through the whole Man in such sort that every particle of him may feel its operation he is not I say so transported as not to consider what he asks and in that the great condescendency of God who disdains not to converse with Men he deals not with them as he doth with Angels where the superiour intelligences instruct the inferiour but by himself an increated wisdom he conveys unto our happy Ears the mysterious wonders of our Faith It is by him we are taught that all sin is forbidden even to the least thought or desire that God is to be loved above all things and sin to be abominated in the highest degree so that the exact observer of his Laws must be holy and enriched with all vertues there is nothing in our Faith that speaks not the greatness of God nothing that is not sublime transcending and what becomes not an infinite Majesty he layes down nothing of eternal things that sounds the least imperfection So that the compleat knowledge of them must needs involve a joy eternal since even in the transitory passage of this life we experience the most solid contentment and satisfaction we have to consist in the sweet Meditation of those Mysteries For alas without those hopes which Faith gives us what Captive more wretched than Man we are as banished into a Land of misery enslaved by sin where we truckle under the insolency of unruly passions which hurries into many disasters and calamities at last we finish a deplorable life by death in whose Face is seated nothing but dread and horrour After this corruption stanch and infection are the last farewell and monument of us so that without Faith we are centered within these myseries unable to carry our sight beyond the low condition of a brute and unreasonable Creature On the contrary faith teaches we are created to a supernatural and blessed end which we are to purchase by acts of Religion That our Souls are immortal by which resembling the Angels we are excluded from putrefaction and approach the nearer to God That he hath created all things of nothing in which belief we acknowledge his Omnipotency and cherish our own hopes that if he could extract us out of nothing with more facility can he after death rejoyn our disunited parts Our Holy Penitent figures to himself all these comforts resulting from divine faith and in sequel implores with instance that a right spirit may be renewed within him But I conceive our Holy Penitent looked not upon himself as wholy deprived of habitual faith for though every mortal sin disposes afar off unto its total ruine and truly merits it should be taken from us yet God is so merciful as to leave that foundation unalterable by sin unless directly undermined by an opposite act of infidelity In this petition then for a right spirit he pretends to the operation of habitual faith that is an actual and firm belief of Objects proposed by Faith His reason is that the lights and irradiations of Faith have a certain blessing from God to stir up and carry the will to what is good so that after an act of Faith produced in the understanding he knew his clean heart would no longer lye a sleep but grow up into a spark which would both enlighten and enflame as the Prophet Habakkuk sayes Chap. 1. The just Man lives by Faith that is Faith actuated and enlivened both preserves the Soul's life by grace and by merit opens a passage to eternal glory Run o're the World's History from the Creation and you will find habitual faith lying dead and frozen within us to have been the source of all our misery The reprobate Angels upon what score did they forfeit that precious title of being the Sons of God was it not in that they preferred a motion of self love before the motives of faith which would have rendered them stable and secure What a frivolous plea made Adam for his trespass lest his Wife upon his denyal might have grown sad as if a fear to offend God and ruine his whole posterity ought not to have prevailed in this temptation Had Cain considered the greatness of God his obligation to observe his Law in loving his Brother a petty suggestion of avarice or sting of envy could never have animated him to an action so horrid the Massacre of so many Infants by Herod's command wherein he thought to have involved the person of Jesus Christ was meerly upon the account of ambition the Jewish Oracles foretelling his raign and Empire which Herod understood to be of this World nor did the Jews put our Saviour to death but in order to the preservation of their City and themselves in the good Opinion of the Romans so that Men have been pushed on in all their crimes by humane reasons and interests whilst they laid aside those disswasives which Faith held forth to them and which had if duly weighed rendered them victorious witness St. John Chap. 5. The power of faith hath made a conquest of the World which is meant not of the habit but act of faith Our Holy Penitent applyes all this to himself having seen the shipwrack that befel him through a sluggishness in not giving life and activity to his faith For when he was tempted to impurity and other his transgressions that sprang from thence had he considered what faith teaches concerning mortal sin that it deprives a Soul of eternal glory adjudges her to the endless torments of Hell that it throwes a scorn and contempt upon a God whose greatness and Majesty is infinite and who merits from all Creatures a respect and love ineffable had he fixt himself on these sublime and supernatural reasons of Faith the Childish baits of flesh and blood could never have taken hold upon his unfortunate senses wherefore to prevent at least for the future he solicits a right spirit may be infused into him a spirit that may not be overgrown with rust like a sword in a scabberd for want of use but that it may prove active even to his very bowels which is to say that this noble quality of faith producing frequently acts by the consideration of its proper objects may gain his will memory sensitive and moving faculties and so happily conduct him to his designed Beatitude renew in my Bowels a right spirit After Faith thus enlivened as a necessary dependent comes in a troop of moral vertues which compleats the rectitude of his spirit he so much desires For vertue is a habit that enclines the Soul to perform actions sutable to a reasonable nature and though the Soul be sufficient of herself by her natural faculties to frame several acts of vertue yet it is with hardship and difficulty whereas this quality of vertue contributes a facility by which the good thence issuing is done with promptitude and delight It consists in a mediocrity between two extreams that is too little or too much For example Charity is between a coldness or
he might alwayes dwell with him and that he may never more tast the bitter absence of his Holy Spirit Et spiritum sanctum tuum c. Spiritual Men who have employed their thoughts on the subject of the mission of the divine persons unto Creatures discover advantages by this Embassy unto humane nature which seem to surpass all the wonders of our faith at least they are conveyed unto us with more sensible delight First they say when a Soul is priviledged with a visit from that divine spirit she doth not only receive inherent and accidentall grace not only splendours which irradiate and ardourâ— which enflame but even the substantial Principium the Holy Ghost from whence they flow Witness St. Paul 2. ad Rom. The charity of God is diffused through our hearts by the Holy Ghost who is given to us The Philosopher sayes that two Lovers if possibly would become but one because this identity would destroy all fear of separation and since they cannot arrive to this at least by conversation discourse and mutual presence they give themselves to one another Now the love of God is all-powerful no obstacle can hinder the perfect union to which it tends wherefore this love enclining the divine person to unite and surrender up himself unto a Soul she finds herself immediately fastned to him by other chains than those of his immensity it is by grace and charity she is enslaved and