when they prevaricate by injustice falshood irreverence to God impenitency and the like they act against a Law-giver which is God himself and against a Law that took birth with their Creation and is the Model and Rule of humane Lawes which without conformity to this Law are not Lawes but injustice and tyranny I will teach the wicked thy wayes The third remonstrance of our enflamed Doctour is to inform the wicked that positive Divine Lawes are necessary not only to rectify their wandring steps but also to preserve the just in their righteous paths The reason is Man is designed to a supernatural end to arrive at which his natural faculties are deficient wherefore it was requisite he should have supernatural precepts and rules proportioned to the sublime condition of his end Besides after he had exchanged a state of innocency for that of sin and corruption he stood in need of a Master who might instruct him how disastrous a thing sin is how necessary to have a redeemer all which Divine Lawes do open unto him Again to observe even the Lawes of Nature would have been a hard task if he aspired not after somthing more sublime for the efforts of his Soul are so clogged by the violence of his passions and his nature so weakned by sin that unless divine positive laws had engaged man unto heavenly pursuits scarce would he ever have been able to reach the perfect observance of the Law of nature Lastly it was necessary he should have alwayes before his Eyes his dependency and subjection unto God so to be stirred up to the performance of his duty and by giving testimony of his faithful obedience merit something at his hands wherefore his Creation was no sooner finished but God laid a command upon him that he might know even in Paradise he had a Master Next he consecrated the Seventh day to works of his service obliging the first inhabitants of the Earth to its observance Moreover those first Men of the World were obliged to the supernatural vertues of Faith Hope and Charity without which acts they could not be saved now those decrees were positive Lawes and superadded to those of nature so that in all times Men were never left purely to the Law of nature but it was intermixed with several positive ordinations that might help them on more advantagiously in the way of their Salvation Our Holy Penitent having thus exposed before the wicked the endearing providence of God over mankind who never abandoned them to the sole instinct of nature and conduct of their own Reason but like a careful Master teaching them his will by himself and giveing them particular directions to lead them in the way of vertue he would not stop there but proceed to a further elucidation of God's benefits towards them that at last overcome by his goodness they might lay down their arms and think it no dishonour to lye prostrate at the feet of so noble a Conquerour which if our penitent can effect he will repeat with much joy I will teâ—ch the wicked thy ways Our zealous convert plyes the Iron whilst it is hot hoping to render the wicked more malleable wherefore he produces the Mosaick law given by God to sanctify the Children of Abraham and dispose the World for the knowledge belief and honorable reception of Jesus Christ The Law consisted in precepts moral ceremonial and judicial The first contained the Ten Commandments and divers others relating to them and though the Law of nature led to their observance yet many errours were committed in reference to them which were cleared and better regulated by positive Lawes The Ceremonial were ordained in order to the worship of God regulating what belongs to the Sacraments Temple institution of fasts and bloody Sacrifice of Beasts wherein God manifested his justice declaring that sin deserved Death and likewise his Mercy in that he would exchange the death of a sinner for that of a poor animal The third are judicial which conspire to the establishment of a rare Government amongst the Jews that by an admirable policy being kept in peace Religion might flourish the number of their Laws amount to above six hundred an Argument of God's indulgence towards them For the Jews being stupid and of a gross apprehension uncapable of being led by general rules as not knowing how to apply them in particular emergencies he was pleased in every point to satisfy and instruct them Nay his particular providence here in appears that delivering so many Articles for their observance he seems to take upon him the whole care of providing for their temporals as well as spirituals as if he would keep a watch over every step and motion of theirs to the end all things might be exact and setled in the highest order He designed them likewise to be a pattern of Holiness and Sanctity to the Gentiles that by their example they might be drawn from the corruption of Idolatry to the real sentiments of vertue and religion wherefore he planted them in the midst of the habitable world Lastly it was just that Nation should be the most Religious and Pious from whence Jesus Christ was to issue forth that they might prefigure publish and engrave him in the hearts and minds of Men by their holy Ceremonies and legal observances which were all to represent him and the wonders of his life and death for this cause the kingdome of the Jews was prophetick and their religious actions a figure of the qualities condition and mysteries of Jesus Christ Nay all the worship and service which God required of that Nation and all the Exercise of their Religion was meerly to foretel announce expect and receive the Messias wherefore St. Paul calls it a holy Law abounding in Ceremonies and all tending to this effect I cannot doubt but our great Doctour and Prophet did with much Energy insist upon the designed End of the Mosaick Law which is Jesus Christ representing to the wicked that the sole way to Salvation was by repentance and belief in the Messias exhorting them to joyn with him in the practice of Heroick acts of vertues so to expedite his coming and repeat after him this his daily Prayer who will give us from Sion the Saviour of Israel He told them there was not a sigh or languishment any prayer or good work directed for the accelleration of this mystery which had not its effect that Abraham advanced it much by his prodigious act of obedience in offering to Sacrifice his Son and after he had run over all the Gests of Saints till his time he conclude all these motives would have been little efficacious without the charity mercy and love of God to lost Man St. John attributes the glory of this Action to love alone and if some have compared the vigour of love to equal that of death I dare give it a higher Encomium and will say it was so generous as to transport it self up to Heaven and assault the Divinity
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
Creatures to this intent he knowes no better medium than the publication of Man's corrupted Nature brought to that imbecility as of himself unable to give life and birth to one good thought behold sayes he I am conceived in iniquities that from the first instant of his conception he is seized on by sin and though that lineal stain be cleared by circumcision in the old Law and now by Baptisme yet there still remains a propensity to sin which grows up with us gaining strength through the whole course of our Adolescence For many years of our age are spent e're we come to distinguish between good and evil in all which time 't is clear we follow without any stop or haesitation the Dictamens of sense so that at the opening of our understanding we discover a Law Anathemathematizing our former practices the which by many reiterated and continued Acts are so wrought into habit that to break them we must as it were mould our selves into another nature This considered together with the dreggs and relicks of corruption which original sin leaves behind I wonder not if our Penitent deplore his misfortune and hints in his Petition this memorandum that he was conceived in iniquities This Fomes or scattered seed of original sin hath a double effect one an inclination to evil the other a drawing back or declining from what is good This made St. Paul confess he found a Law in his Body contradicting that of his reason and St. Bernard sayes the sin 't is true may be taken away by Baptism but to work a compleat cure that we feel no spice nor itching of the infection is in a manner impossible at least it requires a long course of remedies by a constant exercise and Tryal in vertuous actions For it is an inordinate and habitual concupiscence in the sensitive part so radicated that it becomes as it were a portion of nature Whence Seneca affirms vertues are rarely acquired without a Master but we quickly become expert in vice without the help of any Teacher which shews the pernicious consequence of original sin Our Penitent had found the bitterness of it by dear experience and this pushed him on to the reflection of a main cause of his misery because he was conceived in iniquities Yet our Penitent repines not at God's Justice herein but submits to this smart doom acknowledging a just retaliation that since the Soul had been disobedient to her Creatour the Body in requital should rise up in rebellion against her and punish her by the same Engins she had made use off in her prevarication he doth not scan the motives why God should punish so severely many millions of innocent Souls for the miscarriage of one Man and though he could satisfy himself that since original Justice had been purchased to all Adam's descendents by his obedience it is not unreasonable to share by his fall in the pain due to his transgression Our Penitent I say waves all argumentation looks upon the sentence pronounced and executed and being a Decree from God it must be just His sole hope is that this disordered and depraved constitution in humane nature will draw a more powerful aid and greater compassion towards a sinner when he fails and still the burden of his Song is because he was conceived in iniquities St. Bernard seems unresolved and full of perplexity when he considers Man in this tottering condition it makes him confess he knowes not by what strange bewitching means our will impared by sin is hampered in a kind of necessity and in such a manner as neither the necessity because voluntary can plead excuse for our consent nor the will being allured can scarce break through the necessity for this necessity is in some sort voluntary it is a kind of amorous violence working by flattery and flattering by force Whence the Will having once consented to sin can hardly disengage her self nor yet finds reason enough to excuse what she hath done Upon this score I wonder not to hear the plaining note of Job Lord I suffer violence it is onely you who impose the necessity can answer for me And a little after he cryes O thou Ruler of men why hast thou set me against thee all which shews the sad State of man wrought by original sin if left to himself for he was conceived in iniquities Philo the Jew speaking of Sin gives it a Term of infinity that being once set a flame can never be extinguished he calls it an immortal evil by no death or desolation to be