who have divested themselves of all things to give all to the Poor 'T is read in St. Anselm that Elphegus Archbishop of Canterbury who liv'd in the beginning of the eleventh Age being taken Prisoner by the Enemy chose rather to die then consent his Flock should be overcharg'd for the ransom of his life I say nothing of St. Bernardin of Siena nor of St. Charles who so Christian-like exposed their lives to assist at their death those infected with the Plague I do not mention St. Francis Xaverius who left his Country House and Hopes to run to the utmost parts of the World after Salvages and Barbarians to instruct them in the knowledge of Jesus Christ And amidst the deplorable remisness of the Manners of this Age how many great Interests great Honors great Reputations great Hopes have we seen sacrificed in the generous exercise of Christian Charity How many Persons of Quality how many eminent Wits with sublime Talents how many tender and delicate Ladies have submitted themselves most willingly to the pains of a laborious and obscure life to succour their Neighbours We have seen in the old Age of Christianity and in the corruption of this Age Apostolical Men cross the Seas to go and instruct Infidels and bring them into the right way To conclude this Spirit of the Apostles which God has revived in some measure in these latter Times and this so fervent zeal for the salvation of Souls is so apparently the true Spirit of Christianity and the essential distinction between the Children of the Church and others which are not of it That though it be above an Age since some of our Neighbours who have unhappily left the Faith run into all parts of the World there to plant Traffick and Commerce which flourish amongst them yet there has not yet appear'd any one Pastor of their Communion that has had the virtue and courage to give his life to Baptize one Salvage and Convert one Infidel So true it is that the disinteressedness and purity of Christian Charity cannot be so much as counterfeited by Hereticks who impudently boast themselves to inherit the Faith of the Apostles when in reality they have not any mark of their Zeal or sign of their Spirit since they can behold without any concern the People with whom they Traffick continually in a profound ignorance of things necessary to their salvation For what means the indifferency of these false Pastors who without the least compassion see the Flock of Jesus Christ scattered and straying What means this so cold tranquility but what our Lord himself said That the true Pastor whereof himself was the Model is always ready to give his life for his Flock and that the mercenary Pastor concerns not himself for the Flock of Jesus Christ because he is an Hireling It s in Charity then alone consists the true Spirit of Christianity we seek after She is that precious Jewel of the Gospel which must be purchased at any rate to become the truly rich of the new Law Let us then renounce our Interests and Pleasures if they are obstacles to our possessing it But to animate our selves still more to acquire it let us look into its value by considering its nature and qualities It s that must be examined in the following Chapter CHAP. II. Of the nature and qualities of this Charity in which consists the Spirit of Christianity and the Idea of a Christian 'T IS natural for Man to love Man But 't is a great vertue to love him for his vertues sake for love that is founded on honesty wisdom good inclination fidelity or any other real merit is a vertue and 't is laudable to love these qualities which are themselves worthy of praise But after all thus to love is to love but like a Heathen for the Pagans love those that love them and such as have qualities worthy their love What is it then to love like a Christian 'T is to love without hearkening to Nature which wills that we love our like 'T is to love even without consulting our Reason which requires that we love what is worthy to be beloved Nature and Reason do not comprehend this Secret The Gospel must speak and 't is Jesus Christ himself must teach it To love like a Christian is to love that which has nothing amiable 'T is to have a kindness and tenderness for those that have all unkindness and rigour for us In fine to love like a Christian is to desire the good of those that wish us nothing but ill This Vertue was unknown to the Morals of Socrates and Moses to Philosophy and the old Law The Precept to love our Enemies is of the new Law And this so holy Maxim could not come but out of the School of God so much 't is raised above Man 'T is indeed Jesus Christ is the Author of it and himself in Person that instructs us But I say to you love your Enemies do good to them that hate you and pray for them that calumniate and persecute you These are the words of the Saviour of the World Behold our Belief our Gospel our Morality and the true Character of our Religion The other marks of a Christian as Devotion Penance Hope in God Humility and even Martyrdom it self may be equivocal marks 'T is only the love of our Enemies that is not 'T is hereby alone that a Christian can distinguish himself and to embrace the Faith is to embrace the obligation to love the Persecutor in loving the Persecution But how can a man love that which merits his hate when he has scacre power to love that which deserves to be beloved What violence must not he use to himself before he gains that Point He needs not use any for from the instant that he sincerely becomes a Christian he loves his Enemies as really as his Friends And the same Motive that makes a Christian love God the same also makes him love his Neighbour as a Child of God for he sees reflect on him a beam of the same light that makes himself know God Although his Brother be his Enemy from the time that he regards him as a Member of Jesus Christ sprinkled with his Bloud fed with his Flesh enliven'd with his Spirit destin'd to his Glory that he professes the same Law and Religion as he do's that they have both the same Hopes the same Pretensions the same Sacraments and when he considers Jesus Christ in his Neighbour as the motive of his Charity he loves him And Flesh Bloud Nature Reason Interest and Passion are too weak Considerations to disunite Hearts tied together by so holy an Union that is to say by all that is supernatural and divine in Christianity So the motive of the love of our Neighbour being the same with the motive of our love of God as St. Leo teacheth both the one and the other being grounded on the same principle and tending to the same end a Christian cannot be
