 5. c. 6 S. Aug. in speculo et ser 215 Cyrysost lib. 3. de sacerd Origen hom Z. â—n Levit. sick But they did not hold it as a pious custome only but as a necessary duty for S. Austine S. Chysostome Origen and other Fathers expressly tell us that the words of S. Iames appertaine to us rhat Christians ought to do now and in all times what this Apostle writes concerning the infirme And you will avow they had grear reason if you consider with me the admirable and saving effects of this Sacrament which are naturally represented by the effects of olive oyle and exprest by the words of the Apostle 3. First he Says the Prayer of Faith shal save the sick This Sacrament saves his soul by giving grace and force to withstand the terrours and temptations of the ennemie in the hour of death For 't is then he plays his planks and applyes all his forces to tempr us more furiously as the holy Fathers tell us becaus he sees his time is short and that we are least able to resist when through the greatness of paines we can hardly lift up our minds to God Somtimes he sets upon us as a Lyon with violence Othertimes as a Dragon laying snares to entrap us he tempts us to infidelity suggesting apparent reasons against Faith to Presumption and to confidence in our selves or to despaire and diffidence in the mercy of God exagerating the rigour of his justice the grievousness and great number of our sins the little or no penance we have don he tempts us to impatience in the rigour or length of the disease to murmuration against God to fear and diffidence in his Providence T is then that Friends should ayde you powerfully by servent prayers T is then that Confessors should assist and especially the Poor for their souls are at least as dear and precious to JESUS as those of the Rich the rich have generally Domesticks or friends that can exhort them and that have leasure to help them to dye well the Poor have them not nor such provision of good thoughts instructions and spiritual arms as the Rich by the advantage of their education and their 1. Pet. 5. reading The infernal woolf who roves about seeking whom he may devour sleeps not in this occasion the Pastor then ought to be vigilant and present in a time of so great importance the gift of gifts the grace of graces the most precious and desirable is final perseverance with out this grace all the other benefits serve for nothing In effect what will it profit me to have been created redeemed and justifyed if I die not in the state of grace and this Sacrament disposes me to persever in it 4 In the second place the Apostle says that God will alleviate the sick persone or raise him up For this Sacrament restores health of body to those who otherwise should dye if it be necessary or profitable to the salvation of the soul as the holy Councel of Trent and before it that of Florence assembled from all parts of the world declare This makes many Catholicks subject to this reproach which the Scripture made to Asa king of Iuda Neither in his infirmity did he seek our Lord but rather trusted in the art of Phisicians There was not then in the Church a remedy instituted for the cure of infirmities as there is now nevertheless the Scripture complains that he made recours to Phisicians rather than to God how much more will He complain of them who recurr not to the Sacrament which JESUS hath left us a remedy so easy and so commodious but in the utmost extremity when they can do no more And when you expect the Agony to receive or make this Sacrament to be received you put your selves in danger to be prâ—vented by death which happens too often and the fault is irreparable moreover when you receive it so late having not the use of reason and knowing not what is don to you you receive it less fruitfully since you have not actual devotion which would dispose you to receive it more worthily answering to the prayers of the Priost ioyning yours with his exercising acts of Faith Hope Charity and of other vertues
Ghost descended visibly upon those that were confirm'd so JESUS assisted visibly in the marriage in Cana to make kown that He is always invisibly in the marriage of the Faithfull 'T is He that gives your wife to you 'T is He that gives your husband to you 'T is He that ioyns and associates you together This is not an airy conceit 't is a certen Verity since the Scripture teaches it in saying That which God hath ioyn'd let not man seperate Matt. 19. 6. 4. The Matter of this Sacrament is not a little water oyle balme or other inanimâ—te creature 'T is your Bodies sanctifyd by Baptisme and consecrated in Confirmation your Bodys the Members of JESUS CHRIST Temples of the holy Ghost are employd to make this Great Sacrament 5. In fine 't is Great in its Effects It conferrs very great graces and in great number if it be received worthily with the dipositions and sentiment of piety that it deserves The ancient Israelites had the liberty to repudiate their wives if they did not please them Poligamy was permitted them they had sacrifice and the water of Iealosy to try the fidelity of their wives All these things having not been tollerated but by condescendence to that rude people IESUS CHRIST abrogated them and in this rendred marriage much more burdensome and aggravated the yoke Now since his Law is a Law of grace and sweetness since He says his yoke is sweet and his burden light it concern'd Him to recompence and ease married Christians by the abundant graces which He gives them in this Sacrament Yes in vertue of this Sacrament God gives you in the rest of your daies in divers occasions most great and powerfull graces if you put no obstacle to resist temptations to conduct well your family to