be converted And the impious shall be converted The Application By this clause our Penitent would fortify us against despair and shew there is no sin so enormous which can resist the efficacy of a true repentance for God hath engaged his word not to be inexorable and protests it is far from his thoughts to will the death of a sinner and he excepts none no not the impious but upon submission he will receive them with open arms raze from his memory their iniquities and transport them from a state of perdition to the rich title of being his Children St. Bernard sayes he that assents to what God affirms expresses his Faith and gives belief to God he that acknowledges his Existence and Being is said to believe God Lastly he that places all his hope in God is properly said to believe in him Let us then remember when we say our creed that at the same time we cast all our hope and confidence in God relying on his goodness and power which is infinite and exceeds by consequence all the malice of sin Let us repeat with St. Austin if Paul a persecutour and great sinner is become a Vessel of election why should I despair and why should not I with our Holy Penitent entertain a firm hope when the impious shall be converted Amen CHAP. XXIX Libera me de sanguinibus Deus Deus salutis meae Free me from blood O God God of my Salvation OUr Holy Penitent makes a stop in the carreer of his zeal at the voice of blood from Heaven which beats his affrighted Ears He remembers how Cain wandered like a restless motion beholding alwayes in his imagination Spectres Monstres Fears and dreads the usual mates of a Conscience wounded with homicide And shall he then sit quiet in his Throne whilst Vriah his Veins are opened and emptyed by his command the reeking Vapour which arises from that injured Body seems so to condense the Air that it even stifles him wherefore he begs a little respiration that he may recover a new life and which he shall ever owe to the God of his Salvation Free me from blood c. St. Gregory the great rendering a reason why God will inflict an eternal punishment for a momentary transgression layes the weight of his argument upon the practice of Men who dispatch away into another World by Sentence of Death Murderers and other Criminals of several less degrees by which as much as in them lyes they inflict a punishment for eternity depriving them of life which they can never restore Our Holy Penitent fears the force of this ratiocination for since he hath decreed this doom to his innocent neighbour what remains for him to expect but a torment without end which shall last as long as the injury and this he can never repair All his plea then is to repent to disown his malice to throw himself at the Feet of him in whose Hands are grasped all the Lawes of life and death that he haveing the supream Legislative power to him alone it belongs to dispense acquit or chastise according to the measure of his will Wherefore he sues to this God of Salvation that he may be freed from that heavy doom due to his transgressions Free me from blood c. St. Matthew sayes whosoever shall take up a Sword in order to the effusion of humane blood shall perish by the Sword the same measure shall be returned to him which he hath dealt to others and by the same means he wrought anothers destruction his own shall be contrived and in Gen. 9. the reason is given because Man is created to the resemblance of God We find that upon the score of the excellency of humane nature Man is taken off from the perpetration of several sins as too low for the dignity of his Creation The consideration that he is endued with reason gives unto wise persons an aversion from carnal pleasures lest they should by them degenerate into the condition of a brute The consideration that his Soul is immortal makes him fly Avarice it being sottish for a substance which is to exist for ever to dote upon any thing that is lyable to ruine and corruption The consideration that his Soul is invisible gives a check to Pride and Vanity since her glories cannot appear sensibly and with splendour before the Eye of the World Lastly the consideration that she animates and enlivens every particle of the Body how minute or vile so ere it be warns her from offering any damage or injury to our Neighbour If I say these thoughts work many to decline several particular sins in regard they are misbeseeming the excellent qualities of the Soul doubtless the meditation that she is the fair Image of God ought to make us abominate all sin without reserve fearing by any vitious act to deface the lively Image of a Divinity Wherefore the respect we owe to his resemblance ought to strike in us a terrour of laying violent hands on our Neighbour much less by any force to dissolve that lovely union of Soul and Body in which consists the accomplishment of God's work in framing Man Wherefore St. Cyprian sayes the honour of humane nature is to treat well the pourtraiture of God and from thence discharge our awful reverence towards the Original But when