destroyed The truth of this Philosophy who finds not in himself that albeit Baptism hath cleared the channel so as the streams of grace may run yet there are certain exhalations which issued from that corruption always ready to fall and embody with the currant so that if there be not a continual care and sifting it will be morally impossible to preserve our Souls pure and unstained Seneca sayes there are certain vices which are obvious to every Eye and to which we may be led as it were by the hand others there are that lye lurking and are hardly discerned till fastned upon us and these are the most pernicious because against them we can have nither open warr nor a secure peace And this truly is the genuine State of our natures from the corruption wrought in us by sin that we are not said to be clearly sick or well and this fluctuancy if rightly considered must needs be a torment because though we happen not to fall yet danger still threatens so that if we tender our happiness we must stand upon our guard at all times and places because neither Heaven Paradise Religious Cloyster or remote Hermitage is a secure fence against sin and a main reason to us the Children of Adam is because in iniquitatibus conceptus sum we are conceived and born in iniquities Whilst we are invironed and beset with such adversaries as our bad inclinations who watch as I may say but an advantage to undo us surely we ought to work out our Salvation with fear and trembling St. Bernard was not ignorant of Mans inconstancy when he gave this caution Oh sayes he did we but know how small a portion of vertue we have and how soon it vanishes upon how ticklish a foundation it rests unless the giver by a continued flux of Grace secure it to us we would not so easily imbark our selves into dangerous occasions for to indulge our senses and to arm our Enemies is the same but a strange policy How many who have thought themselves like Cedars elevated to a high pitch of vertue by a presumption of their own strength through ignorance of humane frailty and a Supine negligence rashly engaging themselves in hazardous Tryals have been ignominiously blasted and reduced to the condition of a contemptible shrub Lucifer enamoured of his own perfections and aspiring to a parity with God became the most abject of Creatures St. Peter promising wonders of
in this plight all he can say for himself is my Mother hath conceived me in sin The Application We are here to deplore with our Penitent the sad consequences or penalties of original sin First it is from thence that Men become Enemies to one another without this sin we had known no Tyrants Robbers by Sea or Land no corruption in Officers no oppression nor injury from any person From hence it is that the Beasts of the Earth and Fowl of the Air as if absolved from their Fidelity are in a manner no more awed by the Majesty of Man's Face The Elements malignant Planets and other insensible Creatures as if let loose to our destruction occasion an infinity of disasters unto us It is from hence we are stupid in our own concerns that being in a condition even beyond imagination dangerous we yet sport and vainly pursue our pleasures as if all things were according to our wish It is from hence we are filled with self-love pusillanimous in struggling with vice inordinate in our pursuit of fading objects never satisfyed with our state and alwayes seeking a change Our sences distract us from the meditation of heavenly things our fancy taken up with illusions disturb our sleep and after a thousand other discommodities and infirmities which usher Death at last it comes to resolve us into corruption worms dust and as it were to nothing and all this because my Mother hath conceived me in sin Ah let us therefore submit our selves under the powerful hand of God who alone is able to conclude all our misery in Beatitude Amen CHAP. XIII Ecce enim veritatem dilexisti For behold thou hast loved Truth OUr Penitent having dissected the Anatomy of Man and left no Cranny whereinto misery might creep undisplaid Now seems to Apologize for his discovery and pleads for excuse God's love to truth And in this point he believes he hath discharged his duty nor doth it a little satisfie him to have done it since it is the only thing he can now perform to repair the failing in his duty First he hath made an ingenuous confession ripping up every thought that could any wayes intrench upon God's holy Law and having thus emptied his unhappy store without the concealment of the least corrupted grain hear what he expects in return of this his faithful Narrative or rather what a Sequel depends upon it Dixi confitebar injustitiam meam Domino tu remisisti impietatem peccati mei no sooner sayes he had I pronounced that I would lay open my iniquities but I found my shackles unloosned and the impiety of my sin wholly rased out whence we may see how the meer intention of doing well never falls to the ground unrewarded Which imports God presumes we will not trifle with him and therefore at the least overture of rendring a just account of our misdeeds he makes us no more impious that is takes away all the obstacles to Remission as impenitency obduration habitual impression of evil and the like So that if we keep touch in our promise he will be faithful in compleating his act of grace because dilexisti veritatem thou hast loved truth Hugo Cardinal prescribes unto us verity under three considerations that is a verity of life a verity of Doctrine and a verity of Justice Verity of life consists in a conformity with those Laws which God and Nature have set down for the Rule of our actions this our blessed Saviour sufficiently asserts when he gives the lye to him who pretends to love God and yet not observes his commands St. Thomas sayes there is a law eternal residing in the Divine intellect by which the World is governed and that humane lawes are more or less just as they participate of this eternal rule Hence our life if not squared out by this directive original must needs wander fall into errour nor can be called a life of verity nay I know not whether we may call it a life since Lactantius affirms that whosoever strayes out of this line flyes from himself despises humane nature and consequently will suffer the torture of an erroneous conscience which is not small though other punishments escape him The First Principle then of a life of Truth is to steer our Course in order to this universal guiding spirit imprinted in us by the light of nature next we are to look upon positive Lawes dictated by the Holy Ghost and the adorable example of our Lord Jesus whose life and actions were all directed to our instruction So that any structure erected upon this foundation cannot prove Sandy nor fail the builders expectation We find in holy Scripture frequently eternal felicity promised as a reward to good works this the penny agreed on with those who wrought in the Vineyard insinuates no less doth the Crown prepared for those who faithfully combat in this life the Triumph also of Resurrection speaks as much assured to the real not ideal supporters of Christ's Cross Nor is the name of Christian given us as bare lookers on but because actually made a spectacle to God Angels and Men. By acts therefore of Temperance Patience Humility Resignation and other Christian vertues we shake off as it were our old Natures and become a new production created in Justice and Truth and so become the object of God's Love because Veritatem dilexisti he hath ever loved Truth If we look upon the unwearied labours of Men in pursuit of what may render them happy in this life we shall find Truth to be the main scope of their aims First it is a priviledge of Man's Nature there being no Creature in the World but Man capable of truth so that whilst we toil in the inquisition we comply with an appetite or desire engrafted in us which eggs us on towards the thing that can only make us happy For Beatitude is defined a joy in the possession of truth unveiled and clearly discovered to us Secondly the delight we derive from the knowledge of Truths far surpasses any other satisfaction we can have in this World because depending meerly upon the intellect it is depurated from the dreggs of sense and so more intimately affects and transports the Soul When by study we have attained to a Demonstration how quiet is the understanding freed from all mists of doubts and uncertainty and securely rests in the acquisition of the said truth Thirdly if I covet a Friend I propose in this design an object of truth and fidelity and if I find a breast sealed with this sacred stamp how pleasing a Sanctuary is it where in all distresses I fly as to an Oracle unfolding the secrets of my heart resolving in that consistory between us two what to act and how to steer the course of my affairs If the tye of marriage leagues between Nations and Friendships are held sacred from the obligation they impose upon us of sincerity and truth how much ought verity it self to be valued which gives life and
bread given in his Name to relieve the want of a distressed person as that he will own it as done to himself what may we expect in return when we prevent the eternal misery of our Neighbour which is the necessary consequence of sin not defaced by repentance These reflections so transported St. Gregory the great as to make him say The very Angels do envy Man in the conversion of a sinner Nay they would be content to quit even the beatifick Vision for a while that they might render to God the service of gaining one Soul and could they repine at any thing it should be in not having Tongues sensibly to express themselves in order to this end Wherefore you may see by this clause our Penitent is grateful he will not like the sluggish steward bury his Talent in the Ground but improve it and this by the noblest way of Traffick encreasing the number of the blessed I will teach the wicked thy ways There is nothing certainly holds in subjection and strikes an awe and respect into us more than the impressions of knowledge we receive from any person those who are most famed for wisdome in the world have alwayes acknowledged a greater Obligation to their Masters than Parents because the one made them simply to live the others to live well It was from this principle that God designing to give a precept of charity to his reasonable Creatures to facilitate the Execution of this his command ordained a dependency of one another in the conveyance of intellectual notions that the first rank of Seraphims should enlighten the next immediate order and so to the lowest Hierarchy for from this ordinate transmission of scientifical species arises a Harmony of love and respect love in those that communicate respect in those that receive nor doth it end in the giver and receiver but is returned with the advantage of praise and glory unto the supream Fountain whence all true wisdom flowes Now Princes are Earthly Seraphims unto whom it belongs as mortal Quires to enrich their Nobility they their immediate subordinate ranks and so to the lowest Peasant with Documents of Justice temperance and Piety First by good example Next by a vigilancy to put in Execution