properly is no other thing in St. Augustine's opinion than a languishing tepidity to produce the actions of the Spirit That puts all the Members of the Flesh into a Lethargy when there is question to obey the commandments of the Soul this idleness becomes a Tyrant if permitted to command absolutely and our proper feelings will become Arms of iniquity Languor iste tyranus est si vis te tiâ—anni esse victorem Christum invoca imperatorem D. Aug. verb. Apost serm 12. if we have not recourse to the Store-house of the Cross and take thence the Shield of Mortification on which Jesus our true Captain having received their most violent attacks has disabled them thereby to teach us how to prevent their effects You would say that St. Cyprian intends to make of Man a Smiths Shop Caro autem sic utitur anima sicut faber maleo vel incude in qua format omnium turpitudinem idola D. Cypr. in Prolog tract de operibus carn Christi The Flesh is the Smith his Hammer is Concupiscence he makes of his Soul an Anvil The Flesh armed with her Concupiscence strikes with both Arms full stroaks on our Soul to forge therein the Idols of pleasure and expose them to a publick adoration And a little after falling from the Analogy of that comparison he casts himself on another where he compares the Flesh to Circe the Witch that mingles in her Pottage a mortal Poyson Mens ebria corpus contumeliis applicat junctis amplexibus ambo in mortiferas suavitates elapsi obdormiunt Idem ibid. For as soon as the Spirit does taste of that Potion of the Flesh there he lies drunk of a sottish Love which makes him give over to Concupisence a full right in all his pretentions and giving one another an unfortunate kiss they both fall into the fatal Bed of common perdition But all those actions proceeding from a bad Faith and grounded on a deceitful Cheat can give no gain of cause to the Body if the Soul be pleased to make use of the pieces which will easily justifie her Rights and Titles Nay without going any further let her use the Right she has of a substantial Information and she shall soon see the Body brought to his Duty By the right of a substantial Information Non est caro dictatrix peccati nec inventrix malitiae nec cogitatus format nec agenda disponit sed officina est spiritus qui in ea per eam quaecunque affectaverit peragit consummat D Cypr. supra the Soul has such an assendance over the Body that as the Body in the Being of Nature cannot boast to possess life but for so long a time as the Soul will stick to him So in the Moral Being of the practice of Good and Evil to make an action good or bad the Body will contibute nothing if the Soul does not co-oporate the Flesh does not dictate the SIN she does not invent the malice she does not dispose the thoughts she is only the Work-house of the Spirit where the Good and Evil begins and is consumated If the Soul cannot redeem her self from the Tyanny of the Body by the right of her Information Quis me liberabit c. Rom. 8. v. 25. let her have recourse to the means which St. Paul does prescribe in like occurrences who sighing under so cruel a Thraldom seems to cry for strength and assistance to God through Jesus Christ. When St. Augustine was on the point to break with all Worldly pleasures D. Aug. lib. 8. Concess c. 11. Ibi tot pueri puellae ibi juventus multa omnis aetas graves viduae virgines in omnibus ipsa continentia nequaquam sterilis sed faecunda mater filiorum gaudiorum de marito te Domine irridebat me irrisione exhortatoria quasi diceret tu non poteris quod isti est istae an vero isti etistae They all presented themselves unto him under the colours of a malicious compassion to mollifie with their Charms the force of his Courage To what purpose would they say do you engage your self in a life whereof the ordinary practice is to be among Chains Crosses Wheels and Gibbets But this great Saint considering on the other side the powerful Grace of Jesus as a Victorious Princess which carried in her right hand the List and Names of so many young Children of chaste Virgins of Noble Matrons snatcht from the World and the Flesh to serve God suffers himself to be easily perswaded that God who makes no exception of persons will not refuse him the efficacious assistance of the same Grace He fights then under that hope he invokes Jesus to his aid and notwithstanding the contradictions of the Flesh he appears Stout and Couragious against all occasions of Vice This Example will let those that are in Love with Liberty see that it is not incompatible with effectual Grace because this according to St. Augustine is a Victorious pleasure charming our Soul a Tryumphant Love predominant over our Will and a powerful perswasion captivating our understanding Forasmuch as God hath made Man free never taking that from him which once he hath bestowed upon him he could not have imployed a more gracious nor more effectual way to gain Him than pleasure All Creatures are taken with it and the Poet had reason to say there is nothing that is not sweetly Master'd by Pleasure The Ambitious seek not so much the reputation in Honours as the pleasure because they contemn them as soon as they cease to be agreeable The Covetous is not so much provoked with profit as pleasure in the desire of Wealth because he spends many times prodigally to procure other things that more delight him Nay the Lascivious Wanton is not so much in Love with Beauty as with pleasure because he placeth his affections sometimes upon Objects that have no appearance of Beauty and many times forsakes a handsom Woman to Court a deformed one Thus pleasure is a powerful Charm that masters all Hearts Plunders Liberties and makes Slaves that never complain of Bondage because they are voluntary Lovers that seek the secret of purchasing affection study nothing but Complacency being assured they shall produce Love in that Heart where they have begot pleasure Flatterers never insinuate into the minds of great Men but by rendring themselves acceptable nor do their false commendations steal in at the Ears but because pleasure takes up the place of Truth The very Devils though our Mortal Enemies seduce us not but because they please us and had they not found out the Art of mixing Pleasure with Sin all their Temptations would be fruitless But the Will of Man though never so free hath such an inclination toward pleasure that did she never so strongly barracado her self she could not possibly resist it She holds out against Truth because she is blind and sees not the Beauties 't is adorned with she
with a generous heart all the difficulties and bad steps that he meets with in the Road if there be Hunger Thirst Cold or Heat he must be the first to feel it in his own proper Person Can there be a Christian if he be not a greater Coward than a Thersite who will not take a strong resolution to convert himself to Jesus Addit deinde Apostolus ibid. Et obliti estis consolationis quae vobis tanquam filiis loquitur c. follow his Colours fight under his Conduct being that besides Heaven which he does promise us as the reward of our Victories he does oblige himself to comfort us as often as we fight and as long as our Combat shall last CHAP. XXIX That the Immortality of our Soul ought to make us undervalue the World ARchimedes the Geometrician did boast in his days that he would make the Earth get out of its Center if any would assign him a point out of the Earth whereon he might fix one of the Rods of his Compass whether that be possible or no Cum interrogas unde sit anima utrum quasi regionem ejus patriam unde huc venerit nosse desideras propriam quandam habitationem animae ac patriam Deum ipsum credo esse à quo creata est substantiam vero ejus nominare non possum non enim eam puto esse ex his usitatis notisque naturis quas istis corporis sensibus tangimus D. Ang. tom 1. de quantitate anima cap. 1. circa initium I refer it At least I can tell for certain that the effect of his Art had never any Existence but in his own imagination And yet bragging that he would do it has acquired himself the admiration of all Antiquity If God had reserved those poor Pagans to live in the Age of the Evangelical Law they would have far greater reason to admire the inventions of him who placed Heaven and Earth out of their Center There was a Man who gave such strong shakes to Heaven and Earth that he forced them to change their Center He is the Son of God who taking humane flesh has brought himself to nothing and in the point of that humiliation has made himself the Center of the World Heaven did incline it self to come towards the Earth and the Earth leap'd with joy for having by a new transmigration found so perfect a settlement hard by its Center Quid de anima firmissime teneam non tacebo anima hominis immortalis est secundum quendam moâ—um suum non enim oâ—â— mâ—do de siâ—â—t Deus de quo dictum est quia sâ—lâ—s habet immortalitatem Paâ—lo â—nferius This wise Philosopher teaches us another Secret no less to be admired than the former which is not only to make the Earth change its Center getting it a place in the very middle of the Firmament but also to draw down the Firmament to give it place in the middle of the Earth The Christian Sed quod ita moritur alienata à vita Dei ut tamen in natura sua vivere non omnino desistat c. D. Aug. to 2. de natura origine animarum Epist 28. non longè à principio who has a firm belief of the immortality of the soul is an admirable Mathematician who can when he pleases set the Earth where Heaven is and Heaven where the Earth is He sets the Earth where Heaven is when that walking without the gallery of his sences he launces the thoughts of his spirit into Eternity for to contemplate the wonderful productions of Paradise and that glorious Inheritance whereof a Terrestrial creature pretends to take possession He sets Heaven where Earth is when with St. Paul he converses among men as if he had lived in the company of Angels entertaining nothing in his spirit but Angelical thoughts Seneca the moral Philosopher in an answer he makes to one of his Friends who earnestly desired that he would be pleased to prove the immortality of Souls makes it well appear Habet anima mortem suam cum vita beata caret quae vera animae vita dicenda est sed immortalis ideo nuncupatur quoniâ—â—â—qâ— alicumque vita etiamsi miserrima est nunquam 〈◊〉 vivere â— c. fuse that it lyes in the power of man to do that wonder telling of himself that he did exercise himself a long time in that imployment altogether Divine You have very much troubled me in my rest says he to his Freind for when I received your Letter I was giving my soul the fore-taste of glory and charming the drousiness of my Body by the sweet thoughts of the Immortality of my spirit D. Aug. to 3. l. 14. de Trin. c 4. statim mitio I was of belief that there was nothing in the world able to divert me from so happy an entertainment You have crost me in the object of my delights importuning me about a question of which all well-tempered souls ought not to have the least scruple You had obliged me more had you either abstained from writing or written to exhort me to live conformable to my belief Would to God that the effect of that repartee of Seneca had happened to be true among Christians and that such as are imployed to instruct the people Imago Dei invenienda est in animo hominis id est rationali sive intellectuali imago creatoris quae immortalitati ejus est insita Aug supra c. 3. were not obliged to trouble themselves to prove that verity so conformable to nature that the very Heavens according unto the saying of the learned Suares imprints in our bodies a certain feeling of immortality I must acknowledge with Aristotle in his charmes that some unfortunate genius jealous of so great an advantage has pierced our hearts through with a fatal nail and makes us like so many Estriches who can well strike at our flanks with our wings But the corruption of our nature which is no other than the Philosophers nail makes us always to incline downwards without giving us the liberty to look at Heaven until that a favourable Zephirus comes pleasantly on to solace our weakness by the powerful contribution of its forces and makes us to enjoy that innocent pleasure St. Augustin speaks of which is to live Immortal in the corruption of the Flesh by the serious meditation of Eternity And really if a Christian will but give himself the least leasure to think on this Subject he will soon find out Cleombrotus in hac animi magnitudine teperitur quem ferunt lecto Platonis libro ubi de immortalitate animae disputavit se praecipitem dedisse de muro atque ita ex vita migrasse ad eam quam credidit esse meliorem D. Aug. to 5. l. 1 civit c. 22. that his Spirit is immortal He knows well that Nature suffers no Powers to stand idle or useless She has given them sufficient