any one is led on by fury and revenge or will usurp in a private person the execution of Justice this is to dash in pieces the Image of God which perhaps he would preserve or at least have it stand untill by instruments of his own he is pleased to undo it Our Holy Penitent confesses he hath committed this outrage he is guilty of this irregular proceeding and hath destroyed God's fair handy work in the Death of Vriah which he was bound to keep decently in repair it being the Office of a King to protect and not destroy his Subjects How many brave designs hath he had to erect a Temple in God's honour and now hurried on by an unruly passion he hath demolished a structure more valuable in the sight of God than all his material edifices the Hands of Man can raise If incendiaries by all Nations are punished with most rigorous Laws what animadversions of severity will be practised upon such as destroy not only habitations but inhabitants who ruine a mansion wherein God hath lodged a Soul immortal and which he hath designed to be the matter of her great merit in this life and an instrument of his praise in the next And if St. Paul sayes the blood of Souls will be required at the Hands of Pastors who starve and famish their flock for want of due instruction and good Example what account shall he have to make who hath not only by omission frustrated his Subjects of good Documents issuing from an exemplar life but more hath effectively concurred to the destruction of them and hurried them to a dreadful Tribunal at a time when perhaps they were little prepared for
to those who use it in excess next he hints the reliques and dreggs it leaves behind that if God's grace joyned with a great resolution happen to dislodge this petulent Guest yet still some footsteps or impressions remain apt to reenter and claim an interest Wherefore he could promise to himself no security unless an inundation of mercy fall upon him to purify and carry away all the remainder of bad inclinations grown into a habit and become as it were a second Nature in him Cleanse me from my sin and as it was not a slight stain he had contracted but all circumstances weighed the most indelible that springs from inordinate acts in carnal pleasures For Lawes Divine Natural and Humane seem to be violated in Adultery Divine in that two persons by marriage are made one flesh and both pass into the incommunicable Nature of individuality becoming the essential part of each other whence violation cannot happen to one without destroying the life of the other and breaking that bond which God hath knit together Natural Law is likewise by an adulterous act infringed because Marriage consists not in the sole possession of the Body but also nay principally in the affections of a reasonable Soul For the bonds of Marriage are not wrought by copulation but mutual consent and under a sacred Vow never to be retracted who then infringes these engagements must needs contract a note of infidelity and consequently strike at the main Hinge of humane Society to preserve which Nature chiefly tends in all her principles and essential motions Lastly a breach is made in humane Law by Adultery in that Marriage is not a private but domestick good which concerns not one but infinite Families strengthened by the Laws of the Church and publick Faith of Nations From hence Nature finds those who carefully cultivate her plants hence Commonwealths are enriched with Citizens the Church with Children By this we may see the malice of Adultery that drawes along with it the violation of so many Laws Christ enjoyns us a love of our Enemies and that the Sun should not set in our anger Yet in the treachery of Marriage-Bed permits a separation between Man and Wife how strictly soever united by indissoluble tyes as if such crimes surpassed the limits of pardon as if an evil so destructive that remedies could find no place and that this individual life once dissolved could no more be recalled than habit from privation Many Tyrants have subdued to therage of their cruelties the wealth liberty and lives of their Subjects who looking upon this power as given from Heaven over them patiently sustained all those depredations but if once they touched upon their wives and would involve them in the Mass of their impurities this rowsed up their fallen spirits cast them into rebellion nay pushed them to that extremity as never to desist untill they had deprived those of life who had ravished from them what was more dear than life untill they had reduced unto ashes the Authors of their infamy and taught them for the example of posterity this violence of all others will not be left unrevenged in this World There hath scarce been any Nation though Pagan or Infidel which hath not punished Adultery with Death or exquisite Torments Some by fire others by wild Horses some by the Halter others in pulling out their Eyes cutting off their Noses some by stones as in Moses Law Whence 't is clear that even the light of Nature taught there ought for the good of