pious and equitable Lawes Our Holy Penitent happily ambitious to lay the Foundation of a Common-wealth which unanimously conspiring to God's honor might imitate that of the blessed is resolved to play his part he will not barely instruct but teach by his actions what his subjects owe to God Nay he will have a particular Eye unto the wicked and shew his zeal in their reduction a task beyond the victory over Lyons and Giants I will teach the wicked thy wayes I will teach the wicked thy ways that is thy commandments and from thence confound them in their disobedience for God having created the world of nothing an absolute dominion over all Creatures is from thence most justly due unto him and if the potter of the same Mass of Clay composes Vessels of honour and others to baser uses and this without any blame though many causes concurr with him in this action With much more reason God having had no partner in the production of Creatures ought to have an entire disposal of them this sovereignty by the title of Creation is the most noble and accomplished that can be imagined because he derives the priviledge from none but holds it from himself so that it is natural to him Having laid this foundation our penitential Master unfolds unto the wicked a Law eternal which is nothing else but certain decrees and maxims he framed in his infinite understanding from all eternity by which he resolved to govern the World when he should think fit to give it a Being Amongst a multitude of these Maxims One is to concurr to the motions and actions of all Creatures conformably to their Natures which he would not destroy Another is to permit Man to act according to his strength and liberty whatsoever the issue be The third is not to admit him into Heaven unless he render himself in some sort capable of it and after the Collation of his grace and imposition of his commands never to violence his liberty so to obstruct sin but yet he resolved to draw good out of evil and at the latter day pass a severe sentence upon voluntary bad actions This is then the first lesson our Convert will read unto the wicked that the decrees of God touching the worlds Government as they are eternal so are they immutable If some be frozen through want of light and heat others again do melt with the excess of both yet will he not for all this alter the Sun's course if some do abuse free will and by it work their own destruction this inconveniency will not make him change what he hath done nor abrogate that noble priviledge Though heaven should become a desart yet will he not people it but with such as merit it by a good life I mean in persons grown up to the use of reason however foolish intoxicated brains may quarrel his conduct as they do in many of these particulars The next Lecture our Convert will hold forth unto the wicked and mark out to them the track of heaven is that this supream Lord hath imprinted in every man a law of reason by which if he square not his actions his own reason will rise up against him play the judge and condemn him This light tells us we must fly what is evil in it self and embrace that good which is so intrinsick to our natures as its contrary is absolutely evill As for example to adore God is a thing so corresponds with Mans reason as were there no superiour command to do it yet our own judgement could not but allow it as proper and fitting to be done both in consideration of Man's infirmity and vileness as also in relation to the greatness and infinity of God This light is so universally spread that scarce any can be found so savage who knows and performs not good in some kind or other St. Paul confirms this doctrine ad Rom. 1. The Gentils ignorant both of the Law of Moses and the gospel do naturally discharge some part of the Law that is of nature whence St. Austin cryes out O God your Law is written in our hearts which no iniquity can raze out Hence springs a remorse of conscience even in the most barbarous persons after the perpretation of any crime opposite to the law of nature and which sooner or later never fails to seize them with apprehensions of the divine justice but especially when grace of which no man is altogether and always destitute awakens their drowzy and extinguished conscience this I say ever gives them some light spark of knowledge by which their first inconsiderate act is rendred less excusable Thus our brave combatant beats the wicked with their own weapons and evidently demonstrates referring all to their own conscience that
Death than she did the dishonour to herself and Family Solomon sayes a Thief may have some excuse in that extremity of hunger urged him to his villany at least in rendering seven-fold he makes satisfaction But an Adulterer hath no plea nor can the Indies ballance the wrong done by him Our Holy Penitent revolving all these truths in his Mind hath reason to joyn in his petition the crimes of homicide and adultery together since both are Coincident in his malice both injurious to our Neighbour both destructive to the very Lawes of nature and both exemplarly punished in all ages by Divine Justice Wherefore he may justly insert Free me from blood c. When I read a passage in St. Paul 2 Cor. Chap. 7. it appears terrible the resentment God entertains of Adultery He there sayes if the Husband be in the number of the faithful and the Wife of the unfaithful he shall not dismiss her But if she be unfaithful to his bed then he may lawfully forsake her so that God seems to be more offended in that she keeps not her saith with her Husband than in being disloyal to him insinuating by this that he will give no quarter to an adulterous act How odious this Crime is to humane Society appears in that the Civil Law permits the Father or Husband of the Adulteress if taken in the fact to offer violent hands and immediately destroy both the offendours and though the Cannons seem to disallaw of this Law as unjust because it precipitates the guilty into an evident hazzard of their eternal Salvation Yet still it concludes how monstrous an exorbitancy Adultery is in the judgements of Men when to punish it they allow parlies interessed to be both Accusers and Judges which in no other circumstance hath ever been permitted Adultery is a commerce between persons who are not linked together in a conjugal tye and from thence it is cloathed with the turpitude of fornication and is a sin against charity Next it is a violation of a bond indissoluble by which the Author of Nature hath united one to another and superadded to fortify this Chain the blessing and vertues of a Sacrament I remember the Councel of Trent in favour of this Sacrament teaches that God by it bestowes a particular grace that as in Baptism we purchase as it were a new Being regenerated and born to a spiritual life as in confirmation we receive a Grace strengthening us in our Faith as in the Eucharist an encrease of heavenly blessings is showred down upon us the like in the rest of the Sacraments So in that of marriage a grace is communicated which perfits and refines the natural love they bare to one another before they married Insomuch as that love which before was perhaps seated in some corporeal charm or grace afterwards becomes wholly sacred and no attractive appears which carries not along with it a pious allurement and which makes them whilest they tread the paths of vertue to have a horrour of any thing that may alter or diminish it Now this holy effect is evacuated by Adultery so that it may be called a kind of Sacriledge dissolving the sacred union of hearts which is made by marriage and therefore I wonder not if St. Cyprian terms it Summum delictum the highest crime that Man can be guilty of Our sad Penitent alarmed with the outcryes of blood on the one side and Adultery on the other for which as an Enemy to God and Nature he deserves to be exterminated hath no refuge but to the God of his Salvation and he repeats it again and again that he would daign to save him from the doom of both protesting a true repentance of both and that for the future like a Lamb in the shearers hands he will be silent endure all the opprobâ—ios his Subjects shall cast upon him and make a return of all the good he can Lastly he will extinguish for ever within him all the Fires of concupiscence and unlawful desires so he may be sheltered from these crying sins under the beams of his mercy Free me from blood O God God of my Salvation The Application The way to preserve our selves from this torturing guilt is to be well versed in the precept of charity For by this same vertue by which I love God I am likewise carried on to love my Neighbour So that whensoever I injure him I violate the Law of love towards God which obliges not only to love him but all that belongs to him Now as Man is the most excellent Creature in this inferiour World and most capable to render him honour and glory there can be no violence offered to him which reflects not upon the Sovereign Lord he serves for whose respect we ought to cherish what he would have cherished I must not then love my Neighbour because he is rich beautifull well fashioned or to me particularly obliging but I must love him because I love God to whose Family he belongs and in a place of Eminency by the priviledge of his Being I must love him in that 〈◊〉 the glory of God to which he may contribute much by the Conversion of his own and other Souls to his Service why should I then plot mischief against him for whom Jesus Christ hath a value why should I aim at his Death to whom God imparted life for whom our redeemer suffered Death and would if needful do it again What need I care if they be malicious to me since I love them nor for what they are in themselves not for what they are to me but meerly for the love I bear to my dear Sigiâ—…r Let us stick close to this Principle and pray Free me from blood c. Amen CHAP. XXX Et exultabit Lingua mea justitiam tuam And my Tongue shall exalt thy Justice AT the first glance one might Censure our Petitioner as not placing aright his acts of gratitude ascribing to God's Justice rather than mercy his deliverance from sin but you must know it is far from him nay contrary to the Doctrine he delivered in the preceeding Chapter to think he could merit any thing de condigno or by the value of his own works without sanctifying grace which is the sole effect of God's mercy His meaning therefore is that supposing he be enriched with the Donative of Grace he may then lay claim to his Justice for a reward St. Paul Tim. 4. sayes A Crown of Justice is reserved and will be justly given to him First he calls Heaven a Crown of Justice because it is given by way of Justice in consideration of the worth of merit Next that God will give it as a thing to which he hath a right and Lastly he styles God a just Judge in Testimony he doth it by vertue of his Office that is to observe the Rules of Justice The Arausican Councel chap. 28. declares that a recompence is due to good works but grace which is not due must go before and
