Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	able_a	according_a	action_n	37	3	5.7600	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93040	The journal of Monsr. de Saint Amour doctor of Sorbonne, containing a full account of all the transactions both in France and at Rome, concerning the five famous propositions controverted between the Jansenists and the Molinists, from the beginning of that affair till the Popes decision. / Faithfully rendred out of French. ; A like display of the Romish state, court, interests, policies, &c. and the mighty influences of the Jesuites in that church, and many other Christian states, being not hitherto extant.; Journal. English	Saint-Amour, Louis-Gorin de, 1619-1687.; Havers, G. (George)	1664 (1664)	Wing S296A; ESTC R225933	1,347,293	723

only receive that help of perseverance such as that which was given to Adam but that which they receive is such that perseverance it self is given to them so that they not only could not persevere without that help but with that help they cannot but persevere Now what S. Augustin speaks of Perseverance 't is manifest that he everywhere speaks the same of Faith Repentance and Continence Whence this Argument may be form'd In the same manner that the Church prayes to God for Perseverance it prayes also for Faith Repentance c. But when the Church prayes for Perseverance it prayes for the assistance of Effectual Grace without which we cannot persevere and with which we cannot but persevere Therefore when it prayes for Faith Repentance c. it prays for the assistance of Effectual Grace without which we can neither be Believers nor Penitent c and with which we cannot but be so Pope Celestine in his Letter to the French Bishops confirms the same thing so clearly that the whole eleventh Chapter shews by the prayers mention'd in it what is the faith of the whole Church touching the true and Effectual Grace of God His words are these Besides the inviolable Decrees of the most Holy Apostolick See by which those most Holy Fathers rejected this detestable Innovation whose source is Pride have taught us that we ought to refer to the grace of Jesus Christ both the beginning of a right will in Man and his increasing in holy life and his perseverance to the end Let us consider also the solemn prayers made by the Priests which having been left us by Apostolical Tradition are uniformly celebrated in the whole Catholick Church throughout the World to the end that the form of our prayers may be the rule of our faith For Bishops acting as Ambassadors to God in the name of the faithful committed to their charge plead the cause of mankind in his divine presence and all the Church accompanying their words with sighs and tears prays to God with them to give faith to Infidels to deliver Idolaters from the impiety of their Errors to make known his Truth to the Jewes by removing the vail which is upon their hearts to enlighten the minds of Hereticks by causing them to embrace the Catholick faith to diffuse a spirit of charity into the breasts of Schismaticks to grant repentance to such as are fallen to open to the Catechumeni the door of the mercy of Heaven in the holy regeneration of the Sacrament of Baptism And the effects shew that 't is not in vain and only for form that we beg all these things of God since he vouchsafes by his goodnesse to draw many persons out of all kind of errors and wandrings to deliver them out of the power of darknesse and bring them into the kingdom of his beloved Son and thus to change those into vessels of mercy who were at first vessels of his wrath Which the Church in such sort acknowledges to be wholly God's work that it doth not fail to give him thanks for it and offer to him a song of praises confessing him the author thereof and that 't is he that enlightned the Infidels and converted the sinners But M. H. F. This will appear more clearly by considering the very expressions of the prayers which the Church offers to God throughout all the World by perpetual custome in which it prayes not only for the power to act but also for the will and action it self In this manner it speaks on the sixth Sunday after Pentecost God of all power and might who art the only author of all true good graffe in our hearts the love of thy H. Name cause us to grow more and more in religious piety to the end that thy self cherishing the seeds of vertue which thou hast planted in us the same may be preserved by the pious and faithful care which thou shalt cause us to have thereof And on the eighth Sunday Grant Lord by thy mercy that thy Spirit may inspire holy thoughts into us and cause us to produce holy actions that we who cannot live without thee may by thee be able to live according to thy Will And on the twelfth Sunday Almighty and merciful God through whose grace alone it cometh that thy faithful people do unto thee true and laudable service be pleas'd so to uphold ue that without falling through our weaknesse we may constantly run towards those good things which thou hast promis'd And on the sixteenth Sunday Lord we pray thee that thy grace may alwayes prevent and follow us and mako us continually to be given to all good works And on the Eve of Pentecost Grant Lord that we may be able to subdue our depraved will and accomplish in all things the Righteousnesse of thy holy Commandments And in the secret Orison of the Masse on the fourteenth Sunday Lord convert and draw unto thee our rebellious wills Nothing can more clearly evince that the Grace which moves our rebellious will to return unto God is not subject to Free-will or of such a nature as that it sometimes