humane Society that a stop be made to this disorder Our Penitent having in his thoughts lay'd open all those Enormities of an Adulterous Act is surprised to see himself plunged in so many abominations to have heaped up to himself so much ignominy and infection as the reproach of them would last as long as time How sparingly do good Men treat of carnal subjects either in Writing or in the Pulpit lest the very articulate sound or Characters in this matter might offend chast Ears or cause worse effects in Hearts already tainted If then this poyson carry with it so much of malignity in the very name or lightest thought what corruption and noysomness must the sin it self produce Oh! how strong did this scent breathe in the Nostrils of our Penitent when once his understanding was awake and beheld with an Eye free from passion his Body dissolved into so many contaminations no wonder than if he so oft repeat in this Psalm the cleansing from his sin Every glimps of his past foul delights casts him into a blush beholding no other consequence of them than shame confusion and the threats of eternal destruction notwithstanding all this he sues for a Vesture of innocence and he does it to him who with a fiat or blast from his Mouth drew out of a dark Chaos that glorious Body of the Sun which so revives us To him who hath promised to let fall all the darts of his anger upon the true repentance of a sinner on this basis he fixes his Petition and doubts not but at last to find a happy issue to be drawn out of the mire of his sensualities and his leprous condition changed into the consistence of restored grace after this he sighs and groans nor is capable of any consolation untill that happy moment arrive which shall put a period to this longing demand Et à peccato meo munda me cleanse me from my sin The Application We must consider that God is purity it self who hath nothing more in abomination than an impure Soul That Heaven inhabited by Angels is a place of honour where nothing defiled can have access Wherefore we ought to apprehend any stain of lubricity because most obstructive to our final Beatitude First in that it is according to St. Thomas peccatum maximae inhaerentiae a Sin that clings like Bird-lime to our Souls and of all others most hard to be clawed off it resembles a Phoenix who renews her self with the fire enkindled by the motion of her own Wings so a person inured to that vice even when he would give it over and bury it withall occasion of incentives doth often find the Coals to be blown afresh by the wings of thoughts so that whilst we live we ought never to be secure since 't is a combat of all others the most hazzardous and where the victory is most rare next it is a sin of impudency and when a Soul is devoid of shame what hopes can there be to reclaim her St. Hierom advises to a private admonition of our neighbour and gives this reason lest he break the curb of shame and dwell in his sin for ever By baptism we are made members of Jesus Christ and the chiefest homage we can pay to him as our Head is to preserve it unspotted from any smut of impurity A virginal integrity is so acceptable unto God that the Angels were they permitted would translate them Body and Soul into Heaven that
love and inquisition in Heaven reserved for our fruition And which will be communicated more or less in proportion to the Zeal and Purity of Hearts we have here in seeking It is then in order to this happy enjoyment that our Penitent sues again and again to be more freed from his iniquity Besides Vertues have in them an admirable Sympathy which makes they never jarr but mutually conspire to unite themselves and the Subjects they inhabit to the most perfect Object and since this Union is only found in glory it is consequent we must needs here be in perpetual motion sometimes rooting out this imperfection otherwhiles acquiring that perfection untill we arrive at him who is the beginning and end of all our agitations He remembred with what wariness God gave his command to Adam advising even not to touch the Fruit he must not tast off well knowing the consequences which attend occasions of sin Hence he gathers this lesson if we must not play with danger much less harbour the lest atome of sin within us for it is of such a malignity as the Ocean upon the breach of a bank rushes not in with more violence than sin doth and over-flowes that Soul where once it finds admittance Who will grant nothing must receive no Petitions it was not without reason the Jews forbad the eating of Fat that they might not be allured to devour what was offered in their Sacrifice Our Holy Petitioner implores then a preservative as well as pardon this more implyes not only a fuller deletion of his iniquity but also a stalling of dangerous occasions he now suspects every motion of his enemy he hath seen from his own too dear experience that a spark hath grown up to a masterless incendium and this now happily extinguished should he again dally but with the least resemblance or shaddow of sin