failing in the one without failing in the other since the same ray of Faith which enlightens his spirit to know God ought to enflame his heart to love his Neighbour For with what sincerity can he boast he loves God whom he do's not see and not love his Neighbour whom he sees and who represents to him that same God he boasts that he loves as the Apostle says Behold what 's the nature of Christian Charity that in effect cannot love her Neighbour but with the same love wherewith she loves God which made St. John say That he who has charity is in God and God in him Let us then examine the qualities of this Charity The First quality of this Vertue is that 't is Universal and cannot suffer to be bounded in the extent of its love for it loves the little and the great the poor and the rich the wretched and the happy the peevish and the complaisant the stranger and the domestick him that merits to be beloved and him that deserves not Wherein 't is in some sort like God who shares his gifts to the worthy and unworthy and pours forth his light on the just and unjust In fine this Vertue embraces equally the whole World 'T is an universal spirit that knows none of those carnal and Heathenish distinctions of Engagement Interest Party Cabal of Paul and Cephas which divide at present so many petty spirits in the World For according to St. Augustin To love all men and to pretend to except but one with whom he is not entirely satisfied and not able to bear with for some particular reasons is not to love like a Christian A Christian has an universal love because the motive of it is general the change of Times Places and Circumstances can make no alteration in his love he loves in sickness and health in adversity and prosperity in affliction and joy in humiliation and greatness in dejection and advancement in poverty and plenty to be short he loves in life and in death because he is that sincere Friend of whom the Scripture speaks who loves at all times He fixes his heart on the Persons without regarding the Circumstances unless it be to love after a more disinteressed manner and when necessity more requires it Behold the first quality of Christian Charity The Second is Sincerity Let us love says St. John but let us testifie our love by effects and not by words The Character of humane Love consists only in Complements Civilities tender of Services protestations of Amity strain'd Complacencies false Friendships vain Words deceitful Promises and in all other Dissimulations which are commonly practised by those that lead a worldly life But Christian Charity never counterfeits she speaks nothing but what she thinks she thinks nothing but what she feels she feels nothing but what she would execute her words never belie her actions and her actions are always conformable to her Sentiments for she is essectially sincere and has no other way to explain her self but by her deeds The Third quality of this Vertue is Purity of spirit and a perfect disinteressedness for true Charity respects God alone and studies purely to please him so as she never acts upon those mean and worldly Considerations of Interest and Vanity which set men awork for Men do seldom good to one another but out of hopes of Interest 'T is on these Maxims they would have all the World know when they do their Friend any service they are only officious to gain repute and oblige only to publish it If they are silent 't is for some private reason that they see it fit to hold their tongue Christian Charity has a contrary way of proceeding to this worldly Charity she has no other design or pretension because her motive is pure All her study in doing good is how to conceal her doing it If she gives Alms she hides them in the Laps of the Poor as the Scripture says she draws a Veil over all her good Deeds that they may not be known and she would hide them even from her own self were it possible to entrust them only to her modesty and silence The pleasure she takes in doing good is to her a greater recompence then all the applauses of Men. As she do's nothing but for God so she would have no other witness of her actions He is the sole motive of the good works she do's and it suffices he knows them to be himself their recompence The other qualities of Charity St. Paul explicates in the admirable Elogy he made of this Vertue to the Corinthians Charity says this Apostle is patient is benign Charity envies not deals not perversly is not puffed up is not ambitious seeks not her own is not provoked to anger thinks not evil rejoyces not upon iniquity but rejoyces with the truth suffers all things believes all things hopes all things bears all things These qualities become yet more lustrous in the life of a Christian which is a continual practise and exercise of this Vertue 'T is good to make hereof some Idea only to shew what it is in respect to our Neighbours The lineaments of so admirable a picture which length of time has almost decay'd cannot be well traced over again without gathering thence some profit A Christian is altogether an interiour Man who has nothing of the