Flesh usurps on the right of the Spirit In vicino versatur invidia Senec. de brev vitae NEighbourhood is never without envy says the moral Philosopher and I think him nothing seated to his advantage In hoc flexu aetatis fama Coelii haesit admetas notitia Clodiae mulieris impudicae iufoelici vicinitate Cicero pro. who has made it his choice to reside close by a bad Neighbour For there he shall always find something to be debated The Body and the Spirit the Superiour and Inferiour part of the Soul are two Neighbours that lodge Door against Door always in War always in strife M. Coelio Video aliam legem in membris meis repugnantem legi mentis meae Rom. 7. v. 23. never out of trouble The one brings down his Laws his Customs and daily Practices the other alledges his own But the Body better vers'd and more learn'd in the subtilities of Pleading gives the Spirit much to do He acts the part of a malicious Usurper who will invest himself with another mans Goods and makes it his ordinary business to conceive and produce three Acts of bad Faith by one he pulls down and destroys the Meers and Bounds which set a distinction betwixt both the Inheritances by the other he burns confounds or retains with himself all the pretensions and titles of his Neighbour that he might have nothing to shew whereby to make appear the right and justice of his possession By the third he passes all the Farms in his own name receives the Rents and duties and so of a slave oftentimes he makes himself absolute Lord and Proprietor of that which he held from another by credit and Homage Aggenus l. de Limitibus agrorum and also with an obligation of Bondage As for the first which is the taking away of Meers and Bounds it 's an Act against the common Law of Nations which prescribes unto each thing its Mark that the Lord and Master thereof may be known and that no body might encroach or trespass on his Land The collation of those Meers was so Holy and venerable among the Antients that they would accompany it with as many Ceremonies as they would their most solemn Sacrifice to their Gods the stones being gather'd into a great heap on a firm ground they would Crown them with a Cap of Flowers and cast thereon some Aromatique Ointments to Embalm the place the Trench being made deep where the Bounds being to be settled they were to kill some clean spotless Beasts which they would bury therein by quarters and be-sprinkle them with Blood freshly drawn out of their veins the Sacred Fire being put to those materials so disposed and at the greatest force of the activity of these flames when the Flesh began to boil in the Blood they would cast the stones into that deep trench so carefully made hot Frontinus lib. de limitions and this they would call Meers of Inheritance Ille homo Primitus Dei lege transgressa aliam legem repugnantem suae menti habere coepit in membris inobedientiae suae malum sensit quoniam sibi retributam dignissime inobedientiam carnis suae invenit D. Aug. to 7. l. 1. de nuptiis concupisc ad Valerium cap. 6. statim intio which no body durst take away by reason of the punishment decreed against such transgressors which was to be immediatly comdemned to the Mines The Body as a bad Neighbour after he had at that dismal day of the Garden of Eden raised up in Arms all the unruly motions of his concupiscence to provoke the Soul to the disorder of the Crime which she there committed believed he had acquired advantages great enough to entrench upon her Rights knowing very well by the experience he had of her litle courage to maintain them that he would soon get the better of her if he would undertake to intangle her in a Process he begins with the first Act of a bad Faith which is to take away and pass over the Bounds which God and Nature had put betwixt him and the Soul But what are the Meers of the Body assigned by the Decree of the great Surveyor of the Universe it 's a little bit of Earth of five or six foot in length two or three in breadth for the most corpulent An inheritance which is never better measured then by the same Body when that they do cast him into his Tomb and stretch him over all what he is worth in the World and as yet the Worms will strive for the same and pretending the prosperty to be their own they gnaw the carcass so far as to take away all form and shape belonging to a Body Morever whilst the Body is alive he is subject to all manner of slavery which can be exacted of a Vassal If the Soul as his Soveraign can absolutely command him And if she could make use of the Justice of her Power and Prerogative the Body in respcct of her would have no further credit or esteem then what we usually have for a meer Slave because that the Soul being of a Celestial off-spring she can have no bounds upon Earth her limits touch the very point of Eternity whence she derives the Antiquity of her Race and the Grandeurs of her Nobility What has happened upon that account what but that great misfortune which St. Paul will have the Corinthians to avoid Non sit schisma in corpore 1. Cor. c 11. to wit to hinder that the Body should become Schysmatique that is to say to hinder that no division should be betwixt the Members and the Head the Vassal and the Lord the Servant and the Master The Soul is the Head the Lady and the Mistress of the Body Yet by reason that the Soul cannot exercise the Acts of her power unless that she does pass over the Earth of the Body and that the Spirit cannot receive any intelligible Species unless she draws them from abroad by the favour of the sences which are the Organs of the Body Hence the Body in the continuation of the Soul passes and repasses seeintg she had need of his assistance took the occasion of a revolt and in a short time being weary of serving and getting without the Meers of his duty he reduced her to that pass to serve and wait on his unruly appetite Servitutes praediorum confundantur si idem utriusque praedii dominus esse coeperit Digest l. 8. tit 6. and to labour the Earth though she be a Princess of Heavenly Extraction And this because she knew not how to hold her own rank maintain her Rights and make the Body know how far she could extend her bounds CHAP. XXXVI The Second unjust Usurpation of the Flesh on the right of the Spirit THe Lord and Proprietor being no more able to obtain what is his by right through the unjustice which was done unto him by destroying and taking away his Bounds the bad
Neighbour proceeds further he finds out means either to burn or take away his Titles Contracts and Publick Instruments which might make out the Righteousness of his Possession and at the same time he forges others to debar him from his pretensions These are the proceedings of the Flesh against the Spirit the Soul had three fair Contracts to shew and drawn in a very good form in the first state of her Creation The one was of Original Justice the other of the Gift of Immortality and the third of the Infusion of Science The Contract of Original Justice has put her in Possession of the Sanctifying Grace according to the feelings of all the Fathers who by these words of Genesis Let us make man to our Image and Resemblance takes the Image for her constitution in her intelligible being and the resemblance for her interiour ornament through the infusion of Grace after which comes Charity The Queen of all Virues waited on by all moral perfections which as Ladies of Honour are always inseperable from her the Justice then comes first Leader and Chief among the Cardinals with the rest that follow immediately the Theological all which in the first instant did acknowledge God for their object and were so punctual to serve him on occasions that nothing could be imagined better ordered in that litle Common-wealth Man was admitted to the Privy Councel of the King of Glory so far as to know the most secret affairs of the Divinity as was the decree of the redemption of mankind in the fulness of time by sending one of the Divine Persons who uniting himself to humane Nature would discharge her of her Debts in rigour of Justice Moreover by Virtue of his Contract he had not only reasonable inclinations towards his Creator but as yet his Will did taste with so much sweetness of all manner of things which concern'd the Divine Worship that the sensitive appetite has not so much of sensible pleasure in the enjoyment of her delights The Contract of Immortality exempted Adam and all them who by Original propagation were to come from his Race from that rigorous tribute of Death whereby the Soul could have received a great advantage for by this means she would have shunn'd the experience of what grief and sorrow she met with in the seperation when that those two essential pieces of Man the Soul and Body so perfectly united comes to break off I must confess this Contract was not grounded on any right of nature because that man suffers within himself a continual War of four contrary qualities which at last must end his life to begin his Death and therefore he could not expect to be Immortal by Nature Mortalis erat Adam conditione corporis animalis immortalis autem beneficio conditoris D. Aug. in c. 7. Genes but even as the King who is above the common Laws of his Kingdom dispenses with whom he pleases So God says St. Augustin did order that Man Mortal by the condition and property of his animal Body should be Immortal by the benefice of his Prince Ne mors undequaque subreperet vel senectute confecti decursis temporum spatiis interirent Idem ibid. A Benefice nail'd to the Tree of Life by an adherent quality which acted this great wonder that eating the Fruit which hung from the Branches it did not only give nourishment to the Body to preserve Life but also was an expulsive Medicine of all gatherings of ill Humours to keep him always in the just proportion of a perfect health Infusione non per se sed per accidens The Contract of the Infusion of science did raise the Spirit of man from the very instant of his Creation to the perfect knowledge of all natural things God having granted him that Grace that whereas now we spend years and ages to attain to some little knowledge of Learning in one instant he would become an able Phylosopher For whatever thing he would apply himself to either Material Spiritual or Divine he would easily draw from thence all possible consequences by way of nature In material things he had a clear knowledge of their constitutive Principles of their genius difference properties and accidents he gave to each thing Names which were evident signs and marks of their substance that from one they would easily come to the knowledge of the other The motion of the Heavens Ordinary Extraordinary Influences Aspects Regards Positions Colours Zodiack Eccliptick Signs Constellations and the wonderful enclosure of all the Globes one into another without confusion all that was the entertainment of his Spirit In Spiritual things the very Angels met under the sphere of his Activity and made up a part of the object of his science for though he had no material Species of the Angel being that the matter cannot be the Image of the Spirit nevertheless by illations and Universal consequences by proportion of the Soul whose Functions are Intellectual he could conclude the