would in him appear monstrous after the tast of so signal a mercy This made him cry wash me Lord not only from sin but more even from all danger and occasions of sin For in the midst of imminent occasions of sin not to decline from Vertue and noble resolutions is a possibility more speculative than reducible to practice Nor was our penitent so transported with his change as not to have a solicitude for prevention of the like disaster His repentance was not by halves this made him stand alwayes upon his guard alwayes in fear and still panting after more purity and more relaxation from his chains of iniquity Wash me more that is more than others this clause of his Petition he judged not unnecessary for he believed the stains of his guilt were drunk in more deeply and were more fixt than in the Soul of any other the greatest offendour and consequently his cure required the application of a more Sovereign remedy If the Leprous Condition of Naaman Cyrus found not a compleat redress untill his seventh Lotion in Jordan what streams must he seek out whose infirmity speaks a contempt of God What multiplicity of reiterated bathings will suffice to cleanse that Crimson Dye whose reeking smoak ascends to Heaven to purchase thence a consuming fire Whose numberless offences he himself compares to the sands of the Sea and confesses he cannot entertain a thought of them without horrour He reckons up many signal Favours he had received from the liberal hand of God how he was pickt out from amidst his Fathers flocks being the youngest and least considerable of all his children to be made Author of liberty unto Israel how God had sheltred him as it were under his Wings from all his Enemies and so ordained that their greatest malice proved matter of his greatest glory how God had entrusted into his hands the Rule and guidance of his elect people and given him wisdom and courage to acquit himself of that weighty charge with immortal honour How God had promised not to confine his munificence unto his person but that he would settle the succession of his Regal Dignity to his posterity for ever And above all how from his line and seed should issue forth an abstract of all his liberalities to Mankind the Saviour of the World When he had registred all these Obligations and passed on to survey what return he had made he found so high ingratitude so much of disloyalty that to rank himself with other sinners were to add presumption to his heap of sins He supplicates therefore that to the Enormity of his Crimes may be proportioned the Measure of his pardon that as the deformity of his sin was unparalell'd so likewise might the stroke of that pencil exceed which was to correct all his imperfections and beautify him with a touch of perfection wash me more from my iniquity When he had thus framed his Petition implying in this word more first a necessity of greater helps than others proportionably to the greatness of his transgressions next a desire to be free from the least venial sin and lastly to be secured even from occasions of sin He ventures yet a little further and following the Dictamens of flesh and blood makes instance for a relaxation of the temporal punishment due to his Sin wash me more that is not only in taking away his doom to eternal torments but also the temporary satisfactions he must here make His sensitive part shrinks at the foresight of contradictions he was to wade through and would feign obtain this additional remission Man's natural affection to the Body from a strict Union it hath with the Soul raised in our Petitioner a great tenderness of it insomuch as not to plead for it were to violate he thought the Articles of Friendship made by nature between them Yet he had alwayes such an Eye to the Decrees of Heaven that after all his supplications he totally submits He will not repine at any pressure but with an entire resignation drink in the bitterest draughts of temporal afflictions if his Divine Justice so require He values 't is true his Body in it self God and nature having imprinted this love in him but when its depression may conduce to the purifying of his Soul upon whose happiness it mainly depends reason teaches we must then let it sink and though it be drown'd in an Ocean of torments our Penitent hath this consolation that his Petition is granted as to the effect for he shall see it rise again wholly distained in the waters of tribulation he shall find his past sorrows grown up into Jubileys and Exultations and his heart more sensible of that mercy which gave him constancy in his sufferings than if by a pure act of grace he had been released from sin without any satisfaction in his own person If then he be purified either according to his own wish by an exemption from sufferings which his frail Nature suggests or else by an inundation of afflictions which he hath merited by his crimes He hath still this comfort that he sues not in vain since both will