their efficacy is to prodigious that were not that divine spirit already at the door they would draw him thither and court him to a most intimate alliance Our Holy Penitent well knew the truth of this Divinity by the amorous operations he had once felt within him for this great gift of God was no stranger to him whence I wonder not if he court its preservation since in it is contained the whole treasure of his immense love If then he shall please to secure this present to him he will in return consecrate to his honour all the fruit of his understanding and will his thoughts shall ever dwell in him and from this meditation he hopes to enkindle such a flame within him as all the waves of adversity or allurements of the World shall never be able to quench his constant Prayer therefore shall be withdraw not from me thy holy spirit After he had thus considered the dignity of the person communicated to a devout Soul he then descends to the particulars of his negotiation The first point is that this divine spirit is the Prinâ—ipium or great wheel which gives motion to all her supernatural and meritorious actions by which the Soul exceeds her own strength and gets above all her natural faculties and without this spirit Man is feeble impotent and can act nothing generous in a spiritual life The second advantage of this Treaty is that this divine person becomes the object of our understanding and will so that he is a known object in a knowing will and a beloved object in a loving will then it is that the Soul hath God within her who alone entertains and employes her thoughts and affections it is towards him she raises acts of faith and love setting a value upon him beyond all the World as the most excellent Being to whom she can consecrate herself Another benefit of this mission is that this divine spirit communicates himself unto a Soul as her sole treasure and appropriated sovereign good and in such a manner as she will not only find God within her but likewise that he belongs to her as her proper right the serious thought of which happy possession must doubtless much asswage all the bitterness of this life In sequel of these irradiations our Holy Penitent is at a stand comparing the liberalities of his good God with his own ingratitude For God had given himself up to him to be the instrument of all his supernatural operations to be the object of his thoughts and repository of his affections in requital our unfortunate Penitent rejecting this divine legate hath taken up the arms of sensualities against him filled his memory with Earthly species and consulted with brutish passions O bad exchange When he had thus reproached himself of his disloyalty he then converts his Eye to the shipwrack he had made for by one mortal sin he hath lost God as he is God of grace and glory though not as he is God of nature for as such a one he still remains to cast thunderbolts of vengeance upon his guilty head but he is resolved if the divine goodness shall please to restore and continue to him himself in whom is found the source of so many precious treasures he will for the future manage them to his honour he will glorify him in all eternity and manifest to the world that through his grace he is made worthy not to have his holy spirit taken from him In temporal afflictions we lose it is true the gift but the giver is yet secured to us by sin we lose both So that there is no desolation can happen equal to what is thrown upon us by sin For whilest we lye under the guilt of mortal sin God is no more the Principium of our meritorious operations no more the object of our amorous powers nor to be claimed as our proper good and treasure and though his infinite beauties and perfections render him alwayes a source of all good imaginable yet to a Soul defiled with sin he is a spring that diverts his stream in another Channel he is a treasure locked up whose Key is taken away and all-right of entrance decreed against him These are the miserable circumstances which attend the loss of God's holy spirit of which our Holy Penitent being very conscious incessantly repeats Lord withdraw not from me thy holy spirit Theodoret sayes that St. Peter having heard from Christ's own Mouth Thou shalt thrice deny me would feign have fled many Leagues from that occasion but his love was so great as he held it less evil to follow and deny him than to fly away and confess him He took so much pleasure in his presence that he chose rather to hazzard his Soul than the loss of his blessed sight deeming it less unhappiness to renounce him than not to be in the Eye of him whom he loved so dearly If then his corporal presence so ravished this Apostle what a charm must it be to possess within us a divine spirit what solicitude to preserve this treasure in whose participation consists all the happiness we are any wayes capable of in the condition of this our mortality Ah blame not then our Petitioner if again and again he sues under this forme Lord take not thy holy spirit from me Many Nations have made their gods Prisoners chaining them fast in their Temples the Lacedemonians hampered their god Mars with Cords of Silk Hercules with Fetters of Gold fancying to themselves that if they could enjoy their Company though by violence they
should not want their protection Our Holy Penitent thought the best stratagem to fasten his God unto him was an humble acknowledgment of his fault joyned with a fervent prayer In the First part of his petition he had copiously set forth his own guiltiness and now he supplicates in a Subject the most grateful that can be to his Creatour for his delight is to be with the Sons of Men It was to draw the World unto him that he exalted himself upon the Cross his extended arms there sufficiently expressed with what dear embraces he would receive those that fly unto him with an humble and contrite heart His thirst there was not so much the effect of his torments as an excessive zeal for Man's Salvation How often hath he justifyed himself in his proceedings with Man insomuch as all his wisdom and love could not contrive more inducements than he hath set on foot to gain us to him and if he be continually rapping at our door can we think he will shut up the treasures of his holy spirit in despight of our importunity No no great Penitent fear not prefer your memorial it is only expected you ask and the grant is ready that his holy spirit shall not be taken from you A holy writer observes that God alwayes gives more than is asked of him Anna prayed for a Son God gave her one that was a Saint a Prophet and his chief favourite Solomon sued for wisdom to govern his People he received it not only to Rule but he was universally knowing besides an infinite store of wealth was bestowed upon him The Servant endebted ten thousand Talents demanded only a little forbearance and the whole debt was remitted to him wherefore our Penitent demanding only to keep what he already enjoyes by this providential act he not only secures his possession but gives earnest for a new supply Nay his goodness alwayes prevents the prayer of the afflicted giving them ease of their griefs before they ask his help resembling that fountain which calls and invites the thirsty to drink or like that Tree which bending its bowes offers its fruits unto gathering hands when ripe so that God's love needs no baits to allure his favours from him an affectionate heart doth more with him then all the charms in nature It is true St. Austin distinguishes between a willing a thing and a willing it stoutly and entirely But we have all reason to judge the velleity of our Penitent was fervent and efficacious when he hath so much confidence as to call God to witness of it Tu scis Domine omne desiderium meum ante te that he had exposed before him all the motions of his heart and left him to be judge whether any circumstance was wanting that might hinder the effect of his petition as not to be deprived of his holy spirit St. Austin sayes were it impossible for a sinner to hide himself from God he would advise him to get into some abstruce retreat