corruptible Man in us but the outward shape but there appears so much of moderation and wisdom even in his exteriour and Gods Grace has so powerfully destroy'd his natural inclinations to sanctifie all his interiour that he is a pattern to other men because he is more reasonable and better govern'd then other men His chief character is the spirit of Equity And of all Vertues Justice is that which he most accustoms himself to because she always serves him to hold the ballance even betwixt himself and his Neighbour His business is not to raise his fortune but his perfection and to help others to make themselves perfect And his ordinary employment is to instruct help protect and serve his Brethren but he do's it with so much love so much zeal and so much disinteressedness that there is no man loves himself so well as a Christian loves his Neighbour His Neighbours interest is more dear to him then his own and he is less concern'd for his own honour then his Brethrens for he counts their advantages among his own he draws his satisfaction from their pleasures And by an unparalell'd complacency he transforms himself into their humour and assumes sometimes even their spirit He is that universal Man who as St. Paul is every thing to every one He is the comfort of the afflicted the support of the feeble the succour of the needy the refuge of the persecuted and the counsel of all those that want it In fine there is no weakness that he do's not compassionate and no misery at which his bowels are not moved He is so far from desiring what he has
Neighbour to carry our selves duly between one and the other is of greatest importance in a spiritual Life The concurrence of these two interests is often very prejudicial to the zeal of Charity when not back'd with science for oftentimes we inconsiderately forsake our Neighbour when we ought to leave God and we leave God when we ought to forsake our Neighbour See then how St. Augustine advises us to deport our selves The obligation says he to love God in the order of the Precept ought to precede the obligation to love our Neighbour but God will have us in the execution prefer our Neighbour before him In effect It is not reasonable says this great Saint that God who is the Master and ordains all things should put himself after our Neighbour in the order of Love This is the First Command he gave Man Thou shalt love the Lord thy God and thou shalt love him withal thy heart But this same God though he be Master yet when our Neighbours good comes in question remits something of his own right as to its execution If any coldness has passed between us and our Brethren wherein our Union may be wounded and we are at the foot of his Altars to render God the Homage due unto him He then commands us to interrupt his Worship and suspend the most holy and august Ceremonies of Religion to defer till another time the Honors of the Sacrifice we were about to pay him and first go and reconcile our selves to our Neighbour Let them quit says he the Worship they are rendring to me and the Sacrifice they are offering up because the Union among Brethren is the most agreeable Sacrifice they can offer unto me He do's even consent that to help the Poor in their greatest miseries we should disfurnish his very Altars of their outward Ornaments which are only of use to move the gross Devotion of carnal People as St. Bernard says who condemns the vanity of those that enrich the Temples of God and abandon the Poor What folly says he is it to leave the Children of the Church naked and to adorn the Walls so magnificently with Tapestries and other more precious Ornaments 'T is true the Church may admit Ornaments in her abundance and prosperity But God commands her to relieve the Poor who are her Children when in necessity and publick miseries because her Treasures and Riches would only serve to shame her if the Poor were not succour'd therewith This Rule will appear of a very large extent to such as take pains to consider it and the practice of it will be found of much use when apply'd to the several occasions that may offer themselves But since God through his signal goodness will have us to love our Neighbour for the love of him 't is but just we should so govern this love that if exteriourly we give our charitable help to our Brethren at least the intention of our heart and simple design of our spirit be all for God That we love our Friend in God and our Enemy for the love of God which is the right practice of Charity as St. Gregory teaches it The Second Rule ought to be made use of to distinguish every ones personal interests from those of his Neighbour to decide what of right belongs to each The Rule I have settled may serve for that purpose For if God himself do's often yield his right where our Neighbour is concern'd I have the greater reason to yield up mine on the like occasions But because this Rule is not general but limited to certain Conjunctures we must seek for another more universal The Gospel commands me to treat my Neighbour as my self since he ought to be as dear to me as my self but it do's not command me to yield to him when our interests shock one another And in other respects there is a natural equity which teaches me to keep my own by instructing me to discharge my self of what belongs not to me There are likewise certain interests of Honor which I ought to defend against my Neighbour who would dishonor me because Honor is a Depositum God has intrusted to me which ought to be as dear to me as that of my life and because he would scandalize the World by dishonoring me But are there any occasions wherein I am oblig'd to abandon mine own interests and sacrifice them to my Neighbour to defend his Reputation by renouncing my own and to die to save his life 'T is evident that Goods purely temporal being of an