who are endued with reason consecrate all our thoughts and words all our desires and affections to exalt his praise and glory Amen CHAP. XXXIII Quoniam si voluisses Sacrificium dedissem utique Because if thou wouldest have had a Sacrifice I should verily have done it IN this Clause our Petitioner hints a remarkable consideration which is that he will not play the Heady devote nor follow his own will and what his weak brain may suggest unto him in order to God's service but wisely commit himself unto God who must be his Master in this particular For Man's blindness is so great the Clouds over his understanding so black that of himself he cannot discern what homage is due to his Sovereign Monarch nor with what Sacrifice he ought to adore thank and appease him He knew well our important affair in this life is to serve God as he would be served and in that way which might be most pleasing to him by consequence the orders he is to observe must be revealed to him by God that conformably to his pleasure he is ready to obey to Sacrifice not only a beast but his fortune honour crown person and all There are many Opinions about this Quere why those legal Sacrifices instituted by God's own appointment as a testimony of our acknowledgment of his supream Dominion over us and being their sole refuge to shelter themselves from the darts of his anger should in the case of our Petitioner be censured as useless and no wayes to be countenanced by the approbation of Heaven Some say our Penitent means by this the bare external act of Sacrifice which as an accustomary thing without the intention which gives life to the action is not required of God nor receives from him any support and that in this sense he truly doth not authenticate any Sacrifice so offered But questionless this exposition is far from our Penitents thoughts for no oblation unless vested with a form of sincere respect and reverence to the Divinity can find any propitious effect and since that depends on the will of him that offers sacrifice if this circumstance be wanting neither will his immolation be acceptable nor he himself blameless if he desist upon that title from discharging his duty by those Ceremonies which the Law then required I will wave the sentiments of divers others so to avoid prolixity and give you that of St. Gregory who seems to have hit upon the genuine sense of this clause For he reputes it to be a prophetick inspiration in our Penitent that the legal Sacrifices being a Type only and Figure of that eternal Sacrifice to be offered up in the person of Christ in whom they were all to end Therefore in consideration of his vigorous Faith and ardent zeal for his coming by which he merited the effect of what they represented he was dispensed within these legal Sacrifices as to himself they being in these circumstances little beneficial and as it were unnecessary But let us examine the nature of a Sacrifice which will give us light the better to discern the verity of this clause First it exacts that he who offers Sacrifice be a Priest for since it is a worship of all others the most eminent by which the World conspires in one to acknowledge a Divinity it is requisite this external Ceremony should not be committed to the Execution of everyone but that certain selected Persons be constituted who in the name of the Common-wealth should pay their homage to the divine Majesty and in that action of Sacrifice acknowledge both his supream power and their subjection and this person ought to be a Priest because it is his proper office witness St. Paul in the Fifth to the Hebrews Every Priest chosen out amongst Men are appointed for the service of Men in those things which relate unto God in the oblation of gifts and Sacrifices Now as to the Law of nature where mention is made of Sacrifices and not of Priests St. Hierom cites a tradition of the Hebrews which testifies that the First born Male or Eldest Son were Priests and enjoyed both a regal and pontificial authority in their Line and Family Whence Job Chap. 2. Sacrificed in behalf of his Children whom likewise he blessed and sanctifyed Next it is required in a Sacrifice that it be some external sensible thing either living or inanimate for whatsoever by the esteem of Nations or authority of holy Scripture hath been reputed a real and true Sacrifice it ever consisted in some such visible and external thing The third condition of a Sacrifice is that the thing offered up be killed or some alteration made in it for all the Sacrifices of the natural and Mosaick Law were not performed by a simple oblation or elevation of the thing but by its destruction and this directed to God's honour Living Creatures were slaughtered and things inanimate some burnt as Flower Salt Incense Others poured out or spilt as Blood Oyl and Water The reason why a Sacrifice ought to be destroyed is that by the destruction it serves no more to the use of Men and so more compleatly seems all applyed to God's honour as importing his supream Dominion and a dependency of all things on him Fourthly a Sacrifice is to be offered up implicitly or explicitly to the honour of God if for any other end it loses the nature and quality of a Sacrifice For a Sacrifice is in the number of those signs by which we express our inward value of anothers excellency and a desire in our selves to become his slave now if this esteem or desire be wanting the sign is false and hath no effect so that a Sacrifice proceeding from flattery or fear is impious and puts a scorn upon the Deity they seem to adore Lastly the place wherein a Sacrifice is performed ought to be consecrated to that end and this we call an Altar for doubtless the dignity of that action may justly exact a particular department separated from prophane uses as the custom of all Nations declares From these premises we see what a Sacrifice is taken in the strictest sense to wit an external oblation of some sensible thing offered unto God by which we acknowledge his supream power over us and all things that he may dispose of them and us at his pleasure Now that God should not require at the hands of our Petitioner such an expression of his duty seems intricate because though by the tye of nature we are obliged to worship God by acts of vertue and good works issuing from such a principle may quadrate with the end of a Sacrifice which is to honour God Yet they produce no external sign and so properly cannot be said to be an act of Religion nor consequently a Sacrifice which comprehends the most perfect worship that can be given by a Creature Besides it is most certain that the Law of Moses obliged the Jews very strictly and this appears in God's promises to the punctual
himself to one who is the searcher of hearts and before whom the most secret motions are displayed he should nevertheless make this superfluous expression of his promptitude to perform what ever he would exact of him But we ought to justify our Penitent and believe that in this he aims at the Worlds satisfaction to the end after ages might read he declined not the use of those remedies the Law prescribed out of any defect of submission to the Law but meerly upon the score of God's dispensation who was pleased to accept of the interiour Acts of his repentance and in that acceptation would inform Mankind the heart is the thing he most considers The Application From hence we may learn this instruction that when we see our Neighbour deficient in what he owes to the eternal Law we must not immediately pass Sentence of Condemnation upon him the Judgements of God being far different from those of Men but referr all to that great day which will lay open all Truths especially in matters of omission where the causes are so inevident and where in we so often make the Innocent guilty If seriously we insist upon this principle then with confidence we may keep time with Holy David and cry If thou wouldest have had a Sacrifiice I had verily done it Amen CHAP. XXXIV Holocaustis non delectaberis Thou wilt not be delighted with Holocausts HAd our Petitioner couched this Clause in the present Tense and said Thou art not dedelighted with Holocausts it would have cleared the sense of the precedent disease and proved a satisfactory alligation for his omission of Sacrifice But being in the future it renders the expression dubious and may import that upon the establishment of a new Law all these Figurative oblations will cease and then the Incense of those appeasing Sacrifices would no more smell sweet in his Nostrils But however upon a more serious inspection it may bear this construction that an immediate and present effect would follow to wit whensoever he should offer Sacrifice it will be no wayes acceptable to him because as I said in the promises the lively Faith he had of the Law of grace put him in the same condition through a particular dispensation of Heaven as if he had not been under the Mosaick Yoak and therefore since he contributed on his part what was requisite to the perfection of an Evangelical Sacrifice God would supply the rest so that truly as to his particular he might say Thou art not delighted with Holocausts c. Upon these grounds our Petitioners argument carries weight and inferrs that if Holocausts be not countenanced by Heaven it were in vain to think of any other oblation for amongst all the legal Sacrifices that of Holocausts or Burnt-offerings was the most perfect and the most compleatly expresses the supremacy of God's power over us and the fulness of our subjection to him for in some Sacrifices part of them were burnt the rest applyed to the use of the Minister but in Holocausts all was consumed and by the total destruction of that offering was implyed a dependency of Fortune Life and Being on his orders and commands from whence they were derived I observe likewise in the sacred Text that if Sacrifices were not performed with a pure conscience and detestation of sin they were odious in the sight of God this appears in the First Chapter of Esay by whose Pen God declares that Incense was abominable to him and that he abhorred their Solemnities Again in the Prov. The Sacrifice offered up by an impious hand is abomination in his sight For the end of a Sacrifice is either in order to a reconciliation with God a return of thanks for benefits received or for the impetration of some new favour Now to pretend to any of these and not renounce all affection to Sin were rather to provoke than any wayes appease his anger But our Petitioner delivers not the thing with that horrour he touches not upon any abomination or severity on God's part but expresses it in the Negative of any satisfaction he will take in it which concludes his Sacrificing action would not be rejected upon the score of any real-guilt but as a thing unnecessary to him who was priviledged with the conditions of a more efficacious oblation and therefore justly he might cry thou art not delighted with Holocausts Again our Holy Penitent in his 30. Psalm explicates himself more clearly about this point his vvords are these Thou hast not required a burnt-offering for sin wherefore I will plant your Law in the midst of my heart since I said engraven in the Frontispiece of the Book that is my conscience I should in this manner perform your will What can be more evident to demonstrate he had orders to desist from any other Sacrifice