having taught Christs Victorious Resurrection teach us in this Article his tryumphant Ascension By his Nativity He went forth into the field to fight by his Passion and death He fought the battle By his Resurrection He overcame his enemies and by his Ascension He tryumphs His tryumphant chariot was a thousand thousand of celestial spirits Psal 67. 18. and according to the translation of S. Hierom innumerable thousands He tryumphed not only over enemies of flesh and blood but also over devills sin and death The spoils He carried with him were not flocks of sheep and troops of other beasts but innumerable multitudes of souls which He redeem'd out of Prison and rescued out of the jawes of Hell Thou art ascended high thou hast taken Captivity says the Rayal Prophet to him Psal 67. 10. With all this glorious traine He ascended not carried in a chariot as Elias nor by Angells as Abacuc the Prophet and S. Philip nor did He ascend only by the force and agility He recived in his resurrection but moreover by the power and vertue He had as God 2. He Ascended into heaven There are three Heavens according to the scripture Airy Statry and Emperial and He mounted above all heavens as his Apostle says so passing the Air Sun and all â—phes 4. the heavens He mounted to the most high and sublime place of the world 3. He sits at the right hand of God the Father God is a spirit a pure and incorporeal Being who hath neither side nor hand noâ— part How does He sit then at his right hand And if He sits in a seat or Throne of what matter is it made is it of wood marble gold silver or Diamant I know well 't is answered the Apostles accommodate themselves to our low manner of understanding and of speaking and that by this session at the right hand of the Father they express the equality and consubstantiality of the Father and the Son When we see one speak to the king on knee we conclude he is a Vassall But if we see one sit upon a throne neer the king and at his right hand we say he is a Prince or Sovereign The Apostles say JESUS sits at the right hand of the Father this is to say He is Sovereign Omnipotent and infinite as the Father equal coessential and coeternal with the Father 4. Yes But JESUS as man is not consubstantial nor coeternal with the Father and yet He is at the right hand of the Father not only as God but also as man as S. Leo expresly teaches in his first sermon of the Ascension You will say the humane nature of JESUS is in the Throne of God and at the right hand of the Father becaus being as it were ingraffted and inserted in the Being of God in the subsistance of the Word and making but one Person with him 't is served and reverenced as God 5. You say true but this solues not the difficulty For this holy Humanity is united to the Word and subsisting in his Personality from the first instant of Christs Conception and nevertheless to speak properly it is not but since the day of his Ascension that the Humanity is elevated to the glory of the Father and seated at his right hand as the church says in the Canon of the Mass that day 6. For to clear then these difficulties we must remember that in the Mistery of the incarnation the Son of God communicating his subsistance to the holy Humanity should have made it at the same time participant of all the perfections and Attributes of which a created Nature may be capable For if in a perfect marriage the Woman espouses not only the Person of her husband but also his nobility prerogatives and Honours shal not the sacred Humanity which is married much more perfectly and inseparebly to the Word receive from him the Perfections that are communicable to It A Vegetative soul penetrating the stock of a little tree makes it live with a Vegetative life A sensitive soul informing the body of a Lamb makes it live with a sensitive life An intellectual soul animating the body of a man makes it live with a reasonable life and the divine Word actuating filling and possessing the holy Humanity shal He not make it live with a divine life Ought He not to communicate to it his proprieties and his Attributes since He is united to it more strictly perfectly and nobly than any soul is to her Body or form to its matter 7. Nevettheless the divine Word to procure our salvation and to accomplish the work of our Redempion suspended in his Incarnation the communication of divers of his perfections For if JESUS had been immortall how should he have dyed for us If He had been impassible how would He have suffered for us If He had been independent and sovereign how would have he given us an example of obedience subjecting himself to his holy Mother But in the day of his Ascension He made an entire effusion of himself and of all his excellencies and perfections that were communicable to Humanity 8 This is that which He asked of his Father in the Vigil of his death when He sayd Now glorify me o Father with thy self with the glory which I had with thee before all ages Vpon which S. Iohn 17. 5. Lib. 11. in Io. C. 17. Colloss 2. 9. S. Cyrill of Alexandria says The Saviour asks to be glorifyd not with an accidental glory but with a natural glory and a little after The glory which He always had as God He asks now as man This is moreover that which S. Paul teaches us when he says the plenitude or fullness of the Divinity inhabits corporally in him that is in his Humanity says the same S. Cyrill And this is that wich ought to rejoyce us in this Mistery This is that which renders this Mistery dear and precious to JESUS to the Virgin and to all the Church 'T is in the Ascension properly that JESUS Man God sits at the right hand of the Omnipotent 't is in the Ascension that He was receiv'd into the Throne of God and that He entred into the Glory of his Father 9. He sits that is to say He is no more subject to labours tributary to wearines lyable to humane miseries and infirmities 10. He is at the right hand of the Omnipotent that is He hath the superintendence and the administration of Heaven and earth of men and Angells of spiritualls and temporalls What honor what happiness for us to know and to be assured that a persone of the same nature with us hath the keyes of life and death of Heaven and hell that He governs all and does whatsoever He sees good 11. He is in the Throne of God that is He entred into the real actual and eternal enjoyance of his Empire 12. He is in Glory of the Father that is He is received into a full entire and perfect possession of all the