existence of a being purely Spiritual without any mixture of matter In Divine things there was no Creature in the World wherein he did not consider either the trace or Image of God and carrying his understanding from visible to invisible things would conclude that of necessity there was one originary cause a primum mobile a Soveraign Agent Fomes peccati The Body after he had corrupted nature did falsifie burn and corrupt all those Titles Contracts and Priviledges Substituting in their place the Leven of concupiscence In the practice of Courts they would call that a demising which the Soul makes of all her rights to the Body not having courage enough to maintain them This is what St. Paul calls the Law of sin which causes the Soul that she dares not appear to hold her own rank in the quality of a Princess by the excellency of her extraction nor to have her self obeyed as Mistress and Regent of the Body Her cowardliness makes her to take with the vile and abject condition of a Servant and receive the Laws of the Flesh whereas she ought to command absolutely CHAP. XXXVII The third unjust Usurpation of the Flesh on the right of the Spirit THe Meers and Bounds being taken away the Contracts confounded the bad Neighbour seizes on the Inheritance sells and alienates all that he can What a grief is it to a poor man to see before his eyes all his Chief and best Goods proscribed the hangings of his Halls the Beds and rich Furniture of his Rooms Quisque peccando animam suam diabolo vendit accepta tanquam pretio dulcedine temporalis voluptatis D. Aug. in expos propositionum ad Rom. Num 4. the brave Linnen conserved so long a time in the Coffers all seized on all exposed to sale If for to conserve the memory of his race he would fain buy one of the Pieces they make him pay a double rate for it The Body deals the same with the Soul he sets all her moveable Goods
to be sold he gives no further respite for the buying of them but as long as a farthing Candle shall give light on the bottom of a Tub or Hogs-head who ever gives most shall have all from him St. Paul to the Romans complains of that disgrace I am altogether carnally given Ego Carnalis sum venundatus sub peccato infoelix ego homo quis me liberabit de corpore mortis hujus Rom. c. 7. v. 14 and brought under the heavy yoak of sin Alas what a wretch am I who shall deliver me from the Tyranny of this Body That Candle lighted is our Life whose light is so short that it often does Ecclipse from our Eyes before we can enjoy a glance of its brightness and yet notwithstanding Eternity depends on this moment T' is in this moment that we must either be Saved or Damned That we must do good the seed of Glory Or sow incorruption the seed of everlasting misfortune The Body will have this moment to himself alone and tho he knows this moment to be of a short continuance and that this life passes away as the Wind he will not give over to build designs in his brains which seem to strive with Eternity Solomon the most wise among men gives an ample description of that folly where a man in so short a time will undertake so many things the discourse he makes of it is altogether as pleasant as it is necessary to oblige all Spirits to make good use of this moment I was says he King in Jerusalem Great Powerful Rich at my ease and seeing that the pleasures did much weaken the vivacity of my Spirit Eccl. c. 4. v. 4. and that in the continuation of their bad use I was declining from the conduct of wisdom I abstained from the delicacy of Wines by a rule of sobriety which bridled my appetites I set my hand to work building of Palaces planting of Vines dressing of Gardens ordering of Vineyards and Orchards I reformed the state of my House and made it my Study to render it the most renowned of all the World I did seek to procure for my sences all the objects they could desire And as the power to possess them was as easie to me as the desire to have them I did satisfie them at full in the moment of their appetites But all the goods and pleasures of the World well considered are but Vanity and affliction of Spirit I would afterwards fain know what difference was there betwixt the folly of the World and the wisdom of Heaven betwixt a prudent man and a fool I have seen that the Wise had his eyes in his head and that the fools walked in darkness The one and the other were equal in this point that death without any respect or consideration does cast them both into the Grave If it be so says I to my self that Death pardons no more the Wise then the Fool that the Learned and Ignorant come to the same end to what purpose is so much time spent in such unprofitable labours 't is but vanity and affliction of Spirit The passionate desire I had to see him prosper who was to succeed me in my Dominions has engaged me in a thousand cares which gnawed my heart But reflecting seriously on their anxiety I detested their pursuit not knowing whether he who is to be my Heir will be of the number of the Fools or of that of the Wise or if he will not be prodigal of the Goods whose acquisition cost me so dear This is that which made me resolve to give my self a little ease and without troubling any further the quietness of my life to pass over sweetly the rest of my days in peace Continuing by induction to make appear the sad occupation of Men who have no God but their Body and who in a moment undertake so many affairs to the prejudice of their Souls they do shew evidently the advantages of the Flesh over the Spirit And as the Spirit if he does not get himself off speedily and with courage from under the Tyrany of his Hostilities will be utterly subdued without expectation of any agreement CHAP. XXXVIII That it is the Grace of Jesus which maintains the Spirit in his Rights 'T Is but in vain for the Flesh to plot or devise unjust Usurpations on the Rights of the Spirit Nihil damnationis est iis c. Rom. c. 8. v. 1. She may Rebel against his Empire but to no purpose Corruptio corporis quae aggravat animam non peccati primi est causa sed poena nec caro corruptibilis animam peccatricem sed anima peccatrix carnem fecit esse corruptibilem D. Aug. tom 5. l. 14. civit c. 3. per totum for the Spirit will always find whereby to dissolve all her slights her revolts and subtile inventions The Word-Incarnate will furnish us with sufficient means to annul all her pursuits Whereupon the Apostle fears not to say That there is no damnation for them that are in Jesus Christ so be that undervaluing the Sedition of the Tempter they do avoid as much as they can the deceits of his practice because that the Law of the Spirit taken from the life of Jesus Res violenter pâ—ssassa non poteâ—â—su capi vel praescribi nisi vitium violentiae sit proâ—â—tum p. 14. tit 3. §. 14. delivers us from the bondage of Sin and Death Not that the Apostle absolutely speaking would give the Christian Letters of assurance of the Infallibility of his Salvation for that would be contrary to Holy Scriptures His design is to shew the power of the Word-Incarnate in the use of Baptism where we do receive so authentical a Pardon for our Crimes that our Souls being perfectly Purged of all original spots Concupiscentia vocatur peccatum quia peccato facta est cum jâ—â—r in regeneratis non sit ipsa peccatum sicut vocatur lingua locutio quam facit lingua frigus pigrum non qâ— pigris fiâ—t sed quod pigro faciat D. Aug. tom 7. de nupt concup c. 23. there remains nothing that deserves the name of Sin If Concupiscence remains after Baptism it holds not the rank of a Crime in our Hearts but is left only for the exercise of Virtue as the originary Seed of all the Combats betwixt the Spirit and the Flesh where every good Christian ought to make his courage appear and remain always Victorious whether he flies from his Enemy when he discovers his Treachery or that he withstands Manfully against the violence of his assaults Non regnet peccatum in vestro mentali corpore Rom. 6. If the Saints sometimes make use of the word Sin speaking of Concupiscence even as St. Paul to the Romans exhorting us that we should not permit Sin to reign in our Mortal Bodies it 's to take the word Sin in a very general extent and not in the precise Intelligence of its malice Concupiscence then to speak
Love which render'd them tollerable shall make up but a small part of the pains of the Damned Alas if a little Head-ach sets us out of all order and patience a little swelling or matter under the nail will make us cry to Heaven and Earth the least prick of a Pin will give us a feeling what shall it be among so many and such searching evils of their own Nature and without remedy by the Divine Ordinance Let us pass over all this and come to consider the anguish and perplexity of the Spirit Let us if it be possible cast up an account of all the Rages Despairs and Melancholies of Men of that of a Judas who hangs himself of Otho the Emperour who not being able to get the Victory of Vitellius runs himself through with his Sword Of a Cassius who with the same Dagger he murthered Caesar in the Senate deprives himself of his Life Of a Silvius an Italian Poet who at the age of seventy five years plung'd in a profound sadness finding no other thing whereby to Exercise his rage pierces his heart with the point of a Nail Of a Galerius who smother'd himself in his Sheets And a number of others who went tormented in their Souls some have cast themselves into Privies others from the top of high Towers Yet all That is nothing to be compar'd to the rage and despair of a damn'd Soul The Devil will take occasion to Exercise new punishments on the reprobate from the pleasures he was most given to in the World Ambition made him to raise up his horns and in the smoak of a passing honour-to build for himself an Idol of presumption to which all his wishes and desires should offer continual Sacrifices Undervaluing Taunts Contempts and Rebukes shall be his ordinary Serenades Now a Devil boxing him will say get you gone unfortunate Soul you have lost your share of Heaven for a point of Honour Another will publish his most hidden sins Ibi dolor permanet ut affligat natura perdurat ut sentiat quia utrumque ideo non deficit ne paena deficiat D Aug. to 5. l. 19. Civit. c. 28. per totum there is the Hypocrite who past for a Saint among men to complain of these affronts he would not dare if he be not willing to have them redoubled to seek for one to comfort him or to be revenged of those Murderers 't is in vain all compassion is banished out of that Land 't is there that Cruelty sits in her Throne Ah dear Soul to escape those torments will you not have pity of your self This is not as yet enough those fires remain without mercy those burning flames which devour and those parching heats which consume without giving death and give Death without consuming Qualitatem doloriferam igni Deus imprimit Suarez Flames which act no more within the order of their natural Activity though the same be most rigorous but which receive new dolorous Qualities which God draws from their obediential power as well for to torment the Body the more as for to act against the Soul Quod a diabolus ejusque Angeli cum sint incorporei corporeo tamon cruciantur igne quid mirum si animae antequam recipiant corpora corporea sentiant tormenta D. Greg. 4. Dialo though she be Spiritual For as God uniting our Souls to our Bodies makes it that our Souls are sensible of the sores of the Body he may as easily command the fire to act against those very Souls and make them to resent the violence of its Action And even as he does elevate the Water which is an Elementary Body to the Spiritual effects of Baptismal Grace so he does elevate those Fires though they be Material to the punishment of Spirits without any contradiction or dis-agreement of the Soul with the Fire no more than there is of Grace with the Water The Prophet I say cannot look on those Furnaces but he must fall into a weakness of heart Hugo of St. Victor gives us the reason of it and says that those Fires are to be admir'd in one point which is that they do operate without loosing any thing of their force because they meet with no contrary Agent that might moderate their Action they are mixed with a Sulphureous Fat thick bituminous matter to give them a more scorching heat And which is more this Doctor is of opinion Ibi omnia genera tormentorum sunt congregata sicut aquae maris in alveo suo Hugo Card. in c. 16. Luc. that if all the Waters of the Sea nay if the Heavens had opened their Cataracts even to power down therein an Universal Deluge it would signifie no more then a little drop of Oyl cast into Vulcan's Furnace We must not imagine that those Fires have no further power to act on the Damn'd Souls than to intimate their commission at length and to startle them with a threatning pain or to serve as high Walls only in form of a Dungeon where the Spirits are detained Prisoners No no those Fires are not to be suppos'd to act only by an intentional Species which supplies the want of a proportionable Object For then the Devils having a general Species of all matterial things by infusion from the instant of their Creation it would be no great trouble to them And therefore it is necessary that the real presence of the substance of the Fire be there Habebit tunc carnis substantia qualitatem ab illo juditam qui tam miras varias rebus indidit quas videmus eas quia multae sunt non miremur D. Aug. l. 21. Civit. c. 4. per totum joyned with the dolorous qualities which God gives it in the instant of its Elevation to the end that it should adhere to the Souls with so straight a tye says St. Augustine that the Union of the Soul with the Body in the rights of Information cannot be more intimate than that of the Damned Souls is to the Fire of Hell CHAP. XLII The second Consideration of Hell Virgil. 