inferior order to spiritual when the salvation of our Neighbour is concern'd which is a spiritual interest one is oblig'd to abandon his temporal because the salvation of ones Soul is preferable to all the Goods of the Earth which are perishable and corruptible Thus neither Honor nor Wealth ought to be valued when the salvation of a Soul is in question Now 't is certain that a Christian is oblig'd by the Maxims of that Religion he professes to relieve his Neighbour in an extream necessity of life which is a temporal good not only out of his own superfluities but even what is necessary for himself Christian perfection goes yet farther teaching a Christian that he ought not only to be severe to himself in tenderness and compassion to his Brother and deprive himself to accommodate him of what is commodious and necessary to himself but even to give his liberty his honor and life to preserve the life honor and liberty of his Neighbour In fine he ought to do that for him which the Saviour of the World did for us for how many have there been that have imitated Jesus Christ in the practice of so generous so pure and so disinteressed a Charity But these are the wonders of Christian Morality and greatest Miracles of our Holy Religion These Examples are rather to be admired then Rules to be indispensably followed and Duties of obligation to be practised The Third Rule is the order that ought to be observ'd in the different interests of our Neighbour that so the impulses of Charity may be followed without mistaking and that in two wants either of the same or a different nature we may know which to prefer In the order of temporal goods Charity always flies to assist the more urgent wants for amongst the afflicted she runs to him that suffers most and she leaves him again if his wants be but temporal to assist him that is in manifest danger of his salvation Such was heretofore the conduct of the Apostles who in the infancy of the Church abandon'd the care of temporal necessities to attend to spiritual in quitting the distribution of Alms to be vacant to preaching the Word of God because they esteemed the nourishment of the Soul more important then that of the Body So the care a Christian takes to teach and instruct a poor body is more meritorious before God then what is bestowed to deliver him from misery So the Alms given
to convert people to Jesus Christ are far preciouser then those which are given for their subsistance and the sweats pains and fatigues of the Missioners who go to preach the Word of God to Infidels in the remotest Countries are of far more value then the Treasures that are sent thither The soveraign perfection of Christian Charity is the fervent zeal of these holy Followers of the Apostles who quit all to seek in the most salvage and barbarous Climates the stray Sheep and to satisfie the thirst and hunger they have for the salvation of so many abandon'd people to make them know Jesus Christ and to bring them back to his Flock In these concurrences of wants Charity ought to dispose of her help according to the different degrees of necessities she finds But when the want is equal in two different persons It is says St. Augustine either Proximity of Bloud or Alliance or Friendship or Neighbourhood or Society or Country or the Considerations of other Ties that must regulate the preference of assistance due to one rather then to another For although Jesus Christ be come into the World to make by the Sword of Christianity division betwixt the Flesh and the Spirit yet he is not come to destroy the Duties of Bloud and to dispence with a Christian for what he ows his Relations because these Duties are grounded on Equity which is their principal foundation Thus what we owe to our Kindred is of a more strict obligation then that which is due to an unknown Person and a Stranger So a Pastor is more oblig'd to his Flock a Superior to those whom God has put under him a Prince to his own Subjects then to all others and in the order of Christian Charity a Friend ought to be more dear then one unknown a Domestick then a Stranger and a Christian then an Infidel and when they are both equally in need you are oblig'd to help the one before the other This Morality is founded on Justice and Reason which orders it thus and on the conduct of our Lord who carried himself after this manner between the Jews and Gentiles St. Paul thus instructs Christians St. Thomas and all Catholick Divines are of this opinion For the rest when the Rules I have establish'd are duly considered 't will be found that our Soul being our Neighbour a thousand times more intimate then our dearest Friends or our nearest Relations our first obligation is to exercise Charity towards her which we cannot do as we ought but by endeavouring her perfection preferably above all things For if we neglect her who will take care of her And if we give all but our selves to God is not that to keep our selves the better share because God will have us our selves and not what is ours as St. Jerome says The conclusion of this Discourse is that extream necessity in temporals and the salvation of a Soul in spirituals ought to have preference in the strictest obligations of a Christian So that the most laudable and holy of all Charities is to provide for spiritual wants as to procure assistance for People who are in a deep ignorance of all things relating to their salvation and without help But in assisting Aliens and Salvages must those be forgotten that live in the midst of us and are in the same wants can we hearken to what 's told us of the miseries of Persons of another World as one may say without beholding what we daily see amongst those we know It is this obliges me to repeat what I have already said and which is so important that it cannot be too often repeated That the greatest Zeal