bring up your children in the fear of God to endure patiently each others imperfections and to support the other burdens and inconveniences of marriage and they depriue themselves of all these graces who marry in an ill state in the state of mortal sin 6. This Sacrament being a symbole and a representation of the marriage of Iesus with his Church must imitate and express it In consequence to the alliance of JESVS with his Church there is betwixt them mutual tradition and communication of Bodys of Spirit and of Fortune IESUS as the Espouse of the Church gives her his precious Body and takes ours He ioyns them to His and makes of them his Members The Calvinists say that IESUS CHRIST is not in the Eucharist they say true He is not in their Eucharist He gives not his body to their pretended Church He delivers not his precious flesh to any other but his Spouse 'T is only the Romane Church 't is this true and legitimate Spouse 't is this only one and well beloved that enioys this Priviledg infallibly only and perpetually 7. The Lawyer sayd and it is true that a wife ought to lege adversus Cod. de crimine explicatae hered enter into society with her husband not only in humane things but moreover in divine socia rei humanae divinae And IESUS contents not himself to give his humane body to the Church but gives his divine Spirit the holy Ghost and you know that the holy Ghost is love and charity by the propriety of his Persone and by the condition of his emanation S. Paul then hath reason to say Husbands love your wives as Christ also loved the Church and delivered himself for it that He might Sanctify it A husband then must love his wife as JESUS loves his Church with a sincere and cordial love speaking to her with an open heart communicating to her his designes associating her in his enterprizes as IESUS hath revealed to his Church all that Ho received from his Father and associated her to all his operations also to the production of grace A wife must love and also reverence or honor as the Apostle says her husband as the Church loves and honours IESUS CHRIST she must love and Ephes. 25 honor the parents and friends of her husband as the Church loves and honours the Virgin Mother of her Espouse S. Iames and other Saints his friends Husband and Wife must love mutually one another with a true and pure love not with an inordinate sensuall or worldly love as they do who procure each other what is honourable or profitable upon earth though with eminent danger of losing heaven who espouse the passions reveng the quarrells please the senses and satisfy the foolish and inordinate inclinations of each other to the great prejudice of their souls and their Salvation 8. Christ loved not so his Church He loved not so his Mother his Apostles Martyrs Confessors and other friends but loved them in order to everlasting life Wherefore if you will love well love as Christ hath loved us love in order to everlasting life cut off occasions of sin seek occasions to do each other good to make one another vertuous and procure by prayers exhortations and good examples the salvation of each other 9. S. Paul desires that the man be so holy and give so good example to his wife that he convert her if she be an infidell and that the wife in like manner by her holy conversation do sanctify her husband though he should be a pagan and idolater 1. Cor. 7. 14. This will never be don by dunning him with complaints reproaches invectives or with other outcryes but as S. Monica converted her husband enduring patiently his injuries supporting his inperfections never answering him when he was in anger speaking to him of God more by her good example than by her words shewing him to the end a sincere faithfull and constant love 10. IESUS CHRIST sayd to the persecutors of his Church why do you persecute me so much He participates in the afflictions of his Church The Church partakes also in the sufferances of IESUS she is sorrowfull afflicted mortifyd when she considers Him in his Death and Passion so all ought to be common amongst married persons good things and bad joy and sorrow pleasure and displeasure and this will much conduce to the honor of so great a Sacrament which S. Paul says is worthy of all respect 11. Honorabile Connubium in omnibus Marriage honourable in all This is not to say among all men as Dissenters translate Els Heb. 13. 4. the marriage of a Brother with his Sister would be honourable and that of those who have vowed continence to whom the same Apostle says 't is damnable But in all things that is in all its Parts Circumstances and Appurtenances Honor it in the intention you have to marry for if it be bad and vicious all the sequel will be corrupted will you know why God is not in the marriage of many T is becaus they married not for the love of him they married for carnal or fond love for sensuall pleasure through ambition to have this man who