6. Aeneid WHo will not tremble and cry out at the sole remembrance of that dreadful thought The Latin Poet describing the horidness of those Subterranian Mansions conceives a Den in form of an Abyss fortified with a triple Wall which a Torrent of Flames does environ on all sides and an Iron Tower with Brass-Gates which all the Gods are not able to break open on one side a Gnosius and a Radamantus may be seen there to put those unfortunate Criminals to the torture and on the nother the Alcides Titans and Salmones punished for their crimes committed against Jupiter Nevertheless he seems to give them some hopes that after the expiration of their offences they may flye unto the Elizean Fields though it must be with some difficulty However Faith will have us to believe the contrary Theseus got out of the Labarinth by the favour of a Thred he had received
hunc impossibile est intrare in regnum celerum Origenes Tract 3. ad illud qui scandalizaverit unum t. Whoever is not a Child after this Nature can hope for nothing in the successions of Heaven But take Courage for he who even from this World doth engage the Fidelity of his Word for assurance of an Eternal Blessing to them who without fraud or malice hanging close at the Paps of his Graces shall draw from thence the Spirit of Life will never deprive you of that Inheritance seeing that his Goodness is altogether as plenty in the Communication of his Favours as the Fidelity of his Word is certain in the Execution of his Promises The CONTENTS Chap. I. THat the Conversion of a Soul ought to be Fram'd according to the Word-Incarnate pag. 1 Chap. II. That the Conversion of a Soul is a second Nativity of Jesus pag. 12 Chap. III. Who ought to be the Father in this second Nativity pag. 23 Chap. IV. That there is in this Nativity a supposed Father as well as in that of Jesus pag. 30 Chap. V. That the Delivery and Birth of this Child must be in Pain and Sorrow pag. 38 Chap. VI. That this Sorrowful Delivery is the Accomplishment of the Word-Incarnate pag. 47 Chap. VII That it is the Angel of Great Council who brings to the Soul the Word of her Conversion pag. 54 Chap. VIII That it belongs to God alone to Convert a Soul pag. 64 Chap. IX The Confidence that a Soul ought to have in her God pag. 74 Chap. X. How God does cast into a Soul the Seed of her Conversion pag. 83 Chap. XI The Stratagems that Jesus makes use of to Convert a Soul pag. 95 Chap. XII That to become Servants to God we must know the World pag. 110 Chap. XIII That we cannot complain of the want of sufficient means for our Conversion pag. 125 Chap. XIV That the Infidel and Still-born Children cannot complain of God pag. 134 Chap. XV. God no sooner sees a Soul desirous of her Salvation but he gives her his helping Hand pag. 146 Chap. XVI How hard it is to Convert a Luke-warm Soul pag. 163 Chap. XVII God will not destroy those Luke-warm Souls which he begins to vomit pag. 172 Chap. XVIII For to Convert a Sinner God must afflict him pag. 181 Chap. XIX How the Devil hinders a Sinner to Convert himself to God in Affliction pag. 192 Chap. XX. It is by Preaching that Sinners are efficaciously moved pag. 202 Chap. XXI How Powerful good Example is for to touch a Sinner pag. 217 Chap. XXII If any thing be contrary to the Conversion of a Sinner it must be bad and scandalous company pag. 225 Chap. XXIII That to think of Death has a great power on the Conversion of a Sinner pag. 233 Chap. XXIV That the remorse of the Conscience is an Efficacious Instrument of our Conversion pag. 249 Chap. XXV That the Sinner can never be Converted whilst he smothers the Remorse of his Conscience pag. 261 Chap. XXVI That a Soul will not Convert her self to God unless she knows that she has no true Friend in this World pag. 268 Chap. XXVII That we cannot meet with a better Friend than Jesus pag. 279 Chap. XXVIII That Jesus is the only Friend who Comforts us on occasion pag. 293 Chap. XXIX That the Immortality of our Soul ought to make us undervalue the World pag. 307 Chap. XXX That the Mortality of our Souls sets all Crimes at Liberty pag. 319 Chap. XXXI That the Angels are imployed in the Conversion of a Sinner pag. 327 Chap. XXXII That the Devil hinders the Conversion of a Sinner pag. 338 Chap. XXXIII For to resist the Devil we must know his Power pag. 341 Chap. XXXIV The good Angels have more Power to Convert us than the bad Angels have to pervert us pag. 352 Chap. XXXV How the Flesh usurps on the right of the Spirit pag. 360 Chap. XXXVI The Second unjust Vsurpation of the Flesh on the right of the Spirit pag. 365 Chap. XXXVII The third unjust Vsurpation of the Flesh on the right of the Spirit pag. 371 Chap. XXXVIII That it is the Grace of Jesus which maintains the Spirit in his Rights pag. 375 Chap. XXXIX That the Grace of Jesus leaves that weighty obligation on all Christians to be both Souldiers and Conquerours pag. 393 Chap. XL. That the thoughts of Hell does bring the Sinner to his Duty pag. 406 Chap. XLI The first consideration of Hell pag. 409 Chap. XLII The second consideration of Hell pag. 416 Chap. XLIII The third consideration of Hell pag. 424 THE CONVERSION OF THE SOUL Form'd by the Patern of the Word-Incarnate PART I. CHAP. I. That the Conversion of a Soul ought to be Fram'd according to the Word-Incarnate WHat a High and Mighty Lord is Man what rich and ample Possessions has he if they had not been engag'd for the payment of his Debts All Creatures labour for his Service and seem to aim at nothing else but to procure his Glory St. Paul to set forth the Happiness of his Condition assures that the Angels were Created to Honour him with their Attendance Nonne omnes sunt administratorii spiritus Hebr. 1. The Sun the Moon the Stars are so many Lanthorns set out by the powerful hand of God to lead and lighten him through darkness the Heavens rowl over his Head to divide the year into Seasons for the welfare of his Body and the Recreation of his Senses they do power down their Influences upon the most private parts of the Earth to form therein Jewels and Pearls Gold and Silver for his Expence and Pleasure The Seas and the Floods Omnia subjecisti sub pedibus ejus Ps 8. whose roaring waves and cloudy storms often make all the Earth to Tremble stand calm nevertheless at his Command for to give him a firm and free passage from one Pole to the other In fine there is not any Creature but what does cast it self at the Feet of Man in sign of Subjection and Reverence Who perhaps seeing himself in the Splendour of that great Empire will become as Insolent as the Prince of Laodicea who beholding his great Wealth his resplendant Court and gallant Attendance Dives sum locupletatus Apoc 3.17 said I am rich and potent I have all things at command I want no bodies help or assistance His Pride made him to forget his Extraction from Dust and Ashes as also his dependency on God and his former misery Let not Man fall into the same misfortune let him not admire over-much the Beauty of his fine Feathers let him not become so Insolent in the abundance of his Wealth nor conceive any vain glory at the Homage and Reverence which he receives from all other Creatures Let him remember that He hath nothing but what is lent to him and that he must be accountable for all the goods he doth enjoy He hath God for his Creditor who by giving cannot
doth not bear the form and resemblance of one The general redemption of mankind was compleated on the Cross and by Sufferances never expect that the Spirit of God will work upon any other example The Holy Ghost never begets Children to God but betwixt the Arms of the Cross consequently he can never beget any there but Crucify'd Children CHAP. II. That the Conversion of a Soul is a second Nativity of Jesus THe Gospel relates unto us how Nicodemus who took all the Actions of Jesus for so many Prodigies Rabbi scimus quia à Deo venisti Magister nemo enim potest facere haec signa quae tu facis nisi fuerit Deus cum eo John 3. ver 2. Nisi quis natus fuerit denuo non potest videre regnum Dei Ibid took an occasion to visit him by night Being come Master says he we know that your Mastership comes from Heaven for none could work such high wonders as you do if God had not gone along with him Whereupon our Saviour replies Verily I tell you that whoever is not Regenerated the second time shall never see the Kingdom of Heaven As if he had said in plainer terms You have seen me revive the Dead change Water into Wine Cure the Sick multiply the Bread cast Devils out of mens Bodies These and many more such Actions have daz'led your eyes and forc'd your mouth to confess ingeniously that they must be the works of Divine Power I do receive and approve of your sentiments for they are conformable to Reason But I will have you to know that there is another wonder worthy of your astonishment which is That to be sav'd you must be born the second time This poor man was altogether astonish'd Qui solam carnalem Nativitatem novit quae non potest denuo fieri ideo modum secundae quaerit Glossa Interlin ad haec verba who had no other Theology than that of his Senses and who did not as yet comprehend the secrets of Heaven falls presently on that Proposal this main difficulty How can that be done That a man must be born twice over that an Old man of threescore years with the full extention of his Body must be reduced to the form and state of a new born Child must he re-enter into his Mothers womb there to be retain'd a Prisoner the space of nine Months That must be perform'd either by Rarefaction or Condensation of Matter That in the Mother This in the Child who did ever hear speak of the like thing Some one perhaps may ask me the same Question Non mireris quia dixi oportet vos nasci denuo Spiritus ubi vult spirat Ver. 7.8 seq and seeing it in the front of this Chapter The second Nativity of Jesus may tell me that it is an impossible thing that Jesus should be born the second time For the Virgin must have been re-call'd on Earth to become his Mother once more And if for to be born twice he must die as often it would be necessary that Jesus who is once already dead and never dies any more should die the second time for to revive again which cannot be Dear Reader I have no other Answer for the clearing of your doubt Si