and there lye close till the Cloud of his anger be blown over but since this cannot be done his best way to escape God's hands is to put himself into his hands and prostrate himself at his feet Our Penitent then is not ill advised that being already enrolled in the list of his retinue to endeavour to prevent his dismission by a non auferes à me For he hath many advantages whilst he is in which will be lost if once cashier'd Now he hath the Ear of his Sovereign can discourse his case with him and purchase a good word from many powerful friends but if once discarded like a desolate Orphan he will find no refuge Besides though God beheld in his all-seeing prospect the treachery of Judas and ingratitude of the Jews yet to cut off all matter of excuse he obliged them with all the endearings imaginable why shoul not then our Penitent hope to dwell in the lasting enjoyment of this divine spirit since he is resolved for the future to be led by his holy dictamens he will seek his Salvation with ineffable groans it is St. Pauls expression of such as are guided by the Holy Ghost he will with the Prophet Jeremy cry out for a fountain of tears that he may bewail as he ought his own and his peoples sins and since this divine spirit communicates himself in so many different wayes unto Creatures he begs he may return himself a gift and oblation to God by every thing that is capable of Action that by a constant and unwearied motion in his service this seed of glory he now possesses may at last conduct him to the beatifick vision where he shall no more apprehend what is now the subject of his Fear To have his holy spirit taken from him The Application St. Ambrose sayes that no man in this life can be long secure from falling into sin for whom the Devil cannot lay prostrate at the first attack he presses with redoubled assaults and leaves no stratagem unessayed to work his end In this warfare our Holy Penitent was not a Novice he knew there was no place in Man impregnable unless fortified by God's Holy Spirit This he expresses in another Psalm If you withdraw sayes he your spirit we shall presently resolve into dust that is corruption from whence we came For grace is a motion in the understanding and will to wit a certain action in both these powers which soon passes away unless fixed by a continued influence of his favours Wherefore we must take the admonition of St. Paul and be wary that the grace of God prove not a liberality in vain bestowed upon us But that we make the right use of it which is the remission of our sins and a passage unto eternal life CHAP. XXV Reddite mihi laetitiam salutaris tui Restore unto me the joy of thy Salvation IT is not methinks easy to determine whether Man be more unfortunate in not having a discerning faculty of misery or through the mistakes he falls into about the object of his felicity How many have been seen to languish and pine away under an accident which they looked upon as their ruine and yet it proved their making whilest others again have triumphed and made jubilyes for seeming blessings that in the end became fatal to them who would not have looked upon the Patriarch Joseph when sold to the Madianites but as a slave and an abortive of fortune and yet without this cruelty of his Brethren in all likelyhood he had never handled the Scepter of Egypt Again who would not have envyed the success of our Penitent against Goliah and yet this glorious victory occasioned unto him a life full of disturbance for many years how to preserve himself This uncertainty in the event of things is managed no doubt by a special providence to teach us we ought to bear a temper unalterable amidst the various occurrences of this life not to be too much transported with joy nor cast down
admires the greatness of his clemency and sweetness that designs to lodge in so despicable a place as his conscience the inestimable treasures of his wisdom hence enfired with a glowing flame of love he can think on nothing but him study no satisfaction that relates not to him and abhorrs all sensual pleasure whatsoever In sequel of this arises a delight and sweetness which surpasses all that is Earth Nay even the capacity of Man in this life as many Saints have witnessed the same crying out O Deus contine undas gratiae That such a torrent of delights overwhelmed them as if they were not moderated they must needs have opened a passage unto Death O! Who would not be overcome by such a conquering spirit confirm me with a principal spirit Another effect of this spirit is to settle the Soul in a great quiet and repose free from all joy grief or the like for every thing is at rest when in its proper place and center Now God is our Souls final end nor can she be more intimately united unto him in this life than by the power of this Celestial Philosophy wherefore the storms of passions very little molest a Soul enriched with this spirit all things pass in peace and tranquility and though it be true that we must still labour in a certain languishment and desire until we reach our Center yet this is so attempered by the goodness of God as it is no wayes Irksome A holy person expresses this very pathetically saying My Lord and God who art the support and strength of those who faithfully seek you at the entrance of your Paradise I behold you and beholding I cannot yet say what Object I have bofere me because I see nothing that is visible there is only one thing I dare owne to know that I am both ignorant of what I see nor shall I be ever able to know it For raising my Soul to the highest pitch I find you infinite and incomprehensible beyond the access of my imagination and whilest my thoughts would go on and make a further inquisition a mist of ignorance surrounds me But Oh my God what is this ignorance but a learned ignorance Nox illuminatio mea in deliciis meis this obscure Night is a splendour overspread with delights the sum of my joy and consolation in this life is to consider that you are infinity it self incomprehensible and an inexhausted Treasure What felicity one day to possess in glory a good without end and which exceeds what the understanding can imagine the heart desire or tongue can express and that these Clouds which now involve us shall break forth into a Day of eternal Sun-shine By which you may see that holy persons in these admirable transactions though they are left in darkness and meet not with a compleat allay of all their desires yet it breeds no disquiet and all the rest is supplyed by a perfect submission to the will of God not desiring even Heaven it self but according to the measure of his degree Our Holy Penitent having received the fruit of one part of this meditation by his gracious deliverance from the servitude of sin he now covets to be sheltered under the secure Bastion of this principal spirit Confirm me c. Some expositours understand by this principal spirit the first person of the blessed Trinity unto whom power is peculiarly attributed Whence they inferr in this petition he pretends to a gift of Rule and Government that by his prudent orders circumstanced with Religion he might induce his Subjects to pay what they owe to God himself and to one another By which that chosen Nation committed to his guidance might flourish and he himself make some reparation for the sufferings thrown upon them in punishment of his transgressions Others conceive that by this clause he aims at the Spirit of Prophecy because in the subsequent verse he undertakes to play the Master and teach the wicked Principles of Heaven to which nothing would more conduce than a prophetick faculty Notwithstanding these Opinions I adhere to my first conception that the spirit of perfection is the scope of his desires because it includes the others for perfection is styled by Masters of spirituality a spirit of wisdom and by consequence proper for a Governour and as to Revelation it is most certain that contemplatives are illuminated and receive irradiations which naturally they could not attain to they are often so surcharged with supernatural lights and knowledge a prospect