then what were hatched and conveyed unto God from an unspotted Heart for by this Book is meant the secret of Gods proceedings with Man as appears in the Apocalips where is expressed that the Lamb alone was found worthy to open and unclasp the Book of God's secrets and this Book was unfolded to him by which he is taught That he is not delighted with Holocausts Holocausts c. Besides though the Law of Moses were abrogated as to their Ceremonial and judicial precepts Yet what depended on the Doctrine of Faith and morality was not cashierd but refined amplifyed and made more perfect Whence our Holy Petitioner by way of Amplification instructed in the more ample Elucidation of Faith to be unfolded in the Law Evangelical and enriched with a right Spirit not only to discern what is good from bad but likewise to embrace and pursue the wayes of vertue not only to know the wounds of humane nature but also the sovereign remedies for their cure presumed he might lay claim to a Law not of fear but love laid open to him in his prophetick Spirit A Law not only given by a Legislator but by him who was both a Lawgiver and Redeemer a Law not written in stone and which breathed forth anger but one that should be imprinted in the hearts of Men vvhose effects are Grace and Truth and by vvhich he should be related to them as their God and they to him as his people A Law not given to one single Nation but directed to the whole World in which repentance and remission of sins should be enacted and held forth A Law not consisting of shadowes but substance by the infusion of Faith and Charity and by the impletion of all figurative Sacrifices a Law not of slavery but freedome and love which vvith the Precepts vvould be communicated a spirit of Charity to enable them to the performance of vvhat vvas imposed and vvhere the Lords spirit is there liberty is found Hence though our Petitioner was still under the Law yet it vvas not as a bond-man performing his acts by constraint but as a Child born to his duties by affection and respect and therefore exempt from
the one Espouse the other Lord in the one he shews his love in the other the fear which is due unto him in the one the security with which we may come unto him and offer our petitions in the other the respect and reverence we owe to so great a Majesty As our Espouse he hath contracted with us a holy alliance by grace which we have forfeited through our infidelity and therefore to redeem this adulterate action nothing but a pure act of sorrow arising from the source of Charity will suffice to a reconciliation But as he is our Lord we ought were it possible to dissolve into nothing before him in acknowledgement of our guiltiness and satisfaction to his offended greatness So that this Sacrifice of a contrite and humble heart seems to be appropriated to these titles of Espouse and Lord ascribed in sacred writ unto him For love rooted in repentance is the most proper compensation for an injured and abused lover and fear joyned with humility is the best allay to an irritated Sovereign St. Gregory sayes a repenting sinner for the most part beginning his conversion is seised with a terrour and fear which the memory of his treason doth work within him this makes him for a time consume in the sad apprehension of deserved punishment for his crimes and whilst he remains in this plight he heholds God under the notion of a severe Judge but by degrees the bitterness of these terrours wearing off by some glimmering hopes of pardon obtained he still continues his penitential acts yet with this disparity that whereas at first he wept lest he should be brought to Execution now enflamed with a love of spiritual-delights he melts away in Tears lamenting that he is with held from his felicity So that love and fear are still the materials of this Sacrifice which God will not reject This same Doctor observes the several agitations of a Soul in this oblation of love and fear First she calls to mind in the glass of her sins where she was to wit on the brink of Hell Next weighing and affrighted at the Abyss of God's judgments considers where she may be then casting her Eye upon the miseries of this present life sadly reflects where she is Lastly she contemplates the joyes of eternity and filled with sighs and groans laments she is not there Thus you see how a Soul is distracted that hath ever tasted the bitterness of sin If she look back she is affrighted at the ghastly sight of her misdeeds and hath only this comfort which God declared to Ezechias upon his repentance that he had thrown all his sins behind him never to take a further view of them If she look upon what may befall her the judgements of God are unfathomed Abysses into which she cannot dive and the sole buckler she hath to rely on that he will not reject an humble and contrite heart If she fix her Eye upon the present state of things she beholds herself surrounded with dangers from abroad and her own frailties at home against which her only fence is humility and resignation to his blessed will If she raise her thoughts to the end for which she is created she can but languish after it and frame ardent desires for the possession In these distresses our Holy Penitent marches between love and fear his love cimented with fear keeps him from sinking into despair and his humility fortifyed with a true sorrow resolves him to a future constant obedience to God's Lawes Thus armed thus guarded with a train of hope and confidence trusting in God and alwayes distrustful of himself he concludes A contrite and humble heart O God thou wilt not despise The Application We are here instructed how to prevent any repulse in our addresses to Heaven for a heart qualifyed with love and humility God will not reject this is declared in the person of St. Mary Magdalen that her love had purchased a compleat abolition of all her iniquities and Christ hath engaged that he who humbles himself shall be exalted St. Thomas says as there is no attribute wherein God more glories than in his mercy so above all he most delights in the humble it being a vertue which renders Men still capable of his favours and upon the same score he hates the proud because they have not recourse to his mercy as believing they want it not Let us then stick close to our Penitents doctrine and seek no other way to be great than what was practised by our redeemer he stooped even to the death of the Cross and so entered into his glory we likewise must either take up our own Cross or else with love and humility bear that which God shall please to lay upon our shoulders and if we thus sustain our load we need not fear that scornful World I know you not but on the contrary a happy invitation Come yee blessed into the Kingdom prepared as a recompence of your contrition and humility from the Worlds beginning Amen CHAP. XXXVII Benigne fac Domine in bona voluntate tua Sion Deal favourably O Lord in thy good will with Sion THe order of Charity prescribes that in the first place we love God next our selves and then our Neighbour As to God he is the primary and chief object which gives motion unto Charity because a goodness infinite which is the ground-work of our love is found essentially and most perfectly in him He being then the sovereign good of all things there is no goodness in Creatures which is not derived from him as the source and without whom they could not one moment subsist Insomuch as God is to me a greater good than I am to my self For though God be a thing distinct from me yet he is the good on whom both my self and all others depend wherefore I ought absolutely to wish and choose rather that God should be than that my self should be because it is better and more sutable to the inclinations of nature For Man is not carried by any natural propension to love himself more than God such an inclination were perverse and wicked Nay forbidden by the Law of nature that a Being created and imperfect should be preferred before one infinite and increated God therefore whose productions are all good never gave unto Man such a tendency The conclusion then is that we are carryed on by the impulse of nature to love God above all things even above our selves however this inclination be strangely thwarted by our passions and the corruption wrought in us by sin After God we are to love our selves in our spiritual wants and necessities beyond all our Neighbours in the most strict alliance either of blood or friendship Because the aim of Charity is to unite the Subject it informs with God and therefore St. Bernardin of Sienna sayes Whosoever defiles himself with sin under the Cloak of Charity this Charity is impious for that cannot be Charity which destroyes our own Charity
in which the immolated victime suffered a real mutation both in that Christian oblation without effusion of blood which he celebrated the night before his death as also in the bloody Sacrifice of himself which he might have hindred but would not he is then a true Priest Again his power not being confined to Sacraments nor to certain words and ceremonies as that of Men who are Priests after him and not depending upon the impression of any Character since he was setled in it sufficiently by his Hypostatick union he enjoyes a degree of Priesthood with eminency above all other Men invested with this sublime dignity Wherefore doubtless this his Priesthood above all other things was most acceptable to God because by this title and quality he hath wrought the Worlds Salvation hath reconciled Souls unto God and put them into a condition of rendering him glory in all Eternity So that among all the sublime qualities of Jesus Christ that of his Priesthood hath been the most beneficial to the World for by it he hath made up all the breaches of sin both in Heaven and Earth appeased God's anger by his Sacrifice and restored us to his lost grace and favour Next he is not only Priest but sovereign Bishop empowred to institute ordain and govern at his pleasure in all spiritual things which relate unto God and the Salvation of Souls wherefore St. Peter Ep. 1. C. 2. Stiles him the Bishop and Pastour of Souls St. Paul likewise to the Hebrews Chap. 7. sayes It was fit we should have a Bishop holy innocent unpolluted and separated from sinners who hath no necessity of offering Sacrifice daily for his own sins So that Christ is not reduced to that extremity as to offer Sacrifice for the expiation of his own faults he hath no need to purify himself since he hath a Sanctity which outvyes that of Angels his only task is to enlighten purify and improve others that he might transmit them from the perfection and spiritual treasures of this life to the perfection and eternal treasures of the next At this his sovereign Chair doth aim that is the acquisition of immortal felicity he hath laid down for our safe passage and firm footing two planks to wit the Cross and pennance he is mediatour between God and Man an intercessour for us he assists at our right Hand that we might not be overthrown and amidst the storm of Stones which fell upon St. Stephen he is awake and upon his Leggs ready to run to his succour so that he hath all the conditions of a powerful and