eternally What horrible ingratitude is it to give ones heart to a Creature to a foolish passion to a shamefull pleasure and not to love God after a gift so precious to refuse him our poor little heart after He hath given us his What monstrous malice is it to offend the holy Ghost who is the end and the non plus ultra the Center and the consummation of all the liberalities and donations of God to us 12. His scripture teaches us that we offend Him in dlvers manners either resisting or in contristating or affronting him or by extinguishing him in our hearts S. Steven sayd to the Iews you resist always the holy Ghost When we feel an impuls to rise out of the state of sin and to convert our selves seriously Asts. 7 51. to God 't is the holy Ghost that knoâ—ks at the door of our hearts It seems that He makes it his imployment so assiduous He is to solicite us by his inspirations if we consent not to his summons we resist him When we have consented to him and He is entred into our hearts we contristate and afflict him if we commit voluntarily and deliberatly a venial sin All naughty speech let it not proceed out of your mouth and contristate not the holy Ghost sais the Apostle We affront him consenting to Eph. 4. mortal sin by which we chase him shamefully out of our hearts and admit into them the euill spirit his corrival and mortal ennemy Such an one hath don contumely to the Spirit of grace says Heb. 10. 29. the same Apostle We extinguish him in our hearts when we commit the sins which are directly and diametrically opposit to him as when we presume of the mercy of God and to have pardon of our sins without doing penance for them when we are sorry for the vertues of others which are the works of the holy Ghost or when we indeavour to destroy them mocking those that pray much that frequent the Sacraments that remaine long in the church or when we oppose the known truth or contradict it t is to extinguish in our selves the holy Spirit 't is to do contrary to this advertisement of S. Paul The Spirit extinguish not â— Thess 5. 19. 13. Since then the holy Spirit enters not into our hearts without our free consent nor without dispositions convenient for such a Guest since we are so obdurat rhat we refuse him entrance and that we have not only indisposition and indignity but opposition and contrariety to his grace and that when we have received him we are so weake and miserable that we often afflict him or affront him Let us pray him humbly and fervently to remove all these impediments to vanquish our rebellion to introduce into us by his mercy the necessary dispositions to open himself the door to enter victoriously into our souls to make them worthy sanctuaries where He may dwell in this world by his grace and in the other by his Glory Amen DISCOURS XII OF THE NINTH ARTICLE I belieue the holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints 1. THe Apostles by these Words make us to believe that CHRIST hath a true Church or Societie of faithfull people upon earth And they oblige us to submit to all that this Church proposes to be believed as a matter or an Article of Faith 2. This Submission is so necessary that unless we believe the Church we cannot reasonably belive any Point of Faith Nay we cannot so much as know what things are to be believed For we cannot be ascertained and assured but by the Church that they have been revealed Some will say that they are assured by the holy Scripture of what is revealed and learn in it what is to be believed 3. But how know they which is holy Scripture And how know they that the Gospells are the Word of God God never appeared to them to tell them this Book printed in such a place is my Word is my Scripture The Bible also says not I am holy Scripture And if also it should say so it should be in this suspected since it gives testimony of it self and another book might say I am the Word of God I am holy Scripture and we ought not to believe it They will say the Scripture is known by its own light to be divine or a light within them makes them see that 't is the Word of God 4. If this were so How could it com to pass that there should be hardly one book of Scripture that hath not been rejected The Marcionits rejected the five Books of Moses the Manicheans rejected the Prophets the Albigenses the Psalms and all the ancient Testament the Ebionites received but one of the four Gospells to wit the Gospell of S. Matthew the Cardonites admitted but one part of the Gospell of S. Luke Luther rejected the Book of Iob Ecclesiastes the Epistle to the Hebrews that of S. Iames and that of S. Iude the second of S. Peter the two last of S. Iohn and the Apocalyps all which books the Calvinists and our Protestants in England admit as holy Scripture How coms it that Protestants in England and in France do see divers books to be the Word of God which Protestants in Germany and other parts do not And How does the whole Catholick world admit divers bocks to be Canonical which Protestants reject as Apocryphal If there were any such light in the Books by which they discover themselves to be certainly divine or in men by which they see them to be the word of God all must necessarily see the same Books to be Canonical and all would acknowledg the Lib. cont Epist Fundamenti Cap. 5. same since the same Faith is necessary for all And S. Austin would not have sayd that He would not believe the Gospell if the authority of the Church did not move him to it for he would have seen them to be divine Must we not then necessarily believe the Church and learn of her which is holy Scripture And what is to be believed And since we have not the original of one only Canonical Book must we not believe the Church and trust her for a faithfull Copy 5 But suppose that God gave the Bible in English and that He sayd this Bible printed at London is his Scripture I say again that we must yet believe the Church and rely on her for the sense and meaning of it For S. Peter in the same Bible sais 1. Pet. 3. 16. in the Epistles of S. Paul there are things hard to be understood which the unlearned and the unstable deprave as also the rest of the Scriptures to their own perdition Note perdition Have not Disputes controversies and contests always risen concerning the sense and meaning of them and that in matters of the greatest importance Have not the best copies of the Bible been consulted and all passages confer'd the controversies stil remaining and increasing Doe we not see that divers and