of the World's Scene being laid open to them as even ravished with admiration they seem to suffer with an excess of communications which made our Holy Penitent in some such like transport cry out Anima mea cognoscit nimis that the divine operations within his Soul exceed the limits of her capacity Wherefore we conclude that perfection is an abreviate of Gods Vniversal favours to Man and that our Holy Penitent in this his petition comprehends what soever he can ask confirm me with a principal spirit The Application We are taught in this clause to aspire unto perfection which consists in these degrees The first is to obtain grace and charity this perfection is requisite to all Christians and is so essential to a spiritual life that without it we cannot make one step towards Heaven The second perfection is of councel and consists in a certain disposition of the Soul to perform readily and without difficulty on her part not only what is commanded but also works of supererogation and this in a manner more pure and more spiritual than usually is done to this Christ our Lord exhorts us in the fifth of St. Matthew Be ye perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect The third perfection consists in eternal felicity where we shall be united to a sovereign good by a clear vision and fervent love This is called our final perfection because there is none greater The other two branches are but the means to arrive at this The subject then of our petition must be to attain to our Beatitude and this is truly to be confirmed with a principal spirit Amen CHAP. XXVII Docebo iniquos vias tuas I will teach the wicked thy wayes OUr Holy Penitent like a Souldier compleatly armed who expects but the Signal to fall on believes himself now fittted for great designs His first undertaking is to chaulk out the wicked the Paths of Salvation an enterprize worthy so great a Prince and so great a Penitent and which Christ our Lord an increated wisdom made the sole motive of his becoming Man This he declares in express terms asserting that he came not to call the just but sinners Upon this foundation I conceive he imposed upon us an obligation of loving our Neighbour as our selves By vertue of which command we are to expose our corporal life and fortune for the preservation of our Neighbours spiritual good if Christ sets so high a value on a drop of water or scrap of
they are to wade through in making good their fidelity to God they throw themselves upon the points of Halberts and other instruments of severity without the least whining or flinching at their sharpness they take in as it were with the same relish the Gall of misfortunes and desolations and the Hony of prosperities and comforts No stormy season hinders their Journey and that which disturbs soft and effeminate Spirits is to them matter of joy and repose because they possess what they desire to wit affliction so that all things which pass under the name of Adversity are not so but to the wicked who make ill use of them in prizing the Creature more than the Creatour Hence it is that the general spirit of Saints have carried them on to be ambitious of suffering and to reckon it amongst one of the choice favours of Heaven for they had learnt by experience that if God with one Hand reaches unto them the Cup of his passion it is but by snatches and as it were a sup whilst with the other he gives them large draughts of consolation It is noted in the sacred Text that God laid open the person of Job to all the assaults of Satan but with this reserve that he touch not upon his life and this not in regard that death would have ecclipsed the glory of that great Champion but because he would not be deprived of such a Combatant to whose conflict he and his blessed Angels were intent with much satisfaction and so would not lose the pleasure of seeing this stout skirmish fought out to the last 'twixt him and his Enemy And as the Heathen Emperours took great delight to see a Christian enter into the list with a wild Beast so the King of Heaven is solaced with the sight of one of his Saints when he maintains a Fight against those fierce Beasts of Hell Seneca out of the principles of humane wisdom drew this excellent saying that no object was more worthy in the Eyes of the gods than to behold a stout Man with a settled countenance unmoved to struggle with adverse Fortune and truly the delay our blessed Saviour made in sending succour to his Disciples endangered by a storm at Sea sufficiently hints unto us the pleasure God takes to see the Just row against the stream tugg and wrestle with all the might they can against the stream and afflictions of this World Thus you see how happy our Holy Penitent hath ajusted his Sacrifice to the lines of God's will and that he never spake more emphatically than when he said A Sacrifice to God is a troubled spirit St. Bonaventure sayes that honor is due to God in four several respects and in like manner we ought in as many wayes render it unto him First in consideration of many blessings and this is to be returned by our gratitude and acts of thanksgiving Next we owe him honor in that he hath laid his commands upon us and this we perform by our obedience and submission to his Laws Thirdly his greatness and sovereignity exact it at our hands and this is paid by the vertue of Latria and adoration Lastly honor is due unto him in that he hath been offended and injuriously treated by sin Now the honor due to him in this point is restored by Penitential acts and by a troubled spirit Because in regard of his displeasure and to make reparation for the contempts thrown upon his Majesty he is ready to humble himself and apply all his endeavour to works of piety so far as even to afflict himself that he might honor the Divine Justice which requires that sin should never go unpunished Wherefore God is delighted in these painful satisfactory acquittances which we often give him written in our sweat and blood And Jesus Christ makes of them a present to his Father with his own from whence the value of ours is derived and there they find acceptance not upon the score of any contentment it is to God that we are tormented either in Soul or Body but meerly in that by them his Justice is honored and exalted and the Palms of our victory more resplendent This anxiety of spirit supported with a patient resignation and strengthened with a fervent prayer purchased to the distressed Anna and to the Jewish Nation that great Prophet Samuel This same disturbance of Spirit carried on by a generous submissive resolution against all the Machinations of Saul put into the Hands of our Penitent the Scepter of Juda in a word it seems to be a principle setled in Heaven that without this Sacrifice of a troubled spirit he will not part with his blessings It may be objected that God knowes the Hearts of Men and what they will do and therefore he need not this external Testimony Next that Christ's merits being of an infinite value ours appear altogether superfluous to which I answer First that his external glory consisting in the visible homages payd to him by his Creatures this would be wanting should he give them no occasion to make it manifest and shew unto the World he hath dependants who value no suffering in proportion to the duty they owe him Besides the satisfaction we shall take in Heaven to have done something to merit our Beatitude will certainly be a great addition to our Contentment As to the other though I confess the merits of Christ all sufficient yet this will not excuse us from offering what we can in satisfaction for the Honor and glory of all our actions belong to God now it being an Act of injustice to defraud any one of his revenue no less is it against equity to deprive God of the glory due unto him Wherefore a life that contributes not to his glory is perverse and wicked Again he that owns a Tree hath likewise right to the fruit it bears if the Land be mine the Crop also is at my disposal the labour and service of a Horse is due to his Master In like manner all that we are all the good we do or shall do is the work of God and a present with which he enriches us that we might be able to give something to him Wherefore as all is his our duty binds us to consecrate all our interiour and exteriour actions to promote his honor and glory And since it is reasonable sin should be punished our Holy Penitent submits to the decree exposes himself to be wracked and tortured by what punishment the Divine Majesty shall think good either in Mind or Body nor can he ever repine whilst he reflects That a Sacrifice to God is a troubled spirit The Application Here we are taught there is no Sacrifice conveyes an odour so pleasing unto Heaven as that of a Soul angustiated upon the score of God's cause The oblation of a Holocaust imports the reduction of it to Ashes that of a troubled spirit is a transmutation into the Holy Ghost who promises to be the intellect to be the Tongue nay