careful Prelat The Prophet Joel had in his prospect this Prince of Ecclesiasticks when in his 2. Chapter he exhorts the Daughters of Sion to skip for joy and fly to the Lord their God because he had given unto them a Doctor of Justice to teach them a spiritual life how to separate their Souls from affection to Creatures and unite themselves to God This he did in commanding us to renounce our selves and follow him to carry with him our Cross to be perseverant in prayer to practise vertues to love God above all things and our Neighbour as our selves In fine his Doctrine permits no vice cherishes all vertues raises Man above himself and his nature and besides his Commandements he gives admirable Councels of chastity poverty and obedience and other precepts leading to perfection which if exactly weighed would evidence as clear as the Sun beams that he is the greatest Master and Doctor of a spiritual life He is then Head of the Church because the Founder from whence she hath received her Life and Being by the seeds of his grace by the preaching of his Apostles by all the good works and stratagems he hath set on foot to draw Souls unto Faith and Baptism From whom she hath received her subsistence and nourishment in the provision of the Sacraments and of a multitude of gifts and graces in order to the propagation and defence of the Church He hath likewise setled here an Ecclesiastical Hierarchy resembling that of Angels and lastly he overwhelms her with the load of his favours transmitting daily her Members to his Church Triumphant where he invests them with glory nor will cease untill he hath made of the Souls issuing from the militant here beneath a Church glorious and without the least stain or wrinkle This Saint of Saints this Prince of Ecclesiasticks this Doctor of Justice is the Corner stone on which our Penitent had fixed his Eye and petitioned to be the Basis of Jerusalem's fair Walls so that having such a foundation what noble superstructure might he not expect and truly this edifice was squared out to the highest Ideas of perfection First we see an addition of the three Theological vertues that is so polished and refined as it gives them quite another lustre as to Faith the mysteries of the blessed Trinity the Incarnation and the holy Eucharist are in the Evangelical Law drawn as it were out of a Cloud into the Sun-beams and therefore St. Paul styles the written Law a Schoolmaster which taught the Jews only the first Rudiments of Religion whereas Christian Faith proposes ravishing objects and discovers the wonders of the said mysteries distinctly which begets reverence and devotion in the Hearts of Men. As to hope which enflames our courage to the Execution of generous undertakings the Jews had very obscure revelations of eternal beatitude nor could they hope for it till the coming of the Messias and Redeemer who was to open Heaven's Gates and have the honor to be the first Man that entered there in the interim they were fed with promises of Earthly rewards which rendered Souls Mercenary and their intentions more gross whilst the Evangelical Law unfolds the wonders of Heaven the glory of a Resurrection and engages for our immediate reception into that place of immortal felicity after this life supposing we are distain'd from all guilt of sin As to Charity the Soul of vertues and devotion it must needs receive from the Evangelical Law many degrees of heat and fervour since it renders our faith and hope more perfect For where the knowledge is greater of things more worthy of love and where our hopes are heightned to a more valuable expectation there doubtless will be found the production of a more ardent desire and affection After this rare piece which much embellished the structure are disposed the Sacraments which like a great water about the circumvallation serve both to secure the inhabitants from the assaults of their Enemies and to strengthen them in the noble exploits of vertues So that by this succour and powerful aid they are obliged in honour and conscience to a more eminent degree of Sanctity We see that Arts and Sciences are improved by success of time and those Masters which come after are more expert than the former Now this proceeding we behold in divine precepts not out of any deficiency in the Law-giver but because after Adam's sin
humane nature was rendered unworthy of God's grace so that if at any time he communicated his blessings it was by way of advance and upon credit in consideration of the merits of his incarnate Son Wherefore being once come he gave precepts of higher perfection so that doubtless nothing can be better more just and more suitable to Man than the Evangelical Law Nothing more agreeable to the good Government of the Universe and all Creatures nor which contains in its decrees more equity and holiness Insomuch as its perfection alone seems ground enough to pass a judgment that it cannot issue but from the deep Councels of a Divinity Lastly as to good manners or natural precepts this great Architect hath made of them a more clear and ample explication by which the will is rectifyed and carried on to the pursuit of greater things than were proposed in the Mosaick Law What just reason then had our Petitioner to make this edifice of Jerusalem's Wall the object of his most fervent prayer and that all his subjects should subscribe to the petition and offer up their Vowes for the dispatch of this great work in which their heavy Yoak so little beneficial to them would be taken off and in exchange they were to be ranked under the discipline and law of grace and love wherefore let us joyn issue and cry Let the Walls of Jerusalem be built up The next composition of this structure is foretold by the Prophet Esay I will lay in the foundation of Sion a stone that hath endured the touch a corner and precious stone founded in the foundation This is Peter and his successours that rock on whom Christ hath built his Church and which hath been tryed by all the assaults of Earth and Hell Nor hath this stone proved only of right temper in which no engin of malice could work a flaw but it is shaped into a corner stone by which the two walls of Jews and Gentiles are united together and make one Christian Church It is also precious in copiously distributing her Spiritual Treasures throughout the World as the clear explication of her Doctrine by universal consent the rights of Sacraments which delivered with a Harmony and unity in faith is the bond of peace the Life and Soul of Religion Lastly it is grounded in the foundation which shews it to be a secondary foundation The first St. Paul declares no Man can lay any other foundation that is primary and Basis of all than what is already laid to wit Jesus Christ But after him the next groundwork is St. Peter by whom alone and his successours we are to arrive at Christ and what can be to God more glorious than to make use of the feeble to confound the strong and by faith and humility to lead Men unto wisdom and glory This piece of Workmanship in the Fabrick of Jerusalem is like a Citadel which commands all and holds its awful title not by Law of Nations but divine right It governs men in order to their Souls and rather under the notion of being Christians than Men it looks not upon their temporal ease and security but hath an Eye to a life and felicity immortal It is fortifyed with divine Lawes and maintains a perpetual skirmish not only with a few visible adversaries but with an infinity of invisible Enemies After this Rock solidly disposed and fited the Bishops like Watch-towers and strong Bastions are erected whose office is to superintend over the Guards and Sentinels and to protect the weaker part of the Walls from the Enemies assaults this contrivance is set down by St. Athanasius where he sayes O Peter upon thy Foundation the Bishops as pillars of the Church are setled and confirmed Then Priests Deacons and other officers are assigned to render this structure in all points compleat some of these materials are for the beauty and ornament of the Church in her great solemnities others as Priests for the necessary discharge of our duty to God for religion teaching us to pay that honor and esteem we owe to God is the perfection and accomplishment of the World nor can we upon any score be dispensed with in the acknowledgment of these fealties Whence no Nation hath ever been found so ignorant or barbarous as not to own and in some manner or other to pay this Tribute either by way of adoration praise prayer sacrifice festival solemnity or by some external Ceremony Now that these actions might be duly acquitted there appears an absolute necessity that some selected person should be set apart and sanctifyed to this end But above all it was most requisite in the Evangelical Law where a Priest hath power to offer up a victime and Sacrifice by which in a moment he renders to God more glory and service than all the Angels and Men can do in the vast durance of Eternity Where he is daily to represent to the eternal Father Christ's holy passion and by that moving object render him propitious unto Souls where he is to disengage Men from the slavery of sin and jawes of Hell by the administration of holy Sacraments So that all the splendour and beauty of the Church consists in the Ministery of Priests that as the Sun diffuses his beams on all sides no less doth this sacred Character enrich those Souls with a perfume of Sanctity who make themselves worthy by a due cooperation with its vertue so that we ought to esteem it one of the greatest blessings of God to the World in that he hath given us Ecclesiastical persons to dispense his Heavenly treasures and spiritual graces to enlighten the World purify Souls from sin and lead them as it were by the Hand unto a sovereign good Ah! what ingratitude then to throw a contempt upon those without whom Mankind would be but a Fire-brand for Hell in all Eternity The last materials for this Fabrick are lay and secular persons of all sorts so that of these and Ecclesiasticks are composed two different and great Nations under the Jurisdiction of Christ the Office of the one is to give the other to receive the one communicates by oblation of Sacrifice and administration of Sacraments spiritual goods without which Men would be like a Body destitute of a Soul having little tendency or elevation unto God the others passively make up the Hierarchy as being framed instructed purifyed and by Ecclesiasticks united unto God Thus you see our holy Prophet was solicitous in a matter of no small concern for within the limits of this sanctuary are bounded all the hopes of Man's Salvation Christ was made sayes St. Paul cause of eternal Salvation unto all those who obey him Now his Commandements relate to Faith good manners and the Sacraments which are not rightly performed but within the bosom of his Church Let us then joyn our hands and hearts to this noble structure and cry that the walls of Jerusalem be built up The Application If our Holy Penitent was so zealous for