birth to the Soul and communicates unto her a new Being which is called Divine in that the Soul receives from it a resemblance unto God after a manner extraordinary whose more perfect knowledge is reserved for the light of glory which will make the discovery unto us All we can now say is that no sooner this divine gift inhabits our Souls but we are designed to eternal beatitude Almighty God beholds us with an Eye of satisfaction as his Children received into his Family as Solomon sayes by grace we contract an eternal alliance with God St. Thomas stiles Grace a participation of the Divine Nature for what the Divine Nature doth in God the same Grace by imitation doth in a Soul as the Divine Nature is in God the cause of his most transcending actions to wit love and union So Grace in a Soul is the spring of glory beatitude supernatural knowledge and heavenly affections by which she regulates all her works according to integrity and holiness Nay God obliges himself to give a Soul that can plead the title of Grace the Kingdom of Heaven and possession of eternal bliss No wonder then if after the sprinklings of Hysop that is penitential tears our Petitioner expects a Harmony of joy and gladness since the divine quality of Grace purchased by repentance is attended on by so many advantages What matter of joy to be spiritually regenerated the Son of God the Brother and Coheir with Jesus Christ wherefore St. Leo sayes this gift of being the Son of God to be authorized to call God Father exceeds all his other liberalities for by generation a Father communicates his Nature to his Son producing him in species alike So by Adoption he that adopts gives unto a stranger in desire and affection what he is in himself attributing unto him the prerogative of a Son entitling him to all his inheritance the same as if he were his Son by Nature now what Man doth to another out of affection God doth in effect For imprinting Grace in a Soul he gives himself and is really in her insomuch that were it possible God could be not immense Grace would render him afresh present to and in the Soul Certainly if ever that saying was verified where guilt hath raigned there grace did yet more powerfully sway it was in the person of our holy Petitioner his raptures and Enthusiastick throwes his prophetick notions Nay God's own Testimony of him that Repentance had moulded him even conformably to his own Heart sufficiently proved his Soul to float in floods of Grace and consequently must needs swell with a great portion of joy therefore with just reason he proclaims thou wilt give unto my hearing joy and gladness Again this possession of Grace is accompanied with the expectation of a Sovereign good For the understanding enlightned by Faith knowes that Mans's Beatitude is in God that this Beatitude is promised him as his final end and the means to attain unto this End is by Grace and acts of vertue So that he enjoyes it not but upon the terms of being one day eternally happy this certain expectation of Beatitude St. Bonaventure calls the Anchor and basis of Man in this life It keeps him from dejection placing still before his thoughts an infinite good and which is infallibly to be the abject of his future acquisition it choaks presumption casting him upon the mediums ordained to lead him to this end it draws his affections from terrene things and raises them to God as the supream object alone worthy to be loved and served What joy then to have our VVills carryed on by this gift of hope which sweetly entertains us in the contemplation of Eternity and this not as a thing doubtful for what would Cloud the severity of our comfort but as a reward to which we are entitled by grace and of which by this vertue of hope we have an earnest and pledge St. Paul to the Hebrews prescribes hope as a means to compass whatsoever we would have Let us approach with confidence to the Throne of Grace as if we needed only a firm hope to be able to scale the Throne of God and bear thence what so e're we desire St. Gregory observes there is no pleasure in this World which is not greater in the expectation than fruition by which we see what a strange Operation the very hope of some temporal object hath in us what ravishments then must needs proceed from a hope that is fixed on the source of perfections and to have this addition that after our imaginations have proposed all the delights that humane wit can frame yet they fall infinitely short of those joyes the Object of a supernatural hope will discover unto us Blame not then our Petitioner if he give himself the assurance of joy and gladness when once his Soul shall be enriched with Grace and divine hope inspired into him since their presence brings the highest satisfactions we are capable off in this World I observe after Christ had declared the remission of St. Mary Magdalens misdeeds he bids her go in peace to shew she is no more impious For as they are strangers to repose so rest and satisfaction are the natural effects of a good conscience When the Thief on the Cross had obtained mercy immediately follow the glad tidings he should exchange that