requires the greatest Knowledge That if Christian Prudence ought to be animated by Charity Charity ought to be govern'd by Prudence and justly to discern the order wherein Charity ought to be practised nothing more needs to be recommended to a Christian then what the Apostle recommended to those of the City of Philippi to whom he Preach'd this Vertue That their Charity may more and more abound in knowledge and in all understanding To be neither indiscreet nor rash because the greatest defect in Charity is want of light which renders this Vertue subject to an infinity of Illusions But intirely to purifie its practice 't is best to discover the Illusions that so they may be dissipated CHAP. V. Of the several Illusions to which the Practice of Charity is subject ALL Christian Vertues are in their Practice subject to Illusions through the false Principles every one establishes to himself in the exercise of Piety Sometimes out of conceitedness and oftnest out of weakness and ignorance But after all there is none of them more subject to this then Charity For as this Vertue has much lustre 't is pretended to upon very many occasions chiefly when we think to surprize and dazle Men as is usual enough And it is not to be wonder'd at if the spirit of dissimulation creeps into the exercise of this Vertue which is the most pure and sincere of all others since the corruption of this Age has so powerfully authorised all Artifices and Disguises In effect Self-love which always seeks its own interest by so many windings about cannot better conceal it self then under the veil of Charity It is through this Artifice it scrupulously sticks to the Duties of Good-manners to excuse it self from essential Duties It seeks conspicuous Charities to avoid obscure ones 'T is zealous where there should be no zeal and remiss where there should be Thus the falsly Charitable is uneasie to his own Domesticks whilst he is civil and officious to Strangers he grounds a tranquility and satisfaction on the state of his own pretended perfection and is only froward and disquieted at others perfections he is perpetually praising Christianity and quits nothing of his own Rights He gives Alms and pays not his Debts He maliciously praises false Vertues to take occasion to authorize real Vices He justifies his own ill Conduct only by censuring that of others and scattering Flowers over all he would poison he wounds the Reputation of every one under the deceitful veil of charitable and respectful Words But to discover methodically all the Illusions wherewith the Spirit of Charity is so often perverted I reduce them to certain Heads which are as it were their Sources Natural Affection is the First and withal the most ordinary Illusion which creeps into the Spirit of Charity One loves his Neighbour 't is true but 't is only for the good qualities which render him amiable one looks on him but on the most agreeable side and where he is most pleasing It is the wit quality humour and disposition one considers and the tenderer one is to all these Considerations of Flesh and Bloud the more insensible he is to all those of Vertue and Grace One believes 't is loving his Neighbour as he ought and living charitably with him to speak nothing vexatious to any one to be very
purely from God But as a Christian prevented by Grace may dispose his Mind to Faith as supernatural as it is by destroying therein obstinacy presumption and adhesion to Error and that natural propensity that leads to Incredulity So may he after the same manner dispose himself to attain Charity if he roots the obstacles of it out of his heart For this Vertue finds very great ones in the heart of Man whereof I will give a touch on the principal without falling on the same Particulars I mention'd in the Illusions the most part whereof are also impediments to Charity The greatest of all obstacles to Charity is that Worldly spirit so opposite to the Spirit of Jesus Christ That Prudence of the Flesh that Pride of the Age and all that vain Ostentation which reigns so much in the Courts of Great men wherein Worldly wisdom teaches these abominable Maxims viz. To destroy by subtle Artifices ones Neighbour's Reputation To discredit him in the opinion of such as esteem him To violate the most holy Rights turn all things topsie-turvy to attain what one pretends to and to aggrandize ones self 'T is by this same Spirit young Gentlemen are taught that Revenge is a Gentleman's Vertue and that it is a piece of Cowardise to pardon The Hatreds Envies Jealousies Intrigues of Licentiousness and Ambition great Interests violent Passions which are the common effects of this Spirit reigns so powerfully in the Great of this World that they leave not room for the least spark of Charity Therefore the Apostle says He that will become a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God There is another Spirit in the World still more opposite to this Vertue the Spirit of Disguise Imposture and Dissembling whose only end is to mischief our Neighbour 'T is this unhappy Policy of the Flesh which only seeks to establish it self by shameful and wicked Treacheries and by all the depraved Maxims of the World I have been speaking of and which render the Life of a Christian a monstrous Life that is full of Passions Animosities Knavery and Perfidiousness These are the Machines Men make use of to perpetuate their Enmities by everlasting Wranglings and to make all Tribunals ring with their Injustices and Violences I 'le say nothing of the Spirit of Obstinacy Contradiction diversity of Judgments and Opinions in matters of Religion nor of all those Factious Sidings which at present afflict Christianity The memory of the Disorders they have caused in the last Age is still fresh enough in this to make us comprehend the importance of it for there is nothing more