fails of its effect through the resistance of the will But what motion is that whereby the Church prayes that it may be turn'd to God Certainly 't is not such an inconsiderate and blind motion as that wherewith an insensible Instrument is mov'd but 't is that motion of divine Love and that bond of most sweet and heavenly charity by which God pulls and draws to himself him whom he pleases to render vertuous In which respect there is no fear of our liberty being violated by that attraction and motion how victorious soever it may be For being nothing is done in us more freely then that which is done by Love according to that saying of S. Augustin He who doth any thing willingly alwayes doth it freely How can it ever happen that Liberty should be destroy'd by the cause which produces it in its whole plenitude But I return to the prayers of the Church Now the Church speaks thus in the secret Orison which it makes to God for the gift of tears Cause us to shed tears of compunction for the hardnesse of our hearts to the end we may bewail our sins And in the Post-Communion Lord through thy goodnesse infuse into our hearts the grace of thy Holy Spirit which may enable us to blot out the stains of our sins by sighs and tears Moreover The Church implores the gift of Charity O God which canst cause things to work together for the good of those that love thee stir up in our hearts an ardent sense of thy love that no temptation may be able to alter the holy desires which thou hast inspir'd into ut by thy goodnesse And on H. Friday Let us pray also for the Catechumeni that the Lord our God may open the eares of their hearts And a Little after Let us pray also for the perfidious Jewes that the Lord our God may remove the vail

legitimate though in it self lesse proper sense considering precisely the proper and natural signification of the words whereof they consisted And this sole reason caused that these holy truths which we undertook to defend sometimes were more apparent to us through the vaile of the equivocal words obscurities and errors wherewith they were covered then the very errors which the words taken literally included because we knew these errors were no more held by any body in France then at Rome and that onely those truths were aim'd at However if I committed a fault in engaging my Collegues to speak too advantageously of the Propositions taken absolutely yet I shall ever have this comfort with them that in the same Writing wherein we spoke some advantegeous words concerning them as relating to the Doctrine which we maintain'd we most clearly Catholickly explain'd the same as well by declaring expressely that we acknowledg'd no other Authors of them but those very persons who prosecuted their condemnation as by purging them from all their errors and equivocations and making other new ones of them whose senses were clear Catholick and incapable of being render'd suspected of any error by the most malicious interpretation or receiving any impeachment by the most violent attempts of Envy it self For the sense and doctrine maitain'd by us and included in the Propositions of the second colume a little below is that which ought onely to be consider'd and not whether or no we believe that the condemn'd Propositions were either legitimately or else properly and naturally capable of that sense the Question not being whether we too favourably interpreted those captious and equivocal Propositions but whether we maintain'd any sense bad in it self or any erroneous censurable doctrine Wherfore if the Propositions of the second colume to which we reduc'd all that we held in this matter contain onely an Orthodox Doctrine which the Pope hath not touch'd as must needs be granted since 't is no other then the pure Doctrine of Grace Effectual by it self as 't is taught by S. Thomas and all his School it must also be acknowledg'd that how favourably soever we spoke of the condemned Propositions we cannot be charg'd with having maintain'd any error in them And thus though we used all our endeavors that the abovesaid Propositions which the Pope hath condemn'd might not be absolutely condemn'd in regard of the reasons we had against it and the deplorable consequences which we foresaw would ensue from it yet restraining our selves as we did to the sole defence of Catholick truths no lesse opposite to the sentiments of the Jesuites and their followers then to the errors heresies impieties and blasphemies which the Pope has condemn'd in those Propositions taken rigorously and in the bad signification of their termes of which we never were idolaters we condemn'd as well as he nay before he did the same errors heresies impieties and blasphemies which he condemn'd All that we have done since the constitution which we did not before hath been to acquiesce freely in their absolute condemnation assoon as it was once pronounc'd without attributing to them any good sense or maintaining them in any manner under any pretext whatsoever and to cease solliciting his Holinesse to do right in a solemn Congregation upon the complaintt which we had made already and had further to make against the Jesuites But to proceed to the remainder of this Journal During the four dayes which we employ'd in reviewing our Writings I was in great perplexity whether or no I should accquaint my Collegues with the new assurance I had that the Pope's Bull or Constitution was drawn against the five Propositions For one one side the person from whom I receiv'd this intelligence had oblig'd me to secrecy bur on the other being I had understood the same as certainly from other hands to let our