very day his Gibbet into a Paradise St. Austin had no sooner stepped into the Paths of pennance but he found himself overwhelmed with joy which he thus describes On a suddain sayes he it grew delightful to me to be weaned from trifling pleasures and what before I feared to loose now with joy I dismiss for thou O supream Diety didst tear them from me and supplyedst them by thy own presence who art in all honour beauty and pleasure excelling You see what he got in exchanging a few Worldly joyes for a life of pennance in quitting a Creature he came to the enjoyment of his Creatour in abandoning that we must needs once lose and which we still apprehend will be ravished from us he arrived to an inestimable and never perishing good Nay reason may tell us as happy experience hath informed Saints that if his mercy be so great and transforms it self into so many Shapes of vertues in reward to sinners it must needs be much more admirable in order to the just For it is but equitable that those who must love and honour him should have a more ample share in the Treasures of his mercies than such who injure and daily offend him If when we are Enemies he fails not to give Testimonies of his love being reconciled and readmitted to his favour what will he not do If he bestow a kiss upon a treacherous Judas with what overflowing sweetness will he visit a loyal heart which breaths forth nothing but love and a conformity to his will if a sound of his voice as Man was so charming that many of the Apostles at his first call abandoned
all their VVorldly interests and engagements to follow him what transports do the sweet whispers of his Divine Spirit occasion unto his dear Servants what internal consolations what tranquility of mind St. Austin terms them certain previous relishes or Antipasts of Heaven which far transcend all the contentment and satisfactions of this world In a word that Seraphim of love St. Austin gives us the perfect Character of a spiritual joy by his own experience Saying O Lord sometimes thou dost lead me into unknown delights which were they compleated in me I know not what they would be but certain I am it would not be this life that is such a Dilatation of Spirits he found to attend those spiritual comforts that he saw were they accomplished a ruine of his mortal Being must needs ensue This is the joy and gladness our Holy Petitioner expects and that he was not deceived in his expectation scarce a Psalm of his that proclaims not the sweetness and superabundant satisfactions issuing from the love fear and service of God and therefore when he had petitioned for persecution adversity and the Crown of Martyrdom he might justly solace himself with the sequel and fruits of sufferings which are joy and gladness To my hearing thou wilt give joy and gladness The Application Ah who would not then protest against the vain joyes of this world to tast the sweetness of spiritual entertainments St. Gregory puts this difference 'twixt Corporal and Spiritual delights that the former whilest in expectation are coveted with much vehemency but when once enjoyed they presently become nauseous and distastful the other we pursue but coldly and with little heat of desire yet when once we have a relish of them we still languish after the encrease This made St. Francis that blessed despiser of the World to make a Covenant with his senses never to fasten with the least Contentment on any sensual object and truly he was so exact in the performance as he went up and down like the meer shadow of a Man that had nothing humane in him but his shape his better part ever dwelling in the Mansion of the Blessed These are joyes that will not be held by Repentance may we then still languish after them Amen CHAP. XVIII Et exultabunt Ossa humiliata And humbled Bones shall rejoyce THis encouragement which our Petitioner allowes himself corresponds with the second part of the former verse where he was willing to Sacrifice his life For he doth not only cheer himself in reflecting upon the reward which repentance will bring to his Soul but likewise upon the future condition of his Earthly mould which he beholds as matter of great consolation and therefore upon the same score he prosecutes the Subject of his hope saying that his humbled Bones shall rejoyce Amongst all the comforts Christian Religion affords there is none hath so much influence upon Man as the expectation of a future resurrection the motive of this consolation springs from the belief we have of God's Omnipotency For as we believe he hath created us of nothing so we must acknowledge his power to restore us and raise our ashes to a better and more happy condition Nay if we observe the course of Holy Scripture we shall find the expiration of Saints hath a particular expression given it For they are not said to dye but to fall into a sleep as if their Bodies after separation retained a certain vertue which had resemblance with their glorifyed Souls In the Fourth Book of Kings Chap. 13. We read that a Carkass being thrown