influence to this Vnion since common reason teaches the stream is not to be regarded with equal esteem to the Source from whence it flowes Lastly what is the final End of all Arts and Sciences whether they ransack the bowels of the Earth or survey the immense bodies of the Heavens whether they examine things past or present but truth it sets all Men on work and can alone render them satisfied so that it may well be defined the source of motion and rest Our Penitent having thus run o're the vast extent of truth and observed how it animates the actions of Men takes occasion from thence to adore God's holy Providence that since he hath obliged us to a precept of confessing and acknowledging our failings with all integrity and fixed it as the sole means to expiate our faults he hath advantaged us with so powerful an inclination unto truth For if we be born so impetuously towards the acquisition the exhibition of it must needs flow as it were naturally from us and it is this motive which invites him to so frequent a repetition of his offences lest he should disguise any the lest tittle for he knows as an exact particular of our Sins accompanied with a perfect sorrow is very acceptable unto God so it is beneficial unto Man the return of such an account being alwaies an evenning of all â—cores an abolition of past Errours and a compleat act of grace Upon this consideration he is not affrighted that his Sin shall be evidenced like the Sun rayes to the World and of this harsh sentence to Nature he himself will be the Executioner he he will prâ—mulgate his enormities and every exhalation of infamy that shall arise from thence upon him he will receive as a blast of Zephir because he speaks a truth animated with Repentance a truth which speaks What he hath been and what now he is to witt an imp of perdition and now is become a subject of mercy because it is a Truth God will ever own in a truly repenting heart for veritatem dilexisti it is essential to one who hath an Eternal love of Truth But it is not enough to trace the steps of of our Lord Jesus as far as he is imitable by Man unless we lay the Foundation of a life of verity which is done by imbracing with a firm belief the Doctrine and Faith he taught and delivered to us for it is certain there is but one God and one truth First we cannot deny this unchangeable quality of Faith to spring from God the Primary Truth since we owe him the Author of Civil and natural Lawes both which are united and receive efficacy from the bond of Religion fâ—r all things are created to the service of Man and he to God's service so that by an act of Religious worship the homage of all other Creatures are involved in that of Man and consequently Religion seems of created things the final End and ultimate disposition unto God Now the means to attain to this Truth cannot be by the strength of natural reason for the matter of credibility is above Nature and Man by consenting to an act of Faith is raised above himself therefore it must be God moving us by his Grace which drawes the motions of our Will to submit to his revealed Truths The Centurion proclaims he believes yet withal adds help O Lord my incredulity which shews though he had done all that lay in his power yet something was wanting It remains then we render our selves fit subjects for the reception of so noble a Guest so rich a Donative as that of Faith the way to this preparation is first to practise a life of Truth that is moral vertues next to lay aside all prejudice that your understanding may work with out biass or restraint thirdly to examine the opinions of those whom the World hath unanimously reverenced for their knowledge sanctity and wisdom fourthly to receive the Decrees of the Church as things sacred since she is styled in Holy Scripture a pillar of truth a spouse all immaculate without any stain of errour remembring also from what authority her infallible placits flow witness the Apostles in their first Synod at Jerusalem who began with this Form to publish their resolves It is judged expedient by the Holy Ghost and by us Where you see that Divine Spirit still swayes and gives life to all Articles of Faith and indeed it was the closing farewell of our blessed Master Christ Jesus who promised to dispatch unto them his Disciples a Spirit of Truth to reside with and animate his Church to the Worlds end A verity of Justice is comprehended in that of integrity of life it being the very Nerves and Sinews of humane Society without which we should be like wild Beasts in desarts no leagues twixt Nations no amities contracted amongst Men no traffick or commerce so that in this sole lovely quality is seated the very life and Soul of humane conversation For behold thou hast loved truth The Application We are further taught in this clause that God hath a true Being that is all qualities suitable to a Divine Nature as to be Spiritual Independent Immortal Omnipotent all good wise merciful Soveraignly happy and a thousand other attributes so that he alone hath the verity of a Divine Being Whatsoever is imaginable and worthy of God this is in him in a Soveraign degree of perfection Nay whatever his infinite understanding can conceive this he enjoys without any diminution or reserve So that when our Petitioner points unto us how God loves truth he means that he loves himself and if herein we play the apt Scholar placing our affections on that inexhausted source of Beauty we shall then move according to the verity of humane Nature For our Being is to be reasonable and what can more decipher the Truth of our reason than by a disdain of this World to aspire unto him who is the final end in which we are to rest and for which we had our Being May our hearts then be ever fixed on this eternal verity Amen CHAP. XIV Incerta occulta sapientiae tuae manifestasti mihi The uncertain and hidden things of thy Wisdom thou hast made known unto me WHilst our Penitent with delight descants upon God's love to truth it were he thinks impious in him to stifle this great truth that he hath called him to his Councel unbreasted to him secret and hidden things and enriched him with the high Prerogative of Prophecy Ah what a change in this Holy King not long before when Nathan laid before him his offence under the shadow of a poor Man violenced in the depredation of his only sheep he is dull unfolds not the mystery and little dreams though it were plain enough himself is pointed at by which we may see what a mist of ignorance as well as other mischiefs sin draws along with it But now he transcends the limits of natural knowledge owns an irradiation