affair go on as if we knew nothing thereof and to plead against a prepared decree without advertising my Collegues of so considerable circumstances seem'd a thing very hazardous and daring They had heard the report of this Constitution ever since the fifth of May but because it was quasht of a suddain upon the above mention'd Conference of another Cardinal with Cardinal Ghiggi they counted it wholly false or else grounded upon some imaginary Bull contriv'd by the subtilty of the Jesuites Now this fear being passed and they preparing themselves to appear before the Pope which joy tranquillity and hope to make impression upon his mind by the things which we should speak I fear'd to cool their courage and the ardor of the speakers by telling them such dejecting tidings Wherefore to do nothing unadvisedly I acquainted M. Manassier with it on Sunday May 18 having as much confidence in his secrecy as my own without letting him know from what hand I had it and he was of the same opinion with me namely to let it passe as if we knew nothing of it and leave M. de Valecroissant and F. Des-mares intire liberty of spirit and action against the next day when we were to appear before the Pope The Passages of which are in the following Chapter CHAP. XII Of the grand Audience which the Pope give us May 19. being the first and last which we had of all that had been promis'd us THis morning we got our Writings ready and sign'd them And according to the order given us by the Ambassador we went out of our Lodging to Monte Cavallo about three a clock Where when we came we found some of the Consultors in the two outer Chambers and amongst others M. Hallier's servant who was lately made Priest who came thither openly and without fear of our perceiving that he came to spye what he could discover But we were advertis'd that one of M. Hallier's Collegues hid himself in some place under the staires or came thither a little after us to assure himself whether we would be there which he no soonner understood but went down immediately out of Monte Cavallo leaping alone and clapping his hands and lifting them up to Heaven for joy that we should be heard before the Pope A religious Augustin who saw him go down the staires in that transport conceiv'd that some disgrace had befallen us and went home sad that he might not be witnesse of the disaster but when he afterwards heard the great successe wherewith our audience was follow'd he knew not whereunto to impute that joy An length he understood the cause of it when he saw the Constitution came forth some dayes after this audience judging that our Adversaries must needs have then known that it was resolv'd upon and determin'd and that they conceiv'd our appearing before the Pope would give them ground to report that we were condemn'd after we had been heard We stay'd in the first antichamber where the Consultors were and doubted at first whether we should enter into the second with them but presently considering that they were not

Predecessor Innocent 1. And your H. shall find not without wonder that 't is renew'd in such manner that our adversaries both in their manner of proceeding and writing imploy the same atifices and the same deceits of those ancient enemies of Grace of which S. Augustin and S. Prosper incessantly complain The Writing alone which they presented to your H. consisting of sixty passages of S. Augustin fully proves with how great reason and justice we frame so important an accusation against them and your H. will become fully perswaded hereof if you permit us to refute in your presence what they have advanc'd in that Writing Your H. shall see that they suppose therin what no body hath taught that they refute what no body hath disputed that the passages alledg'd out of S. Augustin are maim'd or perverted that they maliciously suppresse those which clearly explain his meaning that they attribute to him a sense wholly contrary to his own as the same passages manifestly show And lastly your H. shall see that they are all either falsely or maliciously or impertinently alledg'd that they act without shame or faith before you in this matter of faith that they approach your Apostolical Throne without any reverence and that no other reason leads them under colour of a false respect to reject and decline the Conference which we desired to have with them but because they well know that they cannot avoid being publickly convinc'd of foul dealing and ignorance And consequently we are assured that as much as your H. loves sincerity candor and justice so much will you be mov'd with most just indignation against them But this assurance M. H. F. wherewith the truth which we conceive we maintain causes us to speak before your H. diminishes nothing of the full and intire submission which we shall alwaies have to the judgement which you shall passe as the boldnesse and confidence wherewith they who before us encounter'd the errors sprung up or reviv'd in the Church before the same were condemn'd attaqu'd their adversaries did not hinder but that they were perfectly submissive to the decisions of the H. See and Councils Now being we have no other aime in this affair but to seek the Truth which alone causes us to speak and since we are deputed to your Holinesse by some Bishops onely out of a design to serve the Truth and the H. See as much as we shall be able our desire shall be accomplisht if your H. judge that the honor of Truth and the H. See obliges you to correct or even condemne somethihg of what we maintain and we not onely submit our selves to your judgement but being glad of being corrected we shall publish the