into the Sepulchre of Elizeus was by a touch of his Bones restored to life St. Hierom relates how Constantine the Great conveyed with much Solemnity the relicks of St Andrew and St. Luke unto Constantinople Areadius likewise the Emperour translated the relicks of Samuel the Prophet from Judaea into Thrasia where they were received with great veneration and joy of the people All which shews our Forefathers looked upon the remainder of Saints Bodies not as liveless fragments but as the Fountains of life and health as certain pieces God would make instrumental to miracles and to works above the power of nature Therefore the Bones of Holy Persons endued with such vertue may justly be qualifyed with joy and consequently it is not improper to say That humbled Bones shall rejoyce Again St. John Damascene hath a fine conception saying those who imitate the vertues of Saints may be more truly said their relicks or impressions than the lump and mass of Earth they leave behind He who hath the zeal and ardours of a St. Paul in the Conversion of Souls may be stiled his lively Image Who can claim the fortitude of a St. Stephen in accepting the stroke of Death for Justice sake will infallibly bear the stamp of that Protomartyr Who can perform the humble and spiritual life of a St. Francis will prove a better pattern of him than his own Body which at this day remains entire at Assisium as a Testimony of that Glory his Soul enjoyes in Heaven so that when we cast our selves into the mould of their vertues we become their animated statues and make them rejoyce in our imitation as the Angels do at a sinners Conversion it is not unlikely our Holy Prophet alluded to such living relicks vvhen he said humbled bones shall rejoyce Since good Men are here for the most part crushed in the Worlds esteem that values nothing but what is great in vanity Yet amidst these Clouds of oppression and scorns thrown at them they find within themselves a satisfaction in performing their duty to God for the fruit of the spirit sayes St. Paul is joy peace and a thousand other contentments which attend a state of innocence so that it is an ingenious Expression of our Penitent that humbled bones shall rejoyce I have many times wondered why Almighty God should give unto the Ashes of Saints what he had denyed them whilst they were alive and made not use of any limb or vital motion but for his sake that is many miracles have been wrought by touching the mouldred dust of Saints who living were never favoured with the power of any Miracle but as the lives of Saints are admirable so the proceedings of Almighty God with them seem very mysterious yet I have proposed some reasons of this to my sell First Almighty God will shew by this how dear his Servants are unto him and if he give so much vertue to their Ashes what may we expect he doth to their Immortal Souls Next it argues how grateful a thing humility is in the sight of God that those who have Crucifyed their flesh and daily Sacrificed their Bodies for his name should have the very Ashes of that Mortified Body cure Diseases restore sight to the blind and raise the dead to life Thirdly Almighty God will manifest the difference between a pampered Body and one mangled by acts of pennance the one by all manner of
reduced to nothing that his immense greatness might appear by his opposite subjection Now having done this once by the bloody Sacrifice of the Cross he would perpetuate the same in the Sacrifice of the Altar that whilest the fabrick of this new Jerusalem should stand he might alwayes render acts of thanksgiving for the graces conferred on his humanity and on the members of his Church By this Sacrifice we are enabled to pay our debt of thanks to God for the rich present of his only Son which we return unto him as a due and equal acknowledgment and if it be proportioned to what we owe for a gift so pretious much more will it serve to discharge our duties of gratitude for other benefits as when he is pleased to make us victorious over temptations and all the Enemies of our Salvation Lastly his Sacrifice on the Cross was to allay God's anger against the sins of Mankind and this same design is carried on in the Sacrifice of the Altar and aims chiefly to render God propitious to our transgressions In the works of St. Iames St. Basil and St. Chrysostom speaking of this Sacrifice is found this expression Lord accept of this Sacrifice as a propitiation for the sins and ignorance of the people by which you may see this Sacrifice doth not only appease God's anger discharge our large score of gratitude but also is effectual to purchase a supply for all our wants So that our Petitioner in the prospect of this bloody and unbloody victime might confidently usurp this pleasing air Then he will with a satisfyed Eye behold a Sacrifice oblation of Justice and a whole burnt-offering The Application Our Holy Penitent in another Psalm expresses the resentment of the Children of Israel when in captivity they sat weeping upon the Banks of the River of