propter haereditatem temporalis nascitur aliquis ex visceribus matris carnalis propter haeriditatem Patris Dei sempiternam nascitur peccator ex visceribus Ecclesiae D. Aug. tract 12. in John com 9. refer tur in Catena but the same which our Saviour gave to Nicodemus Verily I tell you that whoever is not regenerated by water and the Holy Ghost cannot be sav'd For even as being dead by Original sin you are regenerated by the water of Baptism so being dead by your Actual sins you are re-call'd to life by the water of your bitter Tears in the Sacrament of Pennance A Regeneration which cannot be accomplish'd before that Jesus be new born in our hearts by a new conception of Love which I call The second Nativity of Jesus which takes its Being and all its Value from the First The Relations of the one to the other are admirable For as the first Nativity of Jesus in the Sacred womb of the Virgin was by the Hypostatical Union of the Divine Person with Humane Nature to appropriate to himself all her Actions So the second Nativity of Jesus in a Soul is accomplish'd by the intimate Union of his Presence by which he becomes the most happy source and off-spring of all her Actions and renders them meritorious of Heaven And as Jesus in as much as he was man alone could not operate that great work of our Redemption Si tamen compatimur ut conglorificemur Rom. 8. v. 17. Si commortui sumus convivemus si sustinebimus conregnabimus 2 Tim. cap. 2. ver 12. Si enim complantati suâ—â—us similitudini mortis ejus Simul resurrectianis erimâ—s Rom. 6. v. 5. if by the means of that Union he had not acquir'd the Power and Dignity of it Even so it is impossible without that second Nativity of the Son of God in us to do any particular Action that might deserve Heaven To say that it is to injure and intrench upon the Rights and Prerogatives of the first Nativity to refer the consummation of particular Salvation to the necessity of a second Nativity it is to destroy the Essential Subordination of those two terms suffer and suffer with so often Preach'd by the Apostle and to have that Physick only laid on a sick mans Table should do him good without taking it In the Passion of the Son of God we have a most powerful remedy for all our distempers but its effect in us depends on the compassion as a condition without which nothing turns to our advantage The Spirit is not as yet fully inform'd of the secrets contain'd in this second Nativity And therefore I must explain more at large the manner and order observ'd in it And of what nature is that Union of the Soul with Grace which brings God to be present with Man by a stricter tye than that of the Substantial Form which gives him Life For it 's not an Union like that which brings the Sun to be present to the very bowels of the Earth by the emission of his Influences to produce therein all sorts of Mettals Neither is it an union of Authority and Pre-eminency as that of a King or Monarch who is not present in all the Provinces of his Dominions but by the Officers of his Crown No for all those presences to speak properly not being personal cannot produce such Holy and real approaches as are found in that intimate union of the Soul with God to make him appear in the full lustre of a second Nativity What then Lib. 12. de Deo trino uno c. 9. the Learned Suarez the second St. Thomas of our Age finds no comparison more proper to express the
Child Jesus in Pain and Sorrow For to Groan is a Legacy left by our Fore-fathers to such as are Criminals only The Virgin which never was attainted with the least spot was never also condemned to the least Punishment and though she has been the Mother of a Son of Sorrow yet she was safely deliver'd of Him without the least feeling of either Pain or Sorrow It is also to my thinking Tostat in c. 12. levit 9. q. 24. a blemish to Christian Piety to say that her bearing of Jesus was accompany'd with the emission of her Blood which can hardly be done without Violence Rupture or Contusion if that were so Vide Suar. tom 273. p. 935. disp 13. sect 2. how can we free her from Sorrow Doubtless the Holy Ghost had so great a tenderness for that rare piece of work as not to suffer that it should be born in the filth of a superfluous Blood he had so great a care of both the Mother and Child as not to have them to be expos'd to the shame of that uncleanness which is only incident to the Criminal and common race of Adam No no her happy Delivery was without those Infections of Blood she was far from those Infirmities of Nature not only from those that are the punishments of Sin but also from those which cannot subsist with the Holiness of this Mystery Stulte unde sordes in Virgine Matre ubi non est concubitus cum homine Patre D. Aug. tract 20. cont faustum cap. 3. lib. de 5. haeres c. 5. It is a main folly says St. Augustin to look for dirt in a Virgin Mother who never permitted the approaches of any Man-Father And it is for that reason that she was not subject to the Laws of Purification because that in Breeding she was of the Nature of the Lillies or as St. Cpyrian will have it Jesus proceeds from her Womb Maria genitrix obstetrix nullus dolor nulla naturae contumelia in hoc puerperio D. Cyprian ser de nat as the Fruit does from the Tree and the Beams from the Sun whence he concludes That in this Sacred and secret business she wanted not the assistance of a Midwife because that all filth and Infection of Nature was far from her pure and spotless Child-birth We must not think the same of the second Nativity for if there be question to bring forth a Soul according to the model of the Word Incarnate If the term and time be come to expose this fruit to the view of the World what violence what pangs what sorrows what emissions of Blood must be and appear and we must not think it strange if the Mother that bears the Fruit be condemn'd to the sorrows of Child-bearing this Truth shall appear more in its lustre if we will but understand who is that Mother of sorrow God has appear'd to be nothing less provident in the order of the Generation of Grace than he has been in that of the Generation of Nature for even as he provided Women of a Vessel fit for the reception of matter whereof their fruit is form'd and organiz'd to a certain time of increase at which they are brought by the powerful and provident hand of God to breath and enjoy at their ease the common life so says St. Ambrose Ita est quaedam virtus animae unae velut quodam vulvae genitalis secreto cogitationum nostratum suscipere semina conceptus fovere partes solet edere harum gerationum quaedam foeminine sunt quaedam masculinae c. D. Amb. li. 1. de Cain Abel cap. 10. infine God has put in the Soul of Man a certain Virtue as a Vessel to receive the Seed of Good Thoughts and Heavenly Inspirations whereof is form'd and organiz'd the fruit of Life which often miscarries by the common corruption of Nature so that often it falls out that among those Generations some are Feminine others Masculine The Feminine are Malice Wantonness Letchery Intemperance Impudence The Masculine are Chastity Patience Prudence Temperance Force and Justice In the following Book he continues to give an advice which may very much import to that sort of Generation and this is it never to delay or put off our delivery for fear that the same misfortune which our Saviour threatens us with in St. Luke Festina igitur anima c. paulo inferius in illo genitali alvo animae nostrae Christus refulgeat D. Amb l. 2. de Cain Abel c. 1. Statim initio should fall on our heads for our overmuch delay to bring forth our fruit into Light He will have us with all our force to press on that Coelestial formation to be the sooner happy to see a Beautiful Sweet Jesus who with his Charms may banish from our hearts the remembrance of what labours and toyl we were in to produce him Sicut quae concipit cum appropin quaverit ad partum dolens clamat in doloribus suis sic facti sumus a faciae tua Domine concepimus quasi parturivimus Spiritum salutis Isa c. 26. v. 17. That being suppos'd it is easie to make out that the Child-bearing of a true Conversion is always accompany'd with grief The Prophet I say is my Author for it Even as the Woman says he who is near her time and opprest with the pangs and pains of her Labour roars out weeps and laments her distress'd state and condition so O Lord before your face we are become to bring forth the Spirit of our Salvation as if he had said in plainer terms Lord you have been eye-witness of our Sterility you have seen how could we were and how slow to receive and make good use of your Admonishments what an undervalue we have always set on your Inspirations and Graces this has brought on our criminal and guilty heads a deal of afflictions and crosses Paulus non semel sed bis filios parturivit clamavit dicens filioli mei quos iterum parivrio id adeo mulier nunquam pateretur neque susferret eosdem iterum dolores sed tolerabat holl Paulus quod in natura non est videri nam annum totum saepe numero parturivit Paulus atque haud conceptos peperit D. Chrysol to 5. hom 10. de poenit vers 5. principium which have prest down our bodies to Misery and replenish'd our Souls with Grief and Sorrow It has brought from our Eyes bitter Tears and in this excess of our Grief and Sorrow we have conceiv'd and produc'd the Spirit of Salvation which undoubtedly had otherwise perish'd in our hearts as well as the Fawn in her Dams belly had not the noise and thundring of your Treatnings hast'ned her safe delivery The great and mighty Cry which our Saviour gave upon the Cross at the Sealing up of his Life with that heavy Sigh by which as another Rachel at the expiration of her nine Months he engendred Sinners the Children
Passion if there be no greater Friendship than to expose his Life for his Friends You ought to love me above all Creatures for I suffer'd Death upon your account You are my Dove by the Communication of my Spirit if the simplicity of that little Creature which has been to me a Symbol in my Baptism and a Faithful Messenger to the good man Noah in the Deluge giving you to understand that I had no Gaul in my heart against you though you deserv'd I should have reserv'd some to Chastise you for all your Abominations and Crimes you may learn further by her Example to live so in this World that you never wet the foot of your Affections nor loiter as the Crow did to feed on dead Carcasses but to be always in a readiness to return to me when I shall open unto you the window of my heart a Mystical Ark pierc'd with a Lance for your Love You are my Immaculate by the use of the Holy Sacraments that my Flesh and Blood which is to you Food and refreshment in the Eucharist be not a bit to poison you as another Judas by the indisposition of your ill prepar'd and ill affected Conscience but rather a Sweet Nector to increase and fortify the Life of your Soul and perfume all her Faculties with the delicate scent of Piety that I may take pleasure to reside constantly in your heart Dixit insipiens in corde suo non est Deus Psal 13. v. 1. This second invention of Love prevails but very little or rather nothing at all with Christians and why so Nam ita superè peccat inverecundè ne si non esset Dâ—us Lyran. in Psal 13. Their excuse will be Ignorance they did not know who it was that spoke The fool said in his heart it is not God that knocks It is therefore that the Soul sends her Lacquey to the door to tell that Madam is not within that he that knocks may come another time or if he has any Packet to leave it and it shall be given to Madam when she comes from her walk That Lady is the Soul the Lacquey is the Body Caro concupiscit adversus spiritum spiritus autem adversus carnem Gal. 5. v. 17. for when God calls us to infuse some good Notions into our Souls the Body is always contrary as St. Paul says to the Spirit is hard by to make opposition Let us consider I pray the malice of that excuse What is the reason that a Body gives orders to tell that he is not within when he is call'd for It is either because he