same everywhere with joy But if on the contrary your Holinesse findes that we defend the faith of the Catholick Apostolick and Romane Church and that the Jesuites and Doctors who contrived these Propositions designe by the obscurity of their equivocal words to subvert the true grace of Jesus Christ defended by S. Augustin in the name of the whole Church and to banish it out of the minds of all the Faithful and that they are engaged in pernicious errors we expect from Your Holiness's justice and with as much humility as urgency desire that you condemn their errors and establish the Catholick Faith Neither they nor we ought to be spar'd Truth ought to be strongly upheld against us if it appear that 't is we who injure it it ought to be establisht against us in its whole strength This is that which we avoid not but desire Now if our Adversaries have the same purpose of seeking truth and peace they will have no other wishes nor make other demands and Your Holiness will hear the same words from their mouthes as from ours Let neither we nor those engag'd in the same party with us be consider'd but let regard be had only to the Truth the honour of the Church and the dignity of the H. Apostolick See Thus M. H. F. after having implor'd the assistance of the Holy and Indivisible Trinity we are prepar'd to maintain in Your Holiness's presence this so important point of the Catholick Faith and trusting to that same Grace of Jesus Christ our Saviour to the defence and glory whereof we consecrate all our words and Writings we implore his divine illumination that we may be able rightly to understand and explicate the matter in question And it will be great consolation to us that in speaking before him who is the Oracle of Truth what we shall not be able to comprehend in such difficult questions will not as S. Augustin speaks be imputed to the truth which profitably exercises pious soules even when it is hid from them but to our little light which hinder'd us from being able rightly to comprehend them or well explicate what we comprehended And lastly M. H. F. We here make the protestation which S. Augustin saith is the token of a truly Catholick spirit that if it should be so that the sentiments hitherto held by us be not conformable to the Truth we are ready to renounce the same as soon as it shall be discover'd to us and to submit our selves to your judgement as being that of the Vicar of Jesus Christ and of S. Peter's successor Whilst this Harangue was pronouncing the Pope and whole Assembly heard it with great silence and attention the Pope advancing himself a little out of his Seat which was the ordinary manner of his greater attentivenesse Whenever the Jesuites were mention'd by their names he instantly turn'd his head and cast his eyes upon F. Palavicini's and held them fixt upon him as often as any thing a little more vehemently was spoken against them as if he meant to observe that Jesuites countenance or ask him what he had to answer to the charge The Abbot of Valcroissant had his Oration in his hand as the custome is at Rome to fix his memory the better and though he lookt upon his paper sometimes to follow it yet he pronounc'd it all without need of recurring to it At the end of the Oration we all made a genuflexion together M. Manessier and Angran brought some books with them which they laid upon the end of the Benches whereon the Cardinals sat and I had with me the Writings which we had prepar'd to present to the Pope That which contain'd the hundred and six Propositions extracted out of the books of the Jesuites against S. Augustin's authority I deliver'd into the hands of M. de Valcroissant he also gave me his Oration Assoon as ever it was begun M. Albizzi fell to writing and did the like at several passages especially by what I could observe at such as mention'd submission respect and affection to the H. See No doubt he conceiv'd this Oration would not be seen and fear'd lest those words of grandeur and esteeme for the H. See should escape him After M. de Valcroissant had made a little pause he began a

every pious action if he would not be barely a nominal but also a real Christian Now before I engage further in this discourse I humbly beseech Your Holiness to give me leave to observe two things by the way First That the understanding of the true Grace of Jesus Christ and its efficacy upon the will of men doth not concern only Doctors Bishops Priests and Monasticks but also the Laicks of what sex and condition soever for S. Augustin hath address'd his principal works against the Pelagians to Lay-persons to the end they might not be drawn into their Error by their subtilties and vain Philosophy For we see that he hath written a Book intitl'd De Spiritu Litera to Marcellinus and that De meritis remissione peccatorum to the same that De natura Gratia to Jacobus Fimasus that De Gratia Jesu Christi of which I make use for the framing of this Argument to Albinus Pinianus Melanius that De gratia libero arbitrio to the Monks of Adrumetum for in those dayes Monks were reputed amongst the Laicks and afterwards to the same that De-Correctione Gratia Wherefore 't is no wonder if the same S. Augustin in his 120 Epistle reckons those in the number of the foolish virgins that are excluded from the Kingdom of heaven who bear not in thir hearts the understanding and love of Grace and who are ignorant as he saith in chap. 37. that none can be continent unlesse God give him continence The second thing which I draw and observe from thence is that this single book is more then sufficient to decide all the controversies that can arise touching the