capable of dividing the hearts of the People then different Judgments in Religion Being given to Pleasures to Delights to dangerous Divertisements to Gaming to Riot and Delicacy is also a great obstacle to this Spirit of Charity we are in quest of These stately Houses proud rich Furnitures sumptuous Tables new Fashions in Clothes which shew nothing but wantonness These Vanities of worldly Ladies this State that environs them these profuse Expences of voluptuous sensual Persons intoxicated with the Delights of the Age do so forcibly dry up in the hearts of Worldlings this holy Unction of Charity that there remains not any sign of it in all those who are plunged in Vanity For how can a Woman that denies nothing to her Pleasure and loves only her self be touch'd with any sentiments of Charity She shuts her Eyes against the poverty of the necessitous she will not see it nor so much as take notice of it that she may not squander the Fund she designs for her Vanity by the Assistance she should be oblig'd to give him that demands it in Gods name And hence it is Jesus Christ so often shakes with cold in the Person of the Poor at the Gate of the Rich without being taken notice of for he is only busied about himself What shall I say of those perpetual Hatreds and inveterate Aversions which Men so scandalously retain they can neither speak to nor so much as look on one that hath affronted them and believe their Resentment just because they have been injur'd What is more contrary to the Spirit of Christianity which cannot so much as suffer coldness or indifferency They flatter themselves too as they frame their Consciences in their Hatreds and Aversions They believe they wish no ill to him that has offended them when any Misfortune befalls him they triumph for joy at it And when they say I wish him no ill but cannot endure to see him nor have to do with him this they call loving like a Christian There is likewise I know not what ayre very repugnant to Charity in the natural advantages of Wit of Conduct of Sence of Ability and in the excellency of other Qualities which if one takes not great care uses to inspire a love and esteem of ones self For 't is natural for him that has received more to undervalue him that has received less But whilst he thinks to distinguish himself from others by these Advantages he corrupts his spirit and in the end becomes utterly insensible of the most tender motions of Charity For the rest as every one has shar'd in the distribution of natural or supernatural Gifts according to the measure of Grace There is no Christian but may take notice of some particular Gift his Brother has received from God wherewith himself has not been favour'd Thus S. Paul considers in S. Peter his Primacy and again S. Peter considers in S. Paul the high Wisdom he had received from Heaven S. Anthony only regards in his Brethren those Vertues himself had not to honor them the more 'T is in this manner that the Christian who has wit esteems one who has Vertue and Goodness The Learned admires the Dispatch of the Man of Business The Man of Business praises the Capacity of the Learned In fine thus 't is that Charity makes the Superior not esteem his own Dignity above others but the Vertue and Merit of those he Commands And whilst he exteriourly Commands them he humbles himself interiourly before them and they on their side respect in him his Power and Authority and kindly submit to his Conduct Lastly it may be said that the greatest obstacle to Charity is the Immoderate love of Riches for this love causes Impurity of Conscience Hardness of Heart Independence Pride Insolence Contempt of the Poor and an entire corruption of Spirit And as this restless care of preserving his Goods poisons the Soul of the Rich so Covetousness is the most abominable of all Vices and most opposite to Charity For the essential Character of Avarice is a false Prudence of the Flesh all whose Designs and Thoughts bound themselves in the Person possessed by it so that his Heart is locked up to all Sentiments of pity for the Wants of the Poor A Man darkens his spirit by the Vapors of so carnal a Passion he fixes his Heart to the Goods of the Earth as
reciprocal obligations they have to assist each other for the Rich ought to help the Poor before Men as the Poor help the Rich before God in that the misery of the one becomes the fountain of the others merit and happiness The Second Motive to acquire Charity is the pain wherewith God so severely punishes him that is not provided with this Vertue In effect as it is to break the Alliance of the New Testament and after a manner renounce the Gospel not to love ones Neighbour there is nothing more terrible then these Punishments wherewith the holy Scriptures threatens them that have not this love And is it not just saith S. Chrysostom that he who does no kindness should receive none But how dreadful a Judgment does the Saviour of the World pronounce against those Scribes whereof St. Mark speaks who devour with such injustice and violence the Goods of Widows What Maledictions against those cruel and merciless Pharisees whereof St. Matthew speaks Virginity how pleasing soever to God through the lustre of its purity is a Vertue reproved in the Gospel when sever'd from Charity The foolish Virgins far from being received at the Nuptials of the Lamb were treated as impudent Women because they took no care to make that provision of this Oyl of the Gospel which is the figure of Charity In vain they renounced Pleasure to embrace Chastity all their Vertues avail them nothing to justifie them to the Bridegroom who spake to them these words full of contempt I know you not Oh! if true Virgins are treated so severely by the Son of God if the wisdom of their Conduct if the command over their Desires if the purity of their Heart if so many