a Virgin was a Mother Mother of a Man-God Morher of God and Mother of Man these I say are things which surpass Nature and are the subjects of our admiration I admire not sayd S. Cyprian the stabylity of the earth which stands by its own weight in the midst of the Vnivers I admire not the volubility of the firmament which moves day and night and hath no Center in which it may end its motion I admire not the inconstancie of the Moon which never remains in the same state but increases or decreases every moment I admire not the Sun which shews it self always full which is infatigable in its cours and marches as a Gyant to communicate its light and heat to all the quarters of the world But I admire God made man I admire a God in the womb of a Virgin I admire the Omnipotent an impotent infant And we may add I admire the Creator made a Creature the Lord and Soverign a subject and a slave and the Iudg a criminal in appearance In all the other wonders of nature I finde some reasons that do satisfy me But in this Mistery I have nothing els but that which the prophet Abacuc did say I have considered your works and am astonished 2. Born of the Virgin Marie This is the second Birth of the Son of God In his first He issued forth of the Vnderstanding of the Father from all eternity In this He came forth of his mothers womb in time The eternal birth is admirable the temporal is amiable I honor and reverence the eternal I embrace and love the temporal I rejoyce in that and I enjoy this I glorify God for the first and I thanke him for the second the eternal created me and the temporal repaired me It would have nothing profited me to have been created if I had not been redeemed by IESUS begotten of the Father I was created by IESUS born of the Virgin I was redeemed I have then more obligation to IESUS born of the Virgin than to IESUS begotten of the Father And I find many marvells in this second birth as well as in the first I will explicate the marvells of these his births and of his Conception by a comparison so proper and so natural so clear and so intelligible that the most indocible may come by it to a competent knowledg of these misteries 3. Amongst all the creatures purely corporal there is not one that expresses God so naturally as the Sun You see the Sun produces a Ray which is its offspring There is nothing more visible than the Sun producing its Ray nothing also is more clear bright and visible than the Ray and nevertheless there is nothing that we have so much difficulty to eye we cannot fix our eyes upon it not through want of light but through excessive clearness and through the weakness of our sight So the Son of God is begotten by his Father in the light of his Divinity by the way of understanding and of knowledg there is nothing then more intelligible than this Generation and nevertheless there is nothing that we are so unable to understand 't is darkness to us by reason of the weakness of our understanding Thô the Ray be the offspring of the Sun it is nevertheless as ancient as the Sun and if the sun had been from all Eternity its Ray would have also been eternal So though IESUS CHRIST according to his Divinity be the Son of God thc Father He is nevertheless as ancient as his Father He is from all Eternity even as his Father The Sun by its Ray warms the air makes the earth fruitful and produces gold and silver metalls and mineralls in the heart of it So the eternal Father by his Son Created Heaven and earth men Iohn ◠and Angells and does by him his works omnia per ipsum facta sunt The Sun loses nothing by giving Being to its Ray on the contrary the ray is the glory beauty and ornament of the Sun So the Son of God is the splendor of the Father and the figure of his substance 't is the Father's great perfection to begett a Son who is God as He and the same God with him The Ray coms forth of the Sun and is sent down to us but it coms forth of it without comming from it you see it in the Sun thô it be upon the earth So when faith teaches us that the Son of God descended from heaven and came into this world this is not to say he left the bosome of his Father He always remain'd there thô He appeared here The Sunbeam coms into this Church and passes through red glass How did it enter into it how did it go out of ir I know not It went into it without opening it it went out of it without breaking it so the Son of God came into this world and passed through the blessed womb of the Virgin How was He there conceiv'd I know not How was He brought forth I know not He was conceiv'd there He was brought forth without opening without breaking and without prejudicing the Virginal wombe The ray passing through the glass beautifies it renders it more clear and resplendent So JESUS passing through the womb of Mary rendred her Virginity more pure more holy and more sacred Matris integritatem non minuit sed sacravit What hath the Ray don in this glass it hath borrowed a little redness it is becom coloured the glass hath cloathed it with a red colour And what did JESUS in the womb of Mary He borrowed humane nature which is made if a little red earth Adam that is to say red earth He made himself man there the Virgin cloathed him with our humanity The ray borrowing of the glass this red colour deprived not the glass of it JESUS borrowing of Mary our humane nature did not any hurt or prejudice to Mary The sunbeam before it entred into the glass was a Ray but it was not colour nor coloured But since 't is entred into this glass and is com into this Church 't is a coloured Ray 't is a radiant colour 't is a colour which is a Ray So IESUS before the incarnation was God from all eternity But He was not man Now since He is entred into Mary He is a humanised God He is a Deified man is a God who is man and a man that is God The support and the subsistance of this red colour that appears here is the Ray for this colour subsists not but by this Ray So what is the support and the subsistance of the holy Humanity T is the Son of God it hath no subsistance besydes him This Sunbeam as a Ray or light of the Sun is in all the world But as a coloured Ray it is not every where it is only here and in some other places IESUS as God and Son of God is in every place But as man He is not every where He is but in Heaven and in the
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