grace of Jesus Christ For Pelagius ever after the Council of Diospolis where he was constrain'd to renounce his error constantly acknowledg'd with the Catholicks that the grace of God by Jesus Christ is necessary to every action of piety But the difficulty was what is to be understood by the terme Grace Which was the cause that S. Augustin continually repeates the sense thereof in his book When Pelagius saith that Free-will hath always need to be aided by the grace and assistance of God the question is what grace and assistance he means wherefore 't is not sufficient to denominate a man a Catholick that he acknowledges a Grace of God necessary to every act of piety since hereticks themselves believe or make semblance of believing as much but we must moreover agree upon the true Grace of Jesus Christ without contriving another in stead of it Now being S. Augustin compos'd that book of the Grace of Jesus Christ to take away all ambiguity which might be found in the word Grace we have nothing else to do but to weigh and consider with great care what he understood by the word Grace when he disputed against Pelagius in the name of the whole Church and what that Grace is which he would oblige that heretick to confesse necessary to every act of piety that he might be held a Catholick In which we cannot be mistaken being S. Augustin hath unfolded the meaning of it in a great multitude of definitions whereof I shall briefly recite some of the principal to Y. H. 'T is that saith he whereby God inspires a holy delectation to the end to cause us to do all that which we know we ought to do chap. 3. 'T is that whereby God operates in us not only the power but the will and the action chap. 3. 'T is that whereby God inspires the ardour of love into the will chap. 6. 'T is that whereby every good thing is not only enjoyn'd but perswaded to us chap. 10. 'T is that which is not common to all because all have not faith and swasion is not alwayes accompany'd with perswasion Ibid. 'T is that which is intimated in those words No man can come unto me unlesse he be drawn by my Father who sent me Ibid. 'T is that which we ought to believe God diffuses from above into the soul with ineffable sweetnesse not only by causing it to know the truth but by inspiring charity into it chap. 13. 'T is that whereby God together gives to such whom he calls according to his purpose both to know what they ought to do and to do what they know their duty Ibid. 'T is that whereby God's commandments seem not terrible but easy Ibid. 'T is that whereby all who are drawn and taught by the Father come to the Son according to those words of the Gospel whosoever hath heard and learned of my Father commeth to me chap. 14. 'T is that whereby God teacheth men inwardly insuch a manner that not only their mind knows what they have learnt of him but their will desires it and their actions perform it Ibid. 'T is that whereby not only the natural possibility of willing and operating is assisted but also the will and operation it self Ibid. 'T is that which together gives the advancement of the possibility and the affection of the will and the effect of the action Ibid. 'T is that whereby God with an internal hidden admirable and ineffable power works in the hearts of men not only a true knowledg but also a right will chap. 24. 'T is that which the Apostle pray'd for in these words we pray God not only that you may not commit evil but that you may do good chap. 25. 'T is that whereby the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the H. Spirit which is given us so that without it we cannot do any good relating to piety and true righteousnesse chap. 26. 'T is that whereby God gives us not the spirit of fear but that of vertue charity and continence chap. 33. 'T is that whose assistance giveth the will and the action by the infusion of the H. Spirit chap. 34. And lastly 't is that which by the inspiration of a most ardent and pure love is a help and furtherance to do well added to nature and instruction chap. 35. These are the conditions and properties of the true grace of Jesus Christ by which it distinguishes it from whatever other grace can be feigned or imagined and which 't is evident cannot quadrate but to grace effectual by it self From whence I draw this argument The Grace whereunto S. Augustin attributes all these Properties is the true Grace of Jesus Christ necessary to every action of piety But Grace Effectual by it self is that whereunto S. Augustin attributes all these Properties Therefore Grace effectual by it self is necessary to every action of piety The same Argument which establishes the Effectual Grace of Jesus Christ overthrowes the Molinistical Grace subject to Free-will as I am going to make good by four several proofs First the Grace necessary to every act of piety is according to S. Augustin a help to doing well added to nature and instruction by the inspiration of a most ardent and pure love But Molinistical Grace is not such And by consequence c