Babylon at the remembrance of Sion and of those Religious acts they were wont to perform in that holy place I am confident our zealous Petitioner felt no less the bitter throwes of affliction and langutshments after the Evangelical Temple wherein would be offered up a Sacrifice so full as the Justice of God could exact nothing more with what satisfaction did he reflect on this then to wit that time we now possess wherein we can daily adore Jesus Christ in his sacred throne of the Eucharist as Children paying the duty we owe to so indulgent a Father as Subjects to a lawful Prince as Criminals to a most equitable Judge as slaves to a Redeemer and as Creatures to a Sovereign Creatour Let us beg that since he hath daigned to expose himself a daily victime upon the Altar for all Mankind that there may be no Soul who shall deny him the just tribute of love praise and Adoration Amen CHAP. XL. Tunc imponent super altare tuum vitulos Then they will lay Calves upon thy Altar OUr holy Penitent having decipherd this bloody and unbloody Sacrifice as Jerusalem's greatest Glory and the Ornament of Sion that is the Church of Christ he carries on in his prophetick view his thoughts to other inferiour offerings as the off-spring and result of this supreamly great one Such are the oblation of persons who raised above the charms of flesh and blood embrace the Councels and Rules of highest perfection given by our Saviour and quitting all Earthly interests consecrate themselves totally to God These our Petitioner shadowes under the name of Calves according to Enthymius because having never tasted the Yoak but let loose to their full swinge and liberty do yet of their own accord make themselves a daily Sacrifice unto God For he that embraces such a state of perfection forsakes all first he forsakes himself renouncing in some sort all right over himself and to become a slave to God in the person of another who in the name of God and in his stead accepts the donation and surrender of himself and it is upon these terms that he may be conducted to perfection so that the Final motive of this Sacrifice is the exact and universal practise of all kind of vertues Riches honour and pleasure are the three main Enemies to perfection all which are clearly subdued in the essential obligations of this perfect State Poverty choaks the desire after temporal goods Chastity allays the concupiscence of pleasure and obedience stifles all appetite to Worldly greatness But besides all this we are to give to God our actions our time and employments and this gift consists in the punctual observance of certain Rules which allot to every one how to spend the Year the Moneth the Week the Day nay every Hour So that persons who devote themselves to such a state need not be solicitous for directions leading to perfection the Commandements of God and zealous performance of such prescripts as are given by spiritual masters afford abundant matter for this noble design What a comfort must it be to those who are setled in this state to think that there is nothing more excellent in a Creature than to belong in a particular manner to God their Creatour who hath power to glorify and enrich them with all good What can be more desirable than to grow every Day and hour in perfection and this in spirituality which is beyond all others a treasure of highest value We see all Beings strive to their utmost in this ambition Plants spring up and bear the fairest Flowers that possibly they can Trees afford liberally their best fruit Bodies issue forth all their strength and vigour to become more powerful in which their vertue consists And what invention is not hammered out by Women to add the least stroak to their natural beauty shall the Soul then be alone insensible in this propriety of nature No no our new Law-giver hath planted in Man a holy ambition after perfection and this seed hath been so fruitful and so efficacious that one might judge the abstracted lives which so many have led in all ages since his visible appearance upon Earth were the effects of a severe command rather than a Paternal Councel and that such a Sacrifice of Calves that is a religious simplicity and total abnegation of Earthy interest could not spring from a frank choice of the will but from an absolute necessity Wherefore our Holy Penitent all ravished with admiration points out that time wherein these wonders shall be wrought Then will they put Calves upon thy Altar The great Wheels which give motion to all our actions in this life are what is beneficial pleasant and glorious As to the first those who addict themselves to a state of perfection find good rules good example spiritual documents knowing directours several exciting graces and all things that lead to the accomplishment of vertue and encrease of merit Besides he is secured from innumerable miseries of the World which is nothing else but a Chaos of trouble and confusion a Theatour of envy ambition luxury tyrannical oppressions a place of errour and darkness overspread with nets