all their VVorldly interests and engagements to follow him what transports do the sweet whispers of his Divine Spirit occasion unto his dear Servants what internal consolations what tranquility of mind St. Austin terms them certain previous relishes or Antipasts of Heaven which far transcend all the contentment and satisfactions of this world In a word that Seraphim of love St. Austin gives us the perfect Character of a spiritual joy by his own experience Saying O Lord sometimes thou dost lead me into unknown delights which were they compleated in me I know not what they would be but certain I am it would not be this life that is such a Dilatation of Spirits he found to attend those spiritual comforts that he saw were they accomplished a ruine of his mortal Being must needs ensue This is the joy and gladness our Holy Petitioner expects and that he was not deceived in his expectation scarce a Psalm of his that proclaims not the sweetness and superabundant satisfactions issuing from the love fear and service of God and therefore when he had petitioned for persecution adversity and the Crown of Martyrdom he might justly solace himself with the sequel and fruits of sufferings which are joy and gladness To my hearing thou wilt give joy and gladness The Application Ah who would not then protest against the vain joyes of this world to tast the sweetness of spiritual entertainments St. Gregory puts this difference 'twixt Corporal and Spiritual delights that the former whilest in expectation are coveted with much vehemency but when once enjoyed they presently become nauseous and distastful the other we pursue but coldly and with little heat of desire yet when once we have a relish of them we still languish after the encrease This made St. Francis that blessed despiser of the World to make a Covenant with his senses never to fasten with the least Contentment on any sensual object and truly he was so exact in the performance as he went up and down like the meer shadow of a Man that had nothing humane in him but his shape his better part ever dwelling in the Mansion of the Blessed These are joyes that will not be held by Repentance may we then still languish after them Amen CHAP. XVIII Et exultabunt Ossa humiliata And humbled Bones shall rejoyce THis encouragement which our Petitioner allowes himself corresponds with the second part of the former verse where he was willing to Sacrifice his life For he doth not only cheer himself in reflecting upon the reward which repentance will bring to his Soul but likewise upon the future condition of his Earthly mould which he beholds as matter of great consolation and therefore upon the same score he prosecutes the Subject of his hope saying that his humbled Bones shall rejoyce Amongst all the comforts Christian Religion affords there is none hath so much influence upon Man as the expectation of a future resurrection the motive of this consolation springs from the belief we have of God's Omnipotency For as we believe he hath created us of nothing so we must acknowledge his power to restore us and raise our ashes to a better and more happy condition Nay if we observe the course of Holy Scripture we shall find the expiration of Saints hath a particular expression given it For they are not said to dye but to fall into a sleep as if their Bodies after separation retained a certain vertue which had resemblance with their glorifyed Souls In the Fourth Book of Kings Chap. 13. We read that a Carkass being thrown into the Sepulchre of Elizeus was by a touch of his Bones restored to life St. Hierom relates how Constantine the Great conveyed with much Solemnity the relicks of St Andrew and St. Luke unto Constantinople Areadius likewise the Emperour translated the relicks of Samuel the Prophet from Judaea into Thrasia where they were received with great veneration and joy of the people All which shews our Forefathers looked upon the remainder of Saints Bodies not as liveless fragments but as the Fountains of life and health as certain pieces God would make instrumental to miracles and to works above the power of nature Therefore the Bones of Holy Persons endued with such vertue may justly be qualifyed with joy and consequently it is not improper to say That humbled Bones shall rejoyce Again St. John Damascene hath a fine conception saying those who imitate the vertues of Saints may be more truly said their relicks or impressions than the lump and mass of Earth they leave behind He who hath the zeal and ardours of a St. Paul in the Conversion of Souls may be stiled his lively Image Who can claim the fortitude of a St. Stephen in accepting the stroke of Death for Justice sake will infallibly bear the stamp of that Protomartyr Who can perform the humble and spiritual life of a St. Francis will prove a better pattern of him than his own Body which at this day remains entire at Assisium as a Testimony of that Glory his Soul enjoyes in Heaven so that when we cast our selves into the mould of their vertues we become their animated statues and make them rejoyce in our imitation as the Angels do at a sinners Conversion it is not unlikely our Holy Prophet alluded to such living relicks vvhen he said humbled bones shall rejoyce Since good Men are here for the most part crushed in the Worlds esteem that values nothing but what is great in vanity Yet amidst these Clouds of oppression and scorns thrown at them they find within themselves a satisfaction in performing their duty to God for the fruit of the spirit sayes St. Paul is joy peace and a thousand other contentments which attend a state of innocence so that it is an ingenious Expression of our Penitent that humbled bones shall rejoyce I have many times wondered why Almighty God should give unto the Ashes of Saints what he had denyed them whilst they were alive and made not use of any limb or vital motion but for his sake that is many miracles have been wrought by touching the mouldred dust of Saints who living were never favoured with the power of any Miracle but as the lives of Saints are admirable so the proceedings of Almighty God with them seem very mysterious yet I have proposed some reasons of this to my sell First Almighty God will shew by this how dear his Servants are unto him and if he give so much vertue to their Ashes what may we expect he doth to their Immortal Souls Next it argues how grateful a thing humility is in the sight of God that those who have Crucifyed their flesh and daily Sacrificed their Bodies for his name should have the very Ashes of that Mortified Body cure Diseases restore sight to the blind and raise the dead to life Thirdly Almighty God will manifest the difference between a pampered Body and one mangled by acts of pennance the one by all manner of
deplorable that most of its Enemies are hatched and trained up within its own Breast who like the Viper tears asunder the womb that bare them Besides they are all armed compleatly against it whilest this defendant to preserve it self against so many Harpyes and ravenous VVolves hath nothing but a poor will and this weakned extreamly enfeebled by original sin so that many times it is so overpowred what by the charms of objects presented to her what by their importunity and near approach that unable to make any offensive nay or so much as defensive play all she can do is to disown and disavow any compliance protesting against the violence of all her mutinous passions In these distresses our Penitent knew well it was necessary to have a clean heart that is a heart stâ—…d in that perfection as might diminiâ—… the effects of â—…iginal sin for a Soul arrived once at perfection performs acts of vertues with such facility as if he seemed not to have forfeited 〈◊〉 â—ustiâ—es and though usually this happiness is not purchased but by a long tract of unwearied practise yet God can supply all this by a superabundant Collation of his Grace and with these hopes he confidently and incessantly tunes forth create in me O God a clean heart The Application Here we are taught that in all our actions we must attend to the sincerity of our intentions for it is not the material thing we do that gives a value to them but the source from whence they spring and if that be qualifyed with a pure designment to aim only at God's glory then it is evident they proceed from a heart fashioned by the hand of God and directed by his all-moving Spirit St. Austin sayes we shall be rewarded or punished according to the will by which we have acted Abraham lost not his Son nor likewise did he lose his merit because it is the same moral goodness which resides in the inferiour and exteriour act and if the one be obstructed this takes not