its effects p. 158 159 Grace raises our hope to the expectation of a sovereign good p. 160 How sin is expulsed by grace p. 184 185 186 seq Grace compared to the essence of the Soul p. 192 How grace cleanses the Soul from all iniquity p. 193 194 Why grace doth not quiet all motions of sensuality p. 195 Grace purifyes all the powers of the Soul p. 196 God imparts his graces by degrees p. 224 The power of sanctifying grace p. 309 God God is the final end of all his works p. 337 God hath an essential glory and what it is ibid. He hath likewise an external accidental glory ibid. God is more glorified by a good than bad Soul p. 338 348 Every being glorifyes God p. 339 Why man above all in this world ought most to glorify God 340 341 Why God is delighted with our sufferings p. 385 Good works How do they merit a recompence p. 309 310 H Heart The heart the source of all evil and good p. 196 How St. Katharine of Sienna lost her heart p. 199 Character of a heart defiled with sin p. 201 God exacts only our hearts p. 202 The misery of a humane heart ibid. Honour Sacrificed by Christ on the Cross p. 429 Hope The comforts which hope brings to a Soul p. 160 161 The first sign of God's favour is to give us hope p. 332 The definition of hope p. 333 The motives of hope ibid. Holy Ghost His operations in a Soul p. 229 230 seq Humility Praise of this vertue p. 395 Not to be humble is to be disobedient ibid. Two kinds of humility p. 397 The effects of humility ibid. How pleasing to God p. 402 Homicide Terrours of mind which attend homicide p. 294 An injury not to be repaired p. 295 It destroyes God's image ibid. To prevent this he forbad in the old law the eating of blood p. 299 It is never left unrevenged ibid. Why a murthered body bleeds at the presence of the murtherer p. 299 300 I. Incarnation The wonders of this mystery set forth p. 16 No creature could satisfye for sin so that it was a mystery of love p. 17 Ingratitude The ingratitude of David p 232 Injury All injuries done are against God p. 89 307 Job Job excused from sin in cursing the day of his birth p. 116 117 Why God would not permit Satan to touch upon Job's life p. 384 Impiety Definition of it p. 285 seq Justice God's justice is distributive punitive and remunerative p. 318 319 seq To be just implyes an aggregation of all vertues p. 322 Justification The first step is not made without the concurrence of our wills p. 157 A justifyed Soul is filled with joy p. 156 seq Intention We shall be rewarded and punished according to our intention p. 204 Inspiration It highly imports not to reject the least good inspiration p. 224 Infirmity An infirm constitution and sickness not to be repined at p. 144 145 Instruction To teach others the way of salvation the highest employment p. 277 278 279 It is an employment envyed by the Angels ibid. Why Masters have not pensions assigned them by commonwealths p. 279 Ioy. Joy the effects of grace p. 56 seq Many blessings accompany a spiritual joy p. 162 163 Two kinds of joy p. 240 241 What ought to be the motive of our joy p. 243 The means to arrive at this joy p. 246 247 K. Knowledge Why it is good to know our iniquity p. 62 63 64 65 66 seq King In what sense Kings offend against God alone p. 81 The greater the person is that offends the greater is his offence 82 Why Kings are obliged to give good example p. 83 84 85 L. Love The properties of God's love p. 29 St. Peters love to Christ p. 233 Love assaults the Divinity in his throne p. 277 Why we should love our Neighbour p. 307 God's love in playing the merchant vvith poor man p 345 To overcome self-love the shortest way to perfection p. 382 Christ's love to man on the Cross p. 429 430 Christ's love to man in the institution of the Eucharist p. 436 seq Law What is law eternal p. 269 What is the lavv of reason p. 270 Positive divine lawes p. 272 The Mosaick lavv p. 274 275 The end of the Mosaick lavv perfection of the Evangelical lavv p. 419 420 421 Man Man is a vessel of mercy not merit p. 2 Man cannot persevere in grace without a special aid p. 3. Man is diverted from many sins as misbelieving his nature p. 290 How little man can do if left to himself p. 326 327 seq Man is created to praise God p. 349 Mercy It is God's mercy not the value of our actions by which we are saved p 9 His mercy is immense and exceeds all our demeries p. 12 His mercy is a Bulwark against despair p. 14 By Gods great mercy is meant the mystery of the incarnation p. 18 A series of Gods mercies p. 21 No Creature is destitute of Gods mercy p. 23 Why we have more Presidents of his mercy than justice p. 24. His mercy appears in reward of the elect p. 25 He distributes his mercies more in the measure of his love than wisdom p. 27 28 Martyrdom A description of what is requisite to be a martyr p. 150 151 152 Masters We owe more to our Masters than Parents p. 267 Why there is a dependency of one another in the conveyance of intellectual notions p. 267 268 Misery Miseries of this life set forth p. 114 115 No misery like to that of sin p. 174 Merit Definition of merit p. 310 We merit by vertue of grace but the effect of it comes from Gods promise p. 310 311 O Occasions of sin to be avoided p. 44 45 Omnipotency The belief of it raises our hope p. 290 P. Prophet Conditions requisite to a true Prophet p. 130 Several degrees of prophetick lights p. 130 131 Praise General heads of praise that man is to give to God p. 342 343 Pride and fear forbidden in those that would praise God p. 346 Prison Restraint occasion of much good p. 146 Providence How comfortable the belief of it p. 289 Persecution How beneficial p. 155 Passion How dangerous it is p. 301 302 Several benefits of Christs passion p. 431 Predestination No security of our state in this life p. 188 189. How we are predestinated p. 244 245 The effects of our eternal election Ibid. Perfection Praise of a state of perfection p. 440 What it is p. 252 440 The effects of perfection and its praise ibid. Perfect Souls if they fall do soon rise again p. 256 257 Three degrees of perfection p. 265 Pleasure Difference 'twixt corporal and spiritual pleasures p. 161 248 Pennance To pennance succeeds many glad tidings p. 162 164 seq Necessity of pennance p. 394 Prayer How we are to dispose our selves to prayer and what we are to ask p. 335 336 The power of prayer p. 405 Prayer works no change in Gods decrees p. 406 Prayer the first gift of God p. 408 How we ought to value it p. 413 seq R. Remorse Remorse of conscience alwaies attends sin p. 71 seq Resurrection Belief of the resurrection very comfortable p. 166 S. Sin The agitations of a soul defiled with sin p. 182. There is a period set to every man's sins which is called the measure of their iniquityes p. 220 221 The marks of this period p. 221 222 No less equal to what we lose by sin p. 233 Whilest in sin we are capable of no right to heaven p. 32 Why some are drawn from sin others not p. 33 Sin the greatest of evils p. 38 Greater sins require a greater mercy p. 45 46 47 The terrours of sin p. 76 seq p. 174 175 Man's imbecility caused by original sin p. 99 seq What remedy in the old Law for original sin in women p. 110 The penalty and consequencies of original sin p. 110. seq The benefit of confessing our sins 126 125 It becomes God to punish sin p. 176 Sacrifice Why God required not of David a sacrifice p. 351 Who the minister of a sacrifice p. 352 357. seq In the law of nature the first born male were Priests Ibid. That some sensible thing be offered is required in a sacrifice p. 353 Definition of a sacrifice p. 355 Other conditions of a sacrifice p. 354 Holocausts the most perfect sacrifice p. 363 Why sacrifices commanded p. 368 369 Divers sorts of sacrifices p. 370 The jews zeal in mater of sacrifice Ibid. Sacrifice of the new law most perfect p. 424 428. Sorrow There is a twofold sorrow p. 370 How pleasing a pious sorrow is to God Ib. What is a troubled spirit p. 377 Whether the soul or body most conducing to a sacrifice of a troubled spirit p. 377 Motives of a true sorow p. 390. seq Security No security from sin in this life Ibid. Speech How Croesus son came to his speech Ibid. How one is morally dumb and how cured Ibid. Seneca His opinion concerning such as lost their lives upon the score of friendship or a publick interest p. 148 249 T. Truth Three kinds of truth p. 121 Knowledge of truth most delightful p. 123 124 Trangressions Internal trangressions only punished by God p. 197 198 A certain period is set to every man's transgression p. 220 221 Signs of this helpless desolation p. 221 222 223 Tribulation Tribulation the securest way to heaven p. 147 Senecas opinion of tribulation manfully sustained p. 348 Temptation The difficulty to resist temptation p. 202 V. Vertue Moral vertues contribute a facility in doing well and wherein they consist p. 213 Vertue it self a reward to the actours p. 241 Delight of vertuous actions p. 242 243 Vncertainty All things uncertain as to the issue in this life p. 239 W. Will. The will is more prejudiced by original sin than the understanding p. 6. God doth never violence our will to our prejudice p. 35 The greatness of the soul by free will p. 313 Whether it had not been better to have done well by necessity 314 315 FINIS
by the Heavens examine what Splendour hath issued from your Actions by which your Subjects might steer the course of their lives and be guided free from Shipwrack to the Haven of eternal rest For if they lose themselves on the Sands of misbelief or dashed upon the Rock of Vanity unlawful pleasures and the like for want of your directing beams their ruine will be laid to your charge and were it permitted you to hear the sad complaints and dire invectives those perished Souls do vomit forth against their Leaders who have deceived and tilled them on into misery it would certainly have influence upon you and oblige you to a greater circumspection in your wayes and manner of life If you own Nobility and Honour which the Mountains personate remember you are the Object of many inferiour eyes you are looked upon with respect and indeed as the Glass which should convey unto them the true representation of their Prince For he being but one and consequently not so communicable it is your parts who are dispersed through Kingdoms to supply what he cannot do to shew by your Justice Piety Devotion Charity and other Christian vertues that the practice of them can onely maintain your greatness and is the Foundation of all your hopes in another life which Principles lively set forth in your actions cannot but fix your dependants in a strange passion towards goodness and ground them in a Belief that it ought to be the ultimate scope of all their endeavours and enterprizes in this world Nor are those of the meaner rank hinted at by the Valleys exempt from all obligation in this kind There is not a Master of a family but is as it were a Sovereign to those who depend on him He ought to be the first at every pious duty to see his little flock fed with all necessary instructions in order to what Christianity obliges them to know and believe to carry a watchful Eye over them that he may know their faults to correct their vertues to reward and encourage if they fail in this they may say with David I have sinned against thee alone Though there be none under their roof can be a competent Judge yet this will not render them innocent and this