victories obtain'd over so frail flesh and so weak a Sex In fine if even the perseverance of their Vertue is fruitless to them What will become of those Virgins that lead such licentious and scandalous lives But with what sharpness do's Jesus Christ condemn his own Disciples because they advis'd him through want of Charity to make fire fall from Heaven upon the Samaritans that would not receive him You know not said he of what spirit you are and how far 't is contrary to mine Is not the punishment of the wicked rich man in the Gospel a most dreadful Example and the Treatment he receiv'd is it not terrible After all what Crime had he committed he had not been Charitable The hardness of his heart says St. Chrysostom was the cause of his loss But O my God how severe and dreadful a Judge art thou for this rich man had done wrong to none he made use of the Riches thou hadst bestowed upon him without doing any Violence or Injustice 'T is true but the superfluities of his Table the sumptuousness of his House his Oppulency as innocent as it is cry for Vengeance before God because he employ'd not his Goods to relieve the Necessities of the Poor Look then to your selves you Great ones of the Earth If prosperity be in your Houses if you live at ease if all things succeed to your desires Tremble amidst these temporal Blessings All your good Fortune is only a mark of your Reprobation unless you are Charitable Power Riches Honours you are but impediments to Salvation if you be not employ'd in assisting the Poor and protecting him that is in oppression For if the Rich could love the Poor he would be saved and his Riches which are true evils would become true goods But can one hear without terror those threatning words of the Gospel capable of themselves alone to make tremble the Great ones that live in all abundance Wo to you rich of the earth And why Because God who is just abandons the Rich to their own Appetites and strikes them with an inward blindness which makes them insensible of all the motions of Grace and all the lights of Heaven This false Tranquility and dangerous Peace they enjoy is sometimes one of the most terrible torments wherewith God punishes their hard-heartedness and 't is an assured sign he leaves them to impenitency But how great will be the confusion and astonishment of the Reprobate when he shall appear before the dreadful Tribunal of the last Judgment to hear this terrible Sentence which an offended God shall pronounce in the fury of his rage and indignation Away from me you cursed into fire everlasting for I was hungry and you gave me not to eat I was thirsty and you gave me not to drink I was naked and you cloathed me not O cruel torments for a Soul to see her self eternally depriv'd of God and abandon'd to her own despair because being Christian she was not Charitable It is not of Impudicity Envy Choler Violence or Blasphemy God speaks in his last Judgment to condemn these Crimes he only speaks of Insensibility towards the Poor And Judgment without mercy to him that shews not mercy as the Apostle assures us It is thus those merciless Souls shall be treated that have not been moved with the miseries of their Brethren But can any one bear in mind the thoughts of this dreadful Tribunal and not be Charitable And what hope can he have of the mercy of God when himself has pity on none 'T is a sign one has no Faith when he is not seis'd with horror at such terrible Menaces and that would make one tremble when seriously consider'd for the Threats of a God are never in vain and he is as dreadful in his Judgments as he is amiable in his Mercies If yet there be any found insensible of these Reasons because their Effects are at a distance let him at least consider after what manner God exercises his Judgments in this Life on such Christians as have not Charity let him tremble at reading in the Apocalyps the thundering Menaces wherewith that dreadful Judge who carries a sharp Sword in his Mouth and holds Death fetter'd in Irons strikes those first Pastors of the Churches of Asia because their Charity the Seal as it were of their Character and Spirit of their Vocation was grown cold Let him behold with trembling the terrible Punishment of that unhappy Saprice mention'd by Metaphrastus who after the Rigors of a severe Prison after the Conflicts he had resolutely sustain'd before his Judge in defence of his Faith lost his Crown at the very point of receiving it and of a Martyr became an Apostate and a Pagan because he would not forgive his Brother an Injury What shall I say of those fearful pains wherewith God punishes in this Life the shameful attash the Rich have to the Goods of the Earth delivering them up a prey to their Appetites and leaving them in an utter forgetfulness of their Salvation For a rich Man says S. Basil by locking up the bowels of Charity against his Neighbour at the same time shuts those of Gods Mercy against himself and by treating so coldly Jesus Christ in the Person of the Poor shews by his hard-heartedness that