Jesus Christ defends and maintaines it with his blood besides that himself saith in the 17. chapter of S. John speaking of all his Disciples I pray not for the world but for them whom thou hast given me If then the power of the Son be equal to that of the Father and if the Father never deny'd him any thing because he alwayes found in him the object of his aquiescence or complacencies who can say that there is any who can condemn the Children of God The Devil indeed may torment them persecute them and sometimes too reduce them almost to Death but they perish not because God put his hand under them and raises them up But our Lord speaking of Judas who was a reprobate saith in the same place None of them is lest but the Son of Perdition that the Scripture to wit the prophecy in the 109th Psalm might be fulfilled Certainly if the Scripture must be fulfilled then 't is necessary that the Reprobate cannot be sav'd because he is the Son of perdition and the Son can never vary from the nature he receiv'd from his Father To which purpose our Saviour saith Ye are of your father the Devil because ye do his works These are properly they whom God never looks upon in Jesus Christ with an eye of divine mercy such was Judas but not S. Peter for our Saviour lookt upon him to the end he might not dispair after he had so lamentably renounc'd his Master It remaines now that I show that Predestination cannot be hinder'd or frustrated on our part of which this is the reason Because when God elects and predestinates us in Jesus Christ he doth it without being necessitated thereunto but by his own and free pleasure to which none makes resistance as 't is said by the Prophet Lord who shall resist the heat of tsty countenance Moreover he elects us miserable men and not happy poor and not rich sinners and not righteous naked and not cloathed And because all this is done by Divine goodnesse with a great and infinite love he doth not elect us barely to abandon us afterwards and leave us free in the hands of our own counsels because he well knows that if he should leave us we should presently return to our first state but in consequence of his Divine election he gives us in time all the graces which were included in that election First he prepares our wills that they may be fit to recieve divine inspirations he comforts and strengthens us in temptations that we fall not into perdition he give us faith hope and charity to the end that with these weapons we may encounter overcome our enemies and in a word he furnishes us with all his benefits Towards those whom Gods receives for his children he deporteth himself as a Master would do who seeing a poor miserable man destitute of all relief knockt down in the high way wounded and disserted by all the world would be stirr'd by natural compassion to take him up and make him his beloved and faithful servant It cannot be said that it is enough for this miserable person that man has done him the favour to choose him for his servant because for all this he might remain in the high-way as much as ever exposed to his former miseries Certainly if he meanes to give him any true testimony of his affection he must not think it enough that he has chosen him for his servant but he must carry him into his house cause his wounds to be dressed give him clothes and do him new favours But God's love is much more powerful then man's natural affection for this can expresse it self onely in outward benefits but God not onely gives us corporal goods most plentifully but also lifts us up even above heaven with the spiritual gifts which he is able to bestow upon us to the end that being cloathed with a new spirit we may appear in Gods eyes honorable servants not ungrateful for the numerous benefits which we receive And this is the cause that these servants who acknowledge themselves to be of the number of his children work alwayes with love and not with fear By these Reasons it is evinc'd that we cannot withstand God's Election Heare the authorityes of Scripture which confirm the same thing S. Paul in the first chapter of his Epistle to the Ephesians speaks in this manner Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before h●m in love Hav●ng predestinated us into the adoption of Children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved In whom we have redemption through his blood the forgivenesse of sins according to the riches of his grace Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdome and prudence Having made known unto us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he purposed in himself c. This authority alone heard with the ear of the mind and not with that of the flesh is sufficient to resolve and clear all the doubt which can arise from the Proposition advanc'd by their Preacher in truth every one of these words since they are so many words of the H. Ghost ought to be more valuable to us then a thousand worlds because we see appear in them so illustriously the greatnesse goodnesse compassion and mercy of God towards us and particularly because thy give us to know to our great comfort that those who are predestinated and the children of God can never perish in regard they are elected in Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world Therefore he that is Elected is founded upon Jesus Christ and who is founded upon Jesus Christ can never fall because Jesus Christ is the rock and unmoveable foundation against which the power of the Devil cannot prevaile as neither can it prevaile against the structure built up of living stones which is the Holy Church and the determinate number of the Elect. This is further manifested by the Parable of the House built upon the sand which falls at the least blast of wind and that which is built upon a rock which cannot in any manner be shaken by the most impetuous storms Moreover S. Paul addeth and saith that God hath chosen us in Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love You see that Predestination regards as its proportionate object the good and holy works which God prepares for us that we may walk therein to enable us whereunto he hath left in the Church his Holy Spirit which as a hidden but strong fire burnes up all that it findes impure and superfluous and