common to all Christians by which they may pay to God their Duties and receive from him his favours 8. But IESUS is not only the Authour and Institutor of Sacraments He is moreover the Dispencer of them who vouchsafes to confer and administer them to you to confer them I say not only as an universall and general caus but also as a special and particular 9. The Nature and the Essence of a Sacrament is to be a visible and effective signe of divine and invisible grace And they have very great resemblance with the Authour of grace with the subject of grace and with the effect of grace The Authour of grace is IESUS CHRIST Man God and the Sacraments represent him very naturally For as IESUS CHRIST if one may speak so is but a holy and wonderfull Compositum of the divine Word and humane nature so a Sacrament is but a compositum of the word of the Priest and of the material Element The subject of grace is the person that receives it he is composed of body and soul And the matter of the Sacrament is applyed to his body and the form which consists in words teaches excites and animates the faith and the devotion of his soul The effects of grace are different and very well represented by the exteriour signes or Sacraments The effect of Baptismal grace is to cleanse the soul from original sin and to temper the ardours of concupiscence and what is more proper to represent these effects than water The effect of Eucharistical grace is to feed nourish and cherish our souls and what is more proper to signify this nourishment than the species of bread we may say the same of the other Saments as we shal see God ayding when we treat of each one In particular let us content our selves at present to see that the Sacraments are practical and effective signes of the grace they signify of which only it now remains to speak 10. This word Grace in the Scripture and in the language of the Faithfull is taken in divers senses First it is taken sometimes for all favours that God does us also in the order of nature other times for free gifts of God term'd graces gratis given becaus they are not given for the deserts not for the benefit of the Receiver but for the good of the Church as the gifts of prophecie preaching and working miracles 11. 'T is not in any of these senses that 't is taken treating of the Sacraments 'T is taken for habitual and sanctifying grace which is a most excellent quality that Sanctifys us and renders us holy and just before God that makes us children of the eternal Father Brothers and Coheires with IESUS CHRIST living Temples of the holy Ghost Kings of heaven and Partakers of the Divine nature says S. Peter 2. Ep. 1. ss 7. can 6. 13. 'T is an article of Faith declar'd by the councell of Trent that all sacraments of the christian Church give Sanctifying grace to all that receive them worthyly If there were a Confessor so rich and liberal that he would give five or six Guinnies to all that should com and confess to him and as often as they should com who would not go would he not be opprest with people We are not Christians if we believe not firmly that as often as we confess or receive other sacrament as we ought we acquire a greater treasure than if one should give us a thousand guinnys yes in the ballance of Gods judgment and in the esteem of wisemen one only degree of grace is more precious and more worth than all the riches of the Indies becaus grace is of a superior order to all the goods of nature 14. But by the sacraments you receive not only one degree of grace but many In Isaiah it is sayd You shal draw waters in joy out of the Saviours fountaines 'T is not sayd you shal receive they shal be given you But you shal draw t is not sayd out of cisterns But out of fountaines if it were sayd you shal receive grace you might think that you should receive but as much as one would give you But since t is sayd that you may draw and also out of fountaines which cannot be drain'd you may take as much of it as you will The measure of the greater or lesser quantity of water that you draw out of a fountaine is not in the fountaine it self but in the greatness or littleness of the vessell wherein you draw it so the measure of the greater or lesser grace you receive in sacraments is not in the sacraments themselves but in the greater or lesser disposition which you bring it you com to them with much of faith attention contrition humility devotion fervour and love of God you will receive in them much grace if you go to them with little disposition you will receive but little and consequently 't is more profitable to confess and to communicate one only time with-great devotion than 5. or 6 times with little disposition 14. Moreover the sacraments give not only habitual and sanctifying grace but also actual and auxiliary graces which ayd us to obtain the end for which each Sacrament was instituted I explicate my self when you receive holy Orders in a good state and with the disposition that you ought in the sanctifying grace which you receive is included a promise which God makes you to give you actual graces to perform well the divine office to instruct the people to administer the Sacraments and to do other ecclesiastical functions to which you are apply'd and consecrated by holy Orders If you marry in a good state and as a christian in the sanctifying grace which you receive is containd a promise that God makes you to give you in occasions actual and auxiliary graces to live peaceably with your husband to breed up well your children to resist temptations against conjugal chastity and to practise other vertues to which marriage obliges you By which you see the great prejudice you do your selves when either you neglect or receive unworthily the Sacraments you deprive your selves of innumerable graces which God would oblige himself to give you in the rest of your life as the appurtenances and attendants of the grace which you should have receiv'd 16. This will render you extreamly culpable in the judgment of God and you will dye with great regret seeing you had so souveraigne remedies and helps and that you neglected so much to profit by them know that the Sacraments are talents of inestimable value but which are given us with an obligatioâ— to gain by them In S. Matthew IESUS compares himself to a Lord who gave Talents to his servants and finding that he who had receiv'd Mat. 25. but one had not gaind with it sayd cast the unprofitable servant out into exteriout darkness there shal be weeping and gnashing of teeth What then would He have don to him if he had lost his talent what
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