off the esteem due to the other just as the Sun is still luminous though a Cloud sometimes hinders the effect of his beams Let us bless therefore our good God who contents himself with the heart and let us dispose that alwayes ready for his service Amen CHAP. XXII Et Spiritum rectum innova in visceribus meis And renew in my Bowels a right spirit OUr Holy Penitent in this clause keeps the method of a wise Petitioner having an Eye not only to his present succour but also how to settle a constant supply For to have implored a dean heart would avail him little without a sentinel and guard to protect this fountain from impure hands He was not ignorant that the will is a blind faculty that must be directed wherefore he petitions here in behalf of his understanding that it may receive those lights which are necessary for his conduct in all the occurrences of this life Renew in my Bowels a right spirit This spiritual rectitude consists in two heads to wit faith and morality The first teaches what we owe to God the other what is due to our Neighbour and our selves the first discovers unto us the perfections and attributes of God and of these gives us a most certain knowledge not lyable to any errour because it is grounded on the Testimony of God which is more infallible than our reason senses or apparitions of the dead Now that this certitude in matter of Faith ought to be of all things most unquestionable is evident For Man is obliged to prefer God before all created things to set a value upon the works of his service beyond any proper interest of riches honour nay of life which is frankly to be exposed in defiance of all the cruelties that can be inflicted rather than to fail in the least tittle of what Faith prescribes as due to our Creatour It were then very severe we should be tyed to forfeit what is most precious to us in this World and to sustain that which we most abhor and all this for a thing that is dubious uncertain and lyable to errour Wherefore in all reason the knowledge we have by Faith ought to be the most depurated from dross of doubt or vacillation Now what can be more secure and satisfactory than to be taught by God himself instructed by his word and revelation who is a supream verity and cannot reveal a falshood and which is conveyed unto us by the Church who is the immediate receptacle of Divine truths so that it is inconceivable how any expedient could be found more efficacious to quiet the minds of Men in religious duties than this of Revelation In other vertues God seems to treat with us familiarly and as equalls laying down reason to move us to embrace them but in matter of Faith he playes the Sovereign he commands forbids threatens promises and delivers things which surpass all imagination and this without any evidence or reason of their existence now though at the first glance this proceeding seems harsh yet seriously weighed it will be found a stroke of his goodness for whilst we believe amidst these Clouds and obscurity it speaks more loud an act of our free will which is the spring of merit presupposing the existence of grace For if where we most contradict our selves there is a Subject of greater merit certainly in nothing Man doth more devest himself of his inclinations than in acts of Faith for he renounces his natural way of knowledge by reason and sense he Sacrifices his understanding to God's simple word and believes all the greatnesses and wonders of the Divine Being and mysterious works meerly because he hath said it Our Holy Penitent desirous to be irradiated with these unerring notions petitions that a right Spirit may be resetled in him for supposing Man's End or Beatitude which is to know serve love and glorify God in all Eternity we must in order to this end raise our understanding and affections to objects which outstrip the power of sense and exceed the reach of our natural reason the acts of Religion by which we pay our duty to God being supernatural and justly proportioned to Beatitude to which they tend now Man of himself without some light from above cannot frame any supernatural act of himself he knowes not what homage and service is due to his Sovereign Monarch nor with what Sacrifices he ought to appease his anger and pay the tribute of thanks and adoration wherefore he begs that he himself would teach him and be his Master that he may not like the Gentiles follow the vain dictamens of sense but serve him as he would be served and in that manner as might be most agreeable to his divine will which he shall infallibly perform if he daign to fill him with his right Spirit and renew in my bowels a right Spirit But whilst he sues that this Spirit all guiding of Truth may be infused into his bowels that is diffused
indevotion and an indiscreet Zeal Fortitude between rashness and cowardise so of the rest Wherefore the art is so to steer your course as to keep at an equal distance from them both yet alwayes mindful that if one be more dangerous than the other you are most to decline that as if I would embrace the vertue of hope which is beset with presumption and despair and my complexion cold and melancholly drawes me on the extremity of despair this certainly most threatens my ruine and therefore I am to look upon every spark of that with more apprehension than a fire which issues from presumption Our Holy Penitent knew that whilest he sailed in the Ocean of this World he must needs be flanked with two dangerous Rocks that is two opposite vices to any vertue he would embrace so that if he keep not a steady hand to the helm by the least diversion he is cast upon a shelf which will destroy him Wherefore it behoves him to fit himself with a right spirit a Spirit of vertue which leaning upon the Principles of reason might preserve him in that degree of honour wherein he is ranked amidst created Beings For as knowledge makes one knowing so vertue gives us the title of good and as the good of any thing consists in the just measure and proportion unto it he concludes this right spirit of vertue to be a purchase worthy his ambition since doubtless nothing to Man as Man is more sutable and agreeing than such actions as are produced conformable to a reasonable nature he anticipates his Son's Declaration and thinks nothing profitable pleasant or great which is not made so by vertue This right spirit will shower down spiritual comforts settle him in peace with God Angels and Men shelter him under the wings of God's Providence which never fails to cherish those who live according to the rules of vertue and after a life attempered with the Harmony of delightful actions it changes into sweeâ—…ss the grim face of Death making it a secure passage unto eternal Beatitude He is resolved to put in execution the practice both of intellectual and moral vertues and that they may prove meritorious he begs they may be infused into him that when he considers the infinity of God's Being and the immensity of his perfections he may forthwith pay him the just tribute of glory respect and submission all worship praise and possible endeavours of Piety That his omnipotency may never pass his thoughts without an entire obedience to his will that his inexhausted and unerring wisdom may draw him to acts of faith and firm assent to his divine word That the fidelity of his never failing promises may fix a reliance and assured hope in him That his unwearied goodness may ravish him into a charity and love never to be extinguished That his incomparable greatness may work him into the annihilation of himself before him and give him a true feeling of his own vileness That a terrour of his judgments may throw him into a course of rigid pennance for his misdeeds and his unspeakable favours be met with all the Testimonies of gratitude which a poor Creature can give He knowes that had he a Million of hearts lodg'd within his own person yet could they never reach that love his goodness merits and should he stoop even unto Hell nay lower were it possible it would still be short of that submission due to his greatness Wherefore though he be hopeless to pay