is not drest and in a condition to appear or that the person that looks for him is not grateful to him or that he is Indebted to him and having not wherewithall to pay him he commands his Servants to tell that he is not within O great God be not offended with the Impudence of that bold Harlot who gives Orders to tell that she is not within when you call for her For in good earnest she is not within she is far from you her Sins have carried her away to some Foreign Region as far off as another Prodigal Child and though she had been within she wants the Robe of Charity she is in no condition to appear Her Face is made black with the Cole of her Crimes your sight would make her horrible moreover your company is nothing acceptable to her Quae enim participatio justitiae cum iniquitate c. 2 Cor. 6. v. 14. for betwixt Light and Darkness there is no Communication Belial and Jesus never lodge under the same Roof but what troubles her mind most is that she is your Debtor and accountable to you for so great a number of Graces that she has not wherewithal to make you the least satisfaction an excuse without ground apology without any reason Ad excusandas excusationes in peccatis Psal 104. v. 4. Let it be so as you will have it that she is far from her God Is it not God that gathers together the scattered Sheep and leaves Ninety Nine in Heaven to look for one that is lost on Earth If she be naked and without the Ornaments of Charity is it not Jesus that cloaths them without any other cost charge or trouble only to be willing to receive them But she has not wherewithal to make satisfaction let her not trouble her mind with any and if she had she cannot of her self merit the least degree of Grace in the rigour of Justice whilst she is under the Law of sin It is enough that the precious Blood of Jesus is of an Infinite value to make all those excuses frivolous and never to be admitted of The third invention of Love that Jesus imploys in our search is to set before our eys the labours he undergoes upon this account as a loving Father to his Children though debauch'd out of all measure after the respect and authority of a Father could not prevail with them no more than his sweet alluring words and his threatnings he comes at last with a sad countenance the tears in his eyes and fetches a languishing sigh from the bottom of his Heart Ungrateful will you always continue the subject of my Afflictions At the age that I am in I should by course take my rest Yet it is Then that I see my self engaged in a thousand troubles and all this upon your account I deprive my self of all contentments for to advance your Fortune I expose my life to many hazards for to preserve yours if you have not the good nature to requite my affections at least have compassion of my Labour and Toyl God does the same Aperi mihi quia caput meum plenum est rore c. Cant. 5. v. 2. as you may see in many places of Scripture My hair says he is all wet with the dew and therefore opens the door to let me in A Man who has travelled all night upon some earnest occasion will come to the door of a Lodging two hours before day in the morning he appears there all in a Fog and dung-wet the first that meets with him is moved with compassion Oh! Poor Traveller I see you are sadly wet and how says he could I avoid it Here I have stood these two long hours under all this Rain knocking at the door and as yet I see no body come to let me in Servire me fecisti in peccatis tuis c. Isa 43. v. 24. It 's so with the Saviour of the Word I ran says he all night in Post hast to meet with a Soul at her up-rising I went through thick and thin Frost and Snow in a Cold Windy Rainy Season I arrived early before the break of day at her door I knock'd I call'd and recall'd I knock'd again and again but no body appeared and here I am wet and weary and have nothing for all my Labour But here I discover another Mystery
se corrigat totum corpus exulcerat D. Ambr. supra will fall by degrees to greater The state of a Mortal Cold brings us presently to seek for a Remedy But that of Tepidity makes us to Loyter in our Laziness without any apprehension of fear and without the least thought of any Resolution to amend our Lives Set such an unlucky Spirit into a Religious Company I will tell you with St. Bernard who D. Bernard serm 6. de ascens Contra sane invenire est homines pusillanimes remissos deficientes sub onere virga calcaribus indigentes quorum remissa laetitia brevis rara compunctio animalis cogitatio tepida conversatio c. after he had extol'd the rare qualities of those fervent Spirits the Apostle speaks of adds presently the properties of a lazy and languishing Soul They are Pusilanimous men and of little Heart who go on like so many Snails in the way of Salvation who have need of Rods and Spurs to set them a going If they do rejoyce it is not with that Holy Liberty proper to the Children of God who offer up their Vows with a Cheerful Heart to their Creator If they be Sad it is but a Mercenary Sadness it is only for fear of a reproach or for the sake of some Temporal Reward Their compunction is very rare and passes as the Wind Their Thoughts are altogether Bruitish their Conversation without Example their Obedience without Devotion their Recreation with Excess Take notice of them in their Conference and on all other occasions they cannot Speak but they must pick a Quarrel with this Man Snap at another and so Trouble all the Feast If you do consider them in Prayer their Bodies are in the Choir their Minds are in the Fields Distractions without number Castles in Spain Monsters over all follow them to their Chambers Sleep overcomes them Reading displeases them to be alone is odious to them In a word they are come to that pass that the Torments of Hell are not able to Fright them out of their slumbering and languishing Life It is no more reason that rules their Actions They are neither without nor within they are neither Dead nor Alive it is a deplorable thing to see them It is to this purpose that one of the Antient Fathers of the Desart being ask'd the question what was his opinion in this matter Ruffious in vivis Pâ— lib. 3. num 204. brought down a rare Comparison Just says he as the Flies never come so near as to sit on a Pan that is Boiling because they would loose there both their Wings and Lives Filii tui projecti sunt dormierunt in capite omnium viarum sicut â—rix illa queatus cap. c. 51. v. 20. Septua Vertunt sicut beta semicocta Arab. sicut beta deficiens prae siccitate hoc est imago hominis tepidi qui prae desidia caput erigere non valet Purpureus veluti eum fios succisus arâ—tro Languescit moriens lassaque cadavera collo Demisere caput pluvia cum forte gravantur 9. Aeneidos But when they do meet with Lukewarm water in a Vessel there they take up their quarters and leave their dirt It 's the same with a fervent Soul burning with the flames of true Charity all her actions are so many boilings of Love Never fear that Satan ever comes near her he is an Enemy to those Divine Fires at which he endures more Torments and receives more Affronts than he does in Hell amidst the Flames contrariwise if he meet with a Languishing Spirit with a Fire half out there he keeps close there he gives a solemn Invitation to all his Comerades to dress up their Beds Whoever had but the Eyes of an Angel to consider the divers motions of those Devils he would see them as so many Bees swarm like those miserable Wretches and from time to time cast thousands of foul imaginations into their Brains to Poison their Souls If the same Spirit comes to take up his quarters among the Wordlings the Blood of Jesus is already frozen within their Hearts the Primitive Fervour of Christianity in a manner decay'd If they be call'd to the Service of God they are half dead if they be summon'd to go to Confession to think of their Conscience they think themselves in the Pillory If they abstain from some unprofitable Visit to go hear a Sermon at every step they go upon Thorns I would rather meet with a Drunken man nay rather with a man plung'd in all manner of Vices so that he had not altogether smother'd the worm of his Conscience than with a sinner that goes at random and by custom to his Devotion his Hat is down on his Eyes his Beads in his Hand D. Greg. pastoral part 3. admonit 35. Quoniam frigus ante teporem sub spe est tepor autem post frigus in desperatione id est qui adhuc in peccatis est conversionis fiduciam non amittit qui vero post conversionem tepuit simul spem quae erat de peccatore subtraxit and his Heart over all his Concerns St Gregory gives you this reason for it What ought we to expect of a thing that is Cold when that it is put to the Fire we must expect it to be first Lukewarm and soon after to grow â—old So it is with a grievous Sinner the very first thing we can expect of him is that drawing near to the Fire of Divine Inspiration he will forsake his bad Life banish all his Cold qualities which are contrary to the Flames of Grace and by little and little with a just application of the Active to the Passive he will acquire that degree of heat whereon even his Conversion shall be form'd But a lazy Soul which was once made hot in the Furnace of Gods Love and goes far from the state of Grace by her Tepidity the first thing to be expected of her is Cassian collat 4. c. 19. that she will grow Cold that is to say that she will fall into a Mortal Sin We have seen says Cassian many Carnal Debauch'd Libertines brought from the cold of Sin to the heat of Love But in our Lives we have never seen any lazy sluggish Companion pass from Tepidity Rotis ô bubulce manus applica Stimulum bobus admove ac deorum deinde opem poscito ne si tu cesses frustra dii in invocentur Aesopus to the heat of a greater perfection in Virtue We read in a Prophane History of a man whose Cart was so far bogg'd in the High-rode that he could not get it backward nor forward yet this poor Fellow without any further trouble to get his Cart out of the Mire sits down hard by it expecting some Passengers and invoking the very Gods to his assistance Hercules happen'd to come that way with his Club in his Hand admires the laziness of the man he makes him to get up and to set his
them in St. John by a solemn Oath that even in this World their sadness shall be turned into joy and through their Afflictions he will let run the streams of his Heavenly Consolations Si me persecuti sunt vos persequenter Joan 15. v. 29. Gaudium vestrum nemo tollet à vobis Joan 16. v. 22. They shall taste Honey from the top of the Rod that whips them If he strikes at them they ought to consider him as a Shephard who for to gather his Flock before him takes up with his Pastoral Staff a clod of Earth to fling at the Sheep that goes aside Una pendet in vitibus oliva in arboribus quandiu pendent in frutetis suis tanquam libero acre perfruuntur at nec una vinum est nec oliva selum ante pressurant sic sunt homines quos praedestinavit Deus ante saecula conformes fieri imaginis fillij sui qui precipuè in passione magnus hortus expressus est c. Paulo inferius Accedens quisque ad servitutem Dei ad torcularia se venisse cognoscat non ut in hoc saeculo pereâ—t sed ut in apothecâ—s Dei deflunt c. D Aug. to 8. in Psal 1â— qui est pro torcularibâ—â— If he puts them under the Press of Afflictions it is only to squeese out of them what is mortal and terrestrial to be the better able to fly towards the Region of Immortal things This is not as yet enough God has other Designs on the Souls which he does afflict in this World he aims to bring them by the means of Afflictions from that large Road which leads to Hell and to conduct them into the narrow Lane of Heaven For being it is very true that a Man who was never otherwise lead than by the pernicious Maxims of Blood and Flesh is as much incapable to think of Heaven and knows the obligations of his Salvation as is the Owl to look at the Sun in his full height God could never make choice of a more efficacious means to convert a Sinner than to expose his Body and