good Now he is a sollicitous Shepherd running after the strayed Sheep to bring him back to the Flock Then he is a Father compassionate of the misery to which debauchery had brought his Son whom he reclaims by managing the spirit of the young Man with all the tenderness in the bowels of a Father A Traveller is wounded by Thieves on the Road to Jericho and he becomes a Physician to his Wounds A Samaritan Woman is desirous to see Jesus and he charitably sets himself to instruct her thereby to gain her and that thirst he would quench by drinking the Water he demanded from her is only the figure of a greater thirst and zeal which he had for her salvation He humbles himself to appear unto Magdalen even like a Gardener and to comfort her he converses familiarly with her in so mean an outside To be short he becomes a Traveller with the Disciples going to Emaus to free them from that doubt and trouble into which their distrust had thrown them The Gospel is full of a thousand other testimonies of his bounty towards us When we flie from him he follows us He calls us when we forget him He pressingly urges us when we will not hear him When we slight him he complains kindly of us And when we return to him after having offended him he seems so sensible that he takes more pleasure to make his own joy and that of his whole coelestial Court break out at the repentance of one sinner then at the fidelity and perseverance of a great number of Just because his glory appears more in pardoning then punishing St. John thunders forth nothing but threats and terrors to his Hearers because he speaks in the spirit of Elias Jesus Christ says nothing but what is sweet and mild because he speaks according to his own Maximes and in his own Spirit which is that of the law of Grace But never did the love of God towards Man appear more then at his Passion For that very night wherein Man conspired his death this God of goodness thought of nothing but to leave him marks of his mercy and tenderness And at the same time that one of his Disciples by the blackest of Treasons betrayed him to his Enemies to be put to death he gave his most sacred Body for food for their Souls He died at last loaded with reproach and ignominy after having been dragged from Tribunal to Tribunal forsaken by his own Disciples and abandoned by all the World He died a publick and infamous Death nailed to a Cross amidst the Blasphemies of those that put him to death But he died with a silence a sweetness a tranquility a patience a peace and quiet which astonisht his very Executioners They reproacht him when he was dying that he could save others but not himself Nor was this reproach without reason because he thought no longer of himself but only of men And amidst the horrors of so cruel a Death plunged in a sea of grief and bitterness he never open'd his dying eyes nor turn'd them towards heaven but to implore the mercy of his Father even for those that put him to death saying Father forgive them for they know not what they do He shed his Bloud he died for the salvation of the Executioners that crucified him What excess of love How incomprehensible to our capacity S. Chrisostom had reason to say That the greatest testimony Christ gave of his Divinity was the extending his love even to all those who killed him for nothing less then God could love at a rate so much above the reach of Man But though the Expressions of that love which the Son of God had for Man are very observable in divers places of the Old Testament under the Figures of the Patriarchs and Prophets yet are they nowhere more strong and tender then in the New Testament where Christ himself speaks of it as of one of the most essential Points of his Doctrine So as the whole Morality of the Gospel turns on this Principle That the true Spirit of Christianity is to have charity for on 's Neighbour Every thing conspires to settle there this important Maxime which is the fundamental Point of our Religion For though the Evangelists wrote nothing by agreement and that the Gospel seems to have been publisht rather upon occasion then by design yet since 't is the Doctrine of their Master they write we find therein so great a conformity of Sentiments on this Principle of Christian Charity that it sufficiently appears by their manner of declaring it there is nothing more essential to Christianity then the love of our Neighbour The whole law says St. Matthew is comprehended in this precept 'T is the most important of all says St. Mark Jesus Christ carries it to a higher pitch of perfection in St. Luke where he obliges the faithful represented by his Apostles To love their enemies to do good for evil and to pray for their calumniators Last of all St. John who knew most of his Masters secrets and penetrated deepest into his thoughts places the essential mark of a Christian in the love of our Neighbour By this all men shall know says our Saviour by the mouth of this Apostle that you are my disciples if you love one another This is the commandment of the law of Grace whereunto is reduced all the perfection of the New Testament And the Saviour of the World recommended nothing so earnestly to his Disciples in the last moments of his life as Concord and Union Because this Union was to be the foundation of the Religion he establisht The Evangelists do not only speak all according to this Principle but 't is apparent the same Spirit makes them speak They treat their friends and enemies both alike in their History A God murthered by men and an innocent man oppressed by calumny might have afforded their zeal some reason for exaggeration yet they allow themselves nothing which has any shew of emotion or violence They relate the treason of Judas the cruelty of the Executioners the injustice and violence of the Magistrates without any touch of bitterness against their persons They speak in a way apt to make one believe they had no concern in what they say A spirit so uninterested is without example and whereof the common sort of men are uncapable 'T is only Christianity that is to say a Discipline wholly coelestial which can inspire so much moderation We see the first fruits of this Spirit in the Acts of the Apostles which is the History of the establishment of Christianity For as the Historian relates the Christians did then live in such a Union as if they had all one and the same heart and one and the same soul The propriety of Goods which ordinarily causes dissentions amongst men was no obstacle to this Union for all their Goods were in common They brought and laid at the feet of the Apostles their Revenues Rents Bonds Contracts Jewels and all