our holy Penitent confesses who in this expression acknowledges the excellency and multitude of God's favours in being a King and consequently the highest ingratitude on his part towards the Author of them The Application By this clause we are further taught that if at any time we fail in our duty the principal motive of that ressentment must be in that it is displeasing to God whose onely frown we apprehend For when we trespass against our Neighbour the evil is in reference to God who forbids it whence every sinner may justly say I have sinned against thee alone So that we ought not to regard our temporal but eternal Penalties due to sin for that concerns our Soul which alone is the source of all our transgressions Wherefore our chief solicitude ought to be for its preservation Wherein we are to imitate St. Mary Magdalen who pressed in her spiritual necessity had a personal recourse to her dear Saviour but when concerned in the loss of her Brothers life she contented her self to dispatch away a letter by a servant insinuating by this the distinction she made between a soul and Body I wish we might all in this follow her Example that is espouse the Souls interest as the main concern Since in relation only to that we are to pronounce tibi soli peccavi I have sinned against thee alone CHAP. X. Vt justificiens in Sermonibus tuis vincas cum judicaris That thou mayest be justified in thy words and overcome when thou art judged OUr holy penitent tells us in this clause why he brought his guiltiness as King upon the Stage because by it the petitioned will be justified in his words which are these that he will never reject a truly repenting heart and he thinks they were never put more home to the Test than in his Person for who can despair after his admission into favour who had broken all the chains and tyes of duty wherein a Creature is linked and obliged by a most loving and liberal Creatour Besides the pardon of his ingratitude will serve as a fence against the rash judgements of the impious who are apt to lay severity to God's charge upon the reprobation of a sinner this makes our penitent to add that thou mayest overcome when thou and judged that is when his case shall be alledged it will stop and silence any blasphemous Tongue I believe also he reflected on the promise made by God that out of his lineâ— should issue forth the hope of Israel the Redeemer of mankind and lest his sin might divert the streams of God's mercy and frustrate his succeeding stemms of that glorious off-spring he minds him first of his promise to receive with open arms the most enormous if repenting Soul nextt his Foundation laid he would insinuate since by an act of mercy he was again planted in the Region of grace his hopes now are that the promises made by Heaven to him and his posterity might stand good that their accomplishment would be a confirmation to him of a plenary indulgence and a pledge that his punishment should not reach to so heavy a Confiscation in order to his temporal satisfaction But you must know when he sayes that thou mayest be justified c. This particle that imports not the efficient cause of the precedent verse to wit he had sinned against God alone to the end God may be justifyed as if the motive of God's justification gave rise to his sin No no it means only this that the eminency of his condition rendered him guilty of the highest ingratitude and since the torrent of God's mercy had born this clear away the publication of this pardon must needs exalt the divine goodness and testify to the World there is no iniquity so monstrous which may not if we will be overcome by his mercy whence he is justified in his words never to be a stranger to those who return with Repentance unto him How many times hath God been irritated by Man's ingratitude nay so touched to the quick as to declare he repented to have made him that is if God were capable of defect or change this exorbitancy in man might well deserve such a repentance have we not seen a Pharaoh prodigiously unmoved insensible as a statue at the sight of miracles which confounded all his inchanters and false Gods yet had not this unbelieving Prince hardned his own heart God had reserved one greater wonder to work in his behalf that is upon his sumission to receive him unto mercy what can be thought of more indulgent than his amarous care and conduct of his people through the desart and yet even when he was prescribing a Law and Rule for the observance of their Duties they frame
Idols and plunge themselves in transgressions of the highest nature However he did not here forget his promise but at the prayer of Moses reassumed them into his Sovereign Protection the same Night which was blest with the institution of the sacred Synaxis or Eucharist was also conscious of the horrid Treason of Judas and yet this Monster of ingratitude according to all Divines might have sheltred himself from God's wrath by a true Repentance Thus all along we see God justifyed in his Clemency towards sinners so that victory must needs remain to him when questioned by blasphemous Tongues for creating those who were to perish A Nabuchodonozer speaks for him a Thief upon the Cross a St. Paul a Magdalen and a Million of others that have redeemed by a few hours repentance what had been contracted in many years impieties and wickedness Our holy Penitent will also come in for a witness First he cryes what return shall I make to my God for all he hath done to me he praises blesses his holy name and then layes open his enormous crimes believing it is but reasonable to do him all right that hath dealt to him so much of mercy and though every thought of his sins afflicts him yet he glories that his Creatour's goodness will appear resplendent through his deformity he is content to become nothing that he might add the least tittle to God's Honour and greatness He values not his own confusion so God may be justifyed and this sweet experienced truth made good that the Divine will is that all shall be saved and to this end proportions sufficient means to all so that none can perish but through their own Impenitency and Perseverance in sin The Church would not style Adam's sin a happy sin if our Redemption and the merits of Christ's sacred passion were not extenedd to all even the highest offendour St. Paul sayes as Death found its entrance by the default of one so life was restored by one whence it is clear the remedy brought to us by Christ reached as far as the Disease St. John entitles him a Sun which enlightens every one that comes into this World there is none wrapped up in so black a Cloud of sins who may not if they will take in the Rayes of his Mercy and by their Deliverance justify God's Promises to Man In the production of every the least Creature saith St. Thomas the power wisdom and goodness of God are made manifest how much more then are they exalted in the Transmutation of a Soul from the Privation of Justice to the Possession of a Supernatural Gift of Righteousness whence St. Paul sayes God doth predestinate us according to the councel of his will that we may praise and diffuse abroad his glory Ah then let us give unto God what is his due as near as we can by despair we condemn our selves in rendring our Judge Inexorable and deaf to Mercy By Hope animated with Repentance we quit our scores of guiltiness and justify the hand that wipes them off To our justification by his grace he doth not only invite us to dispose our selves for it promising to refresh such as are oppressed c. But declares he is at the door of our hearts knocks solicits and expects but our consent to enter in at last defies the World to object the least failing on his side having done to his Vineyard what ever could be required to make it thrive To conclude God will be still justified that sinner who doth finally perish is the Author of his ruine by his own impenitency rejecting graces abundantly sufficient offered to him So that in the height of his misery when it is too late he will be forced to acknowledge crying O Lord thou art just and thy judgements equitable That sinner again who hath imitated our Penitent in having had timely recourse to the throne of mercy will not blush to unfold his wickedness since he now breaths a new life of grace which obliges him to proclaim how just God is in his promises and glorious in his Mercies That thou mayest be justifyed in thy words and overcome when thou art judged The Application In this clause we read the clear view our Holy Penitent had of the unquestionable proceedings of God with Man for beholding in his all-displaying Eye the ingratitude of Millions of Souls who would abuse his favours yet did not this restrain his munificence to them he first gave them a Being added to this Being the exhibition of his Graces all sufficient nay in a greater proportion than to many of the elect and to the acquisition of these benefits he made his only Son instrumental by whose blood is conveyed to them a capacity of Salvation Now if afterwards they come to perish it is through their own malice in misusing his gracious endearments and proving refractary to his commands for since he had conducted them indiscriminately with the predestinate by a supernatural Providence with which all along he obliged them what wisdome prudence or justice were it to gratify Traytors obstinate even unto death in rebellion with his Glory So that the motive of their reprobation is a foresight of their final perseverance in Sin their guiltiness gives matter of God's hatred and eternal damnation the effect of their impenitency 'T is true it was not in their power to be born or not be born but to fight generously or be vanquished by the Devil this depends on us It seems unreasonable that a King opening a Tournament and proposing a reward to the Conquerour should admit onely that person into the list whom he feresaw would be victorious So God in Creating an infinity of persons whereof the greater part would become reprobate is not to be blamed no more than that Prince who lets all run at the ring though it cannot be gained but by one for if we be foyld it is by our own Cowardize and remissness Thus the goodness of God appears in the Creation of Reprobates and no less his justice in pouring vengeance upon them so that he would be justified in his words and silence any blasphemous Tongue nay though these unfortunate wretches miss of their particular end that is paradise to which they are created yet the general design of their Creation to wit the promotion of his Glory will take effect for after his patience hath been strained if it may be so expressed in supporting their insolencies he will give lustre to his Saints Glory by the opposition of their misery just as a Moor sets off a great beauty Wherefore let us keep consort with our Holy Penitent avowing his just providence and submitting to all his Decrees as most equitable and worthy our Adorations Amen CHAP. XI Ecce enim in iniquitatibus conceptus sum For behold I am conceived in iniquity OUr Penitent here appeals to the World whether he hath not reason being reinvested with the rich ornament of Grace to stand up and maintain Gods proceedings with his