Flesh to the rigours of the Cross thereby to revive his Spirit And it is very true John 17. v. 9. for St. John the Faithful Secretary of Jesus relating the Articles of his Masters last Will and Testament says That he Pray'd to God his Father not for the World nor for the Worldlings that always live in Prosperity But for them who for his Love willingly made choice to carry their Cross But I pray to what end was this Prayer made which doubtless will be heard for the Reverence of him who makes it St. Luke resolves me as for you says he Luke 22. v. 18. who by my Example have stood firm and constant in all your Temptations I do dispose unto you the Kingdom that my Father prepar'd for me Et ego dispono vobis sicut disposuit mihi pater meus regnum a disposing which is never perform'd but by the Holy motions that he casts into a Soul whilst she is afflicted it is then that he does dispose her by a generous Conversion to make her self worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven The Prophet Joel Quis scit si convertatur ignoscat relinquat benedictionem Joel c. 2. v. 13. after he had exhorted the People to Convert themselves with all their Hearts by Fasting and weeping seems to doubt if after all that God all good all merciful as he is be pleas'd with our Fasting and Tears For we can sometimes Convert our selves to God but it is hard to know if God has Converted himself to us Vide D. Hieron to 6. ad haec verba Joelis hic Who is it that knows says he if after we fulfil what God demanded of us whether he leaves us his Blessing or no. The Abbot Rupert clears us of this doubt Rupert in c. 1. Joel by remitting us to that infallible sign in Exodus where God assures the Children of Israel That they shall not resent the rigours of his Indignation nor suffer the exemplary punishments of the Egyptians so that he sees their doors sprinkled with the Blood of the H. Lamb â— scit apud 〈◊〉 peccata 〈◊〉 ab eis â—â—â—â—ricordia â—bitur ei 〈◊〉 â—â—â—que 〈…〉 â—ald ex Heâ—â—â—â—o 't is to this sign that he leaves his Blessing Among Christians we have not a more sensible mark to know that God has a good will for a Soul than to see her cover'd over with the Blood of Jesus and carry her Cross after him When it pleases this Soveraign King to come the Circuit of the World if he falls into the Great ones Pallaces where he perceives a superfluity of all sorts Par Deo dignum vir fortis cum malafortuna compositus spectaculum Deo dignum fortuna ut gladiatur fortissimos sibi pares quaerit alias fastidio transit ignem expeâ—â—tur in mutio c. Seneca lib. 1. de providentia he never stops there with his Blessings but goes through if he meets with Cities Towns or Houses where nothing is free but Crimes he passes by he seems not to look at them If he comes into the company of Ranters and debauch'd Livers he makes no matter of them and as well the one as the other he leaves them in the hands of his Revenging Angel who puts them all to the Sword and in the very place But if he meets with a good Soul forsaken by all the World abandon'd by his nearest Relations under the heavy load of Oppressions which nevertheless lifts up her Eyes towards Heaven whence she expects all her Relief and her Comfort It is there he goes in there he pours down his Graces by full handfuls to compleat her Conversion The Infidels seeing heretofore the Christians under the rage and fury of Tyrants some to be Strapado'd others crush'd into pieces on Wheels here a great company cut into quarters there as many more Fley'd Alive could not conceive how the God for whose Love they protested to suffer all those Torments could be the God of the Afflicted that it was no proof of any true Friendship to strike where he Lov'd But the Prophet Joel gives them their Answer that they are the Caresses of a Loving Father and that God is displeas'd with the Earth for pardoning his People Ite igitur succendite eum igni succenderunt ergo servi Absolam segetem igni c. 2 Reg. v. â—0 31 c. Absolon was banish'd from his Fathers Presence and in the Disgrace of his banishment desirous to receive some Consolation from his Friends he sends an express to Joab to intreat him to Honour him with a Visit Joab desires to be excus'd Absolon the second time sends to him requesting earnestly being whilst Fortune favour'd him he profess'd to be his real Friend that now in his Disgrace he would not deprive him of that great satisfaction he was in hopes to receive
place of Immortality D. Ambr. to 1. l. de bone mortis c. 10. per totum CHAP. XXX That the Mortality of our Soul sets all crimes at liberty IF the only thought of the Immortality of our Souls be a motive sufficiently powerful to blot out of our hearts the horrour of Death and breed therein an undervaluing of the World Doubtless it will beget in us also the hatred of sin and a strong inclination to purchase Virtue His igitur freti intrepide pergamus ad redemptorem nostrum Iesum intrepride ad Patriarcharum concilium intrepide ad Abraham Patrem nostrum cum dies advenerit proficiscamur Ibimus enim ad patres nostros ibimus ad illos fidei nostrae praeceptores ùt etiams◠opera desint fides opituletur defendat haereditas c. C. Ambr. to 1. de bono mortis statim initio c. 12. A young Religious man of the Famous Congregation of the Carthusians poor of Extraction but had a Noble heart and a spirit well grounded in the belief of the Immortality of Souls falls sick a violent Feaver sets him in a flame The Doctors have a bad opinion of him St. Bernard goes to his Cell to visit him and with the sweetness of his mellifluous words disposes him to Death exhorting him to be of good courage to have confidence in God and believe that the hour was come that his corporal labours should be rewarded with an Eternity of contentments The sick man presently makes answer why Father should I not have confidence I I certainly I do believe firmly that I shall have very soon the happiness to possess the land of the living St. Bernard as a good Pastor fearing his poor sheep should be lost by the presumption of his feeling chang'd his mild discourse into a paternal and sharp reprehension to find out from what spirit came that reply What you little wretch says he to him what have you said make make the sign of the Cross to banish away that proud Devil who has possest you How come you to speak with so much boldness have you already forgotten that you were but a poor Boy whom we have received here for the love of God rather for compassion of your indigent condition then for any good quality which might render you grateful or worthy to be admitted into any Religious Assembly you had not Bread to put in your mouth but what you got by the labour of your hands and sweat of your brows We have suffered you to sit at the common Table of our Religious men who in the world were Rich Noble and Powerful and there where you ought to find a Subject of Humility you have acquired a proud Soul you believe that God is as yet your Debtor and that Heaven is yours without dispute The sick man heard all these words with attention which after they were ended with a modest tone and smiling countenance he tells St. Bernard Noctem pressuram nominat David tamen liberatorem suum inter angustias exultationem vocat foris quidem nox erat in circumdatione pressurae sed intus carmina resonabant de consolatione laetitiae c. D. Greg. l. 26. in c. 35. Iob. e. 11. infinne be pleased to pardon me Father for if I committed a fault you are the cause of it I have not as yet blotted out of my mind how you have often admitted me with other Religious men to your Spiritual conferences where exhorting us to the exercise of the Virtues of Humility Obedience and Resignation you made the practice of them appear sweet and pleasant to us by the hopes you gave us of an Eternity I did endeavour in this point to acquit my self of my duty with the grace of my Saviour and this is it which makes me now speak with so much the more confidence that I believe your words to be true and Gods promises infallible This is one of the Lessons which St. Paul had learned in the third Heavens and which he repeats to us saying for my part when I understand that we are to have a weight of caelectial glory for what tribulations we suffer in this life I can find therein no other proportion but that which might be put betwixt a Moment and Eternity So when they do plant a sweet Bryar what is it but a thorny stump without either Grace or Beauty but the Belief they have to see fine flowers grow some day among those thorns makes them to cherish the stem with all its deformity and sharp points The Cross is a thorny Bryar without either Grace or Beauty none can touch it without running the hazard of being prick'd But we are of that belief Sic itaque electorum desideria dum premuntur adversitate proficiunt sicut ignis flatu premitur ut crescat unde quasi extingui cernitur inde roboratur D. Greg. lib. 26. moral cap. 10. in cap. 35. Job that out of that stock must come the conversion of a sinner and the eternity of glory that it is from this stem we must take the flowers to make our selves a Crown of Immortality that makes us to cherish both the stump and the thorns we take delight to besprinkle it with the blood of Jesus Christ that in due season we may see thereon both flowers and Fruit. The hopes of a good Harvest sets the labourer to work in the foulest weather of the year The hopes of a good booty encourages the Souldier to go through the toils of War And shall not the hope of glory make us detest our crimes and redouble our paces in the practice of good shall not the belief of Immortality strengthen us under the labours of the Cross until the day of Victory If not we are meer cowards and most unworthy to bear that title of followers of Christ St. Jerome spake heretofore with a great deal of Honour saying that Heresie had infected all other Kingdoms but that of the French which remained alone exempt and clear of those Monsters If this great Saint had seen the state of that Kingdom now-adays and considered how after the revolt of Hereticks the most part of Christians fell into Atheism which carries along the mortality of Souls as a faithful companion from Hell he would say without doubt that it is a property only belonging to France to produce not Monsters but Devils For what makes that in the reign of a King in whose heart piety appears as in her Throne who knows how to joyn in one breast Virtue and nobility to the admiration of all the World if this makes him to be the first Monarch of Europe in heighth of extraction that makes him to pass without contradiction for the most Religious Prince in the Universe who seems in his Birth to have brought from his Mothers womb Hercules's club to destroy both Vice and viciously given We see nevertheless the corruption to be so Universal the Sanctuary polluted the Temples prophaned Devotion without any lustre
Virtue without shineing Jesus Christ trod under foot God altogether forgotten and what is most deserving of our respects set at naught and utterly disdained For my part I remit the off-spring of those disorders to the want of believing the Immortality of Souls For wherever that pernicious errour has crept that all dyes with the Body they may attempt on the Sacred Persons of Kings and without any respect to the Divinity whereof they are the lively Images on Earth treat them unworthily so be that their dealings be underboard For if all dyes with the Body and that there is no account to be taken of their crimes after death If they do betray the State if they do sell their Country if they do commit the most horrid crimes that ever were heard of they may fear no punishment if that unhappy belief takes place in their Spirits Let the great ones oppress the little ones let the rich cut the poor peoples throats let the enemy execute his vengeance all is permitted to him who gives no more advantage to his Soul than to that of a bruit beast Let them speak no more of the commandments of God of the Sacraments of the Church of the reward reserved for the good in Heaven of the punishments prepared for the wicked in Hell if there be no more in man then Living and Dying we may say as much of the Patriarchs of Religious Orders Benedict Bernard Dominick Francis that they have not obliged their Children to bring them from the World to pass over the best of their days in crucifying of their Bodies For if the Souls be not Immortal all those sufferings are but a meer oppression of Innocency I have heretofore joyned my small weak Prayers to the common Vows of all France for a Blessing from Heaven for our Sovereigns Arms whilst he had them in his hands to fight against Heresy but I will have a thousand times more sensible feelings of his Piety and Courage when he shall make appear his Power and Authority to suppress those unfortunate execrements of Nature who are so bold as to lift up their Horns to strike at Piety In the mean time I call you again brave Chrysanthus and Musonius most worthy Prelates of the Church get out of your Tombs pierce the Rock of your Sepulchres and announce unto us your Belief in this point of the Immortality of Souls Chrysanthus and Musonius were two Famous Bishops among them who assisted at the general Councel of Nice in the year 1328 where the two Articles of the Resurrection of the Flesh and of the Life Everlasting were particularly treated of it happened that these two great Prelates died before the conclusion of the Councel After the Fathers had Signed all and each of the Acts they brought the Papers on the Tombs of the Deceased with this humble supplication Holy Fathers the well beloved of God who have assisted at the Acts of this present Councel as we have found you always Faithful to maintain the Rights of the Church the Faithful Spouse of your Master and Ours and as you have Fought with us to defend her against her Enemies So We do beseech you if you have as yet the same feelings with us of the Articles proposed that you may set your honds to these present Papers A thing truly to be admired next Morning they found that all was Signed with their proper hands If that Article of it self cannot be contradicted but by him who will deny the Principles of Nature the Authority of the Holy Ghoct and all common feelings can there be Christians found hereafter who will live in the World as if all would die with the Body But if they do believe the Immortality of Souls how can it be that they have no thoughts but for the Earth It 's a folly like that of a Merchant who Freights a Vessel to go to the Indies to Peron to China to enrich himself And being arrived where the Mines of Gold and Silver are he spends his time in looking at the Hills that are about the place the Streams that are underneath the Woods that are hard by and does not think of loading his Ship nor of returning back to his Country God has placed our Souls in our Bodies as in a Mystical Vessel it 's to load us with the Goods of Eternity and the Merchandize of Heaven One spends his time with pampering of his Flesh another to build a Fortune in the Air This Man Fights with the Winds that Man Paints on the Waters and none thinks that his Soul is Immortal nor that she is to return to her Country some day was there ever the like folly That was a strong Receipt and more than ordinary Plato in eo qâ— Carmi. which Zamolxis a Physician of Thrace gave to a young Man whom Plato calls Carmis Son to Glaucon who complained of a great pain in his head and of a Megrim which made him giddy-brain'd He orders no cooling Plaisters to be applyed to him no opening of a Vein no Scarrifications he will have his Soul to be Purged assuring that the Infirmities of the Body proceed from the alterations of this Principle This Purging is no other than a discharging of all feelings of the Earth to bring her to the thoughts of Immortality This is the Receipt which Jesus prescribes to all those who are willing to convert themselves I will make bold to borrow the words of Seneca the Moral Phylosopher Seneca Ep. 102 to make the Induction thereby If the Infirmities of the Body trouble your Health and that by redoubling their rigours they bring you to Death's door rejoyce as the Prisoner at the first news of his Liberty For Death is no other thing than an enlargement of the Soul out of the Prison of the Body where she sighs under the Irons and Chains of corrupt Nature If any ask you the question which is your Countrey and your Native place do not say that it is Alexandria or Smyrna No tell boldly that it is Heaven being there is nothing here on Earth can content your heart nor set a stop to your expectations for all rouls under the unavoidable Laws of Mortality Consider that even as the Mother which carried you in her Womb was not resolved to lodge you there still but that after nine months space you should come weeping into the World So the World that has harboured you for a time had no design to give you a perpetual residence but only to suffer you to refresh your self as a passenger without any tie to the place where you have lodged by way of civility only and as a Passenger not as a Proprietor This vale of Misery is but an Inne the Riches are but Honours and Vanity the Pleasures are the Houshold-stuff Man is the Pilgrim and Traveller he is not permitted to carry any thing along with him he must first account with his Host and after march off from whence he came and as he has
us to Love God If Grace cannot force our Will because it is a Victorious Love it ought less to constrain it Because according to the Language of St. Augustine 't is a pleasant perswasion For this great Man considering that he was to deal with Free-will on one side and the Power of Grace on the other that he was to maintain the Empire of God and the Liberty of Man He hath always exprest himself so happily that he never prejudic'd either And as indeed Grace never forces Man but perswades him it holds some thing of Eloquence or of Reason that Triumphs over Liberty without compelling it Rhetorik is an Art that teaches us to perswade Truth Orators are agreeable Soveraigns that bear Rule over the minds of their Auditors that calm their Passions change their Designs and gently force their Wills Therefore was it unhandsomely done of that Ancient to compare Pericles with Pisistratus Quid enim inter Pisistratum Periclem inter fuit nisi quod ille armatus hic sine armis Tyrannidem gessit Cicero because this Tyrant domineer'd but over Mens Bodies that Orator exercised a Dominion over their Souls The one made use of Violence the other imploy'd nothing but Sweetness The one procur'd the hatred of his Subjects the other the Love of his Auditors For no man could complain of Pericles because he used nothing but Eloquence to perswade his command was founded upon Reason his Chief force consisted in Truth he subjected no understandings but by clearing them nor changed any Mens Wills but in taking them by their Interests or their Inclinations In a word Eloquence may boast her self a Soveraign that Reigns without Arms Subdues People by her Word convinceth Philosophers by her Reasons and Subjects Monarchs by her Power She protects the Innocent comforts the Distressed condemns or absolves the Guilty and she Animates the Advocates or the Judges produceth different Miracles in their Souls Whether she inchant the Ears by the Harmonious Cadencies of her Periods whether she excite Love and hatred by her Gestures her principal design is to master the Liberty of Man She appears complacent that she may be perswasive nor doth she require the attention of her Auditors but that she may get their consent 'T is true never any man complains of her Violence because she is Sweet and he that has chang'd his mind at the hearing of an Orator never accused him of Tyranny 'T is certainly upon this ground that St. Augustine calls Grace a very Powerful perswasion because imitating Eloquence it clears our Spirits calms our Passions and gains our Consent it hath this advantage over Eloquence that it hath no need of our Ears to win our Hearts it transmits it self by its self into the inmost recesses of the Soul finds out Reason in her Throne without employing the Senses carries Light into the Understanding and kindles Love in the Will Thus she perswades what she will to the obstinate Subdues Rebels without Arms makes her Subjects will what she desires they should and when she displays all her Forces she works the Conversion of a Sinner in a moment This certainly was the power Jesus Christ made use of when he laid St. Paul flat at his feet when he Converted that Persecutor into an Apostle chang'd his Heart and his Tongue and made him that breath'd nothing but murther say Lord what wilt thou have me to do He lost not his Liberty for having lost his Fury He chang'd not his Nature for having chang'd his Judgement nor can we say that the perswasion that gain'd his consent was less free or more Violent for being too sudden Grace knows how to be obeyed without making us Slaves She can perswade without compelling and more Powerful then Eloquence is able to make us Love what we hated before That great Orator that guided the Roman Common-Wealth with his Tongue and made his Opinion so Dexterously pass into the Soul of his Auditors That Gallant Man I say hath wrought Miracles by his Eloquence which we have much ado to allow the Grace of Jesus Christ to effect He could boast that he alter'd the Resolution of Coesar defending the Cause of Ligarius that he shook the Papers out of the Hands and the hatred out of the Heart of that Conquerour that he made him re-call the Sentence he had already pronounced in his Soul that he overcame him by his Reasons that he Subdued all by his Arms and trampled upon the pride of a Tyrant that had Triumph'd over the Liberty of Rome In the mean time we have much ado to believe that Grace can work Miracles We weaken its Virtue to preserve our own Free-will We are not content that Jesus Christ should be as Powerful as an Orator and when we hear of these Victorious Graces and of these invinsible perswasions we imagine as if there were a design to oppress the Publick Liberty Let us ascribe that to Grace which we grant to Eloquence Let us confess that the Son of God knows how to imprint Truth in our Spirit and Love in our Heart to perswade us Infallibly Let us acknowledge that he is not to seek by what Stratagems to gain our Inclinations that his Grace more intimate then Concupiscence is able to become the Mistress of our Wills and whatever command she Exercises over us she never destroys our Liberty because she hath no other design then to redeem it out of Servitude Let us then conclude with the Example and Doctrine of St. Augustine that the Profession of a Christian and the Excellency of the Children of Grace is not to Prophesie future things nor to hurl the point of their Intelligence into the hidden Mysteries of Holy Scripture but to be Magnanimous and Couragious in the frequent Combats which Concupiscence give us for that is the only imployment which will make appear how strong the Love is which we bear to Jesus CHAP. XXXIX That the Grace of JESUS leaves that weighty obligation on all Christians to be both Souldiers and Conquerors THe God whom we adore takes his Glory as well from War as from Rest and if he be call'd in Scripture the God of Peace he is as often called the Lord of Hosts Multitudo militiae Caelestis His Angels are the Souldiers that wait upon him to the Battle who avenge him of his Enemies The Stars which keep watch as Centinels about his Palace bear the name of the Militia in the Language of the Prophets And all those that serve him for Ministers in his Embassies serve him for Combatants in his Conquest Labora sicut bonus miles Christ 2. Tim. 2. Therefore did the Angels who gave notice to the Shepherds of the Birth of Jesus Christ take their name from their principal imployment and called themselves the Heavenly Host And when the Son of God was taken in the Garden of Olives and blamed Saint Peter Nemo coronabitur nisi vicerit neque vicet nisi certaverit Quis autem