what he owes he will shew at least he hath a will to be just nor doth he blush at his impotency since it springs from the excellency of his Creditour from whom likewise he expects to be enabled towards the discharge of his arrears and he conceives no treasure can be more effectual than that of a right spirit and therefore he incessantly repeats renew in my bowels a right spirit The Application God will be adored in spirit and truth wherefore man is to serve and honour him by a certain knowledge sutable to his intellectual nature now in the essence of God are contained wonders not to be comprehended by the natural force of our understanding Whence we are with our Holy Penitent to Petition for a right spirit that is the excellent light of faith by which we are raised to a more eminent knowledge of the Divinity than all the activity and vigour of our reason could ever reach In this knowledge consists eternal life in the ignorance of this eternal death For with what Face shall he one day ask Heaven of the adorable Trinity who hath never known that mystery Or claim a share in the fruit of our redemption who hath been ignorant of Jesus Christ Let us then beg for this heavenly wisdom by which we are taken off from the low affection to Creatures to fix our Eyes upon the greatness of our Creatour the wonders of his works and amidst a Million of ravishing objects which this right spirit presents to our meditation let us insist with a particular gust on this that our Souls are created for eternal bliss Amen CHAP. XXIII Ne projicias me à facie tua Cast me not away from thy face OUr Holy Penitent seems here to question the success of his precedent petition by which he had sued for a right understanding this argues how unsetled the mind of a sinner is that no sooner he had aimed at this irradiation but immediately he is struck with a terrour of his demerits and fancies his doom is to be eternally banished from the Face of God wherefore he cryes cast me not away from thy Face St. Hierom conceives this clause levels only at the communication of his Divinity in order to the Hypostatick union which he apprehends in punishment of his sin might be concealed from him and therefore he sayes cast me not away from thy face that is deprive me not of the knowledge of thy divine nature as it relates to Man in the great Sacrament of the incarnation It is this mystery he fears to be ravished off which brings along with it a fulness of time and wherein all the groans and labours of many longing Souls will cease and be at rest But the more vogued opinion layes this expression upon his anxiety touching his eternal reprobation He knew he was unworthy of eternal life through the forfeiture of grace he had made and whether being now a Vessel of dishonour the divine Artist will not leave him eternally in this reproachful mould is the just motive of his fear He remembers a passage in Exodus where our Lord threatens to obdurate the heart of Pharaoh and it is no less affrighting what St. Paul declares that God is merciful on whom he will have mercy and in the Fourth Chapter to the Corinthians God hath cast an obcaecation on the Minds of unbelievers Yet our Petitioner is too good a Divine as entertaining these reflections to make God the efficient cause of Man's obdurateness he knowes that
rather a fear to have stopt the sacred stream of God's extraordinary favours towards him For he was so well versed in the wayes of perfection as he knew the foundation of a life of Sanctity consists in the good management of divine inspirations and that the greatest Saints have from thence derived their happy success in a spiritual life We see no King nor Common-wealth if they find any person unfaithful in a slight Office that will entrust to him a more weighty charge and why should we think that God will be less prudent in the Government of Souls St. Prosper sayes that God imparts his graces in order and by degrees First distilling into them some little dropps of his grace and then a greater quantity in case those first be carefully improved it being a good earnest that he who acquits himself with fidelity in ordinary things will in matters of greater perfection come off with no less honour Whereas on the contrary the first step to the misfortune of a sinner is made by the neglect of God's early inspirations in the beginning For there is not any Pagan misbeliever or Christian whom he stirs not up to the common practice of vertue as obsequiousness to our Parents the avoiding Theft Luxury and the like and if they comply with these he fails not to enflame them with desires and gives them abilities to arrive at more sublime perfection Wherefore our Penitent fears he may have demerited in this Nature and begs not to be excluded from his face that is not to be deprived of those endearments wherewith he is wont to overwhelm such Souls as correspond with his inspirations and if hitherto he hath played the Coy one and scorned his dalliances for the future he will change his humour and cherish every the least motion of his dear Creatour He will aim at a perfect resemblance of his beloved in imitation of his wisdom he will discern good from evil and distinguish 'twixt the less and greater good alwayes embracing that which is best In order to his purity as much as is consistent with frail nature supported by grace he hopes to preserve himself from all stain and imperfection That some sparks of his charity may shine in him he will love that which God loves and love nothing but what he loves and upon the same motives whereon his love is grounded In a word he will unite all his faculties with God in as strict an alliance as this present condition of mortality will bear provided he be not exiled from his Face nor the flood-gates of gracious communications shut up in punishment of his past offences Whilst the person offended admits the offendour to his presence it argues there is not an utter breach between them wherefore till a sentence of banishment be passed he still retains some hope his aim then in this petition is to put a barr to this extremity of rigour He confesses it is a bitter thing to leave God but yet a far greater to be left by him and a main appearance of this is when he leaves us to the desires of our own heart like a Physitian who permits his patient in a desperate condition to eat and drink what he please He knowes the anger of God is great when he is not angry with a sinner and that it is a stroke of his goodness when his temporal chastisement immediately followes the offence so that if he please to afflict him and like a Jealous God issue forth his indignation upon the place for every misdemeanour He is ready to embrace with open arms what ever affliction he shall send and is willing to expose his breast to the direst shafts of his fury so it may but divert this great subject of his fears as to bee ternally cast out from his presence Neprojicias me c. The Application We behold by this clause how all along in this petition our Penitent hath been terrifyed with the ugly shape of sin and now he begins to apprehend the effects of sin which is Death For Death and sin considered apart are very frightful but once joyned together that is to dye in sin there is nothing more dreadful and this dismal stroke he fears when he sayes cast me not away from thy face St. John Damascene observes two derelictions of God the one seeming when he permits the just to fall into sin that by experiment of their frailty they might rise more humble and more watchfully attend to their Salvation This happened to our Penitent St. Peter and divers others The other is absolute and a final cashier for ever and this happens when after all remedies applyed a Soul remains stupid and incurable even to the last by his obstinate perseverance in wickedness so that God foreseeing this obdurateness withholds his special grace and so lets him end in his impenitency we are here therefore to joyn with our Petitioner and beg we may not come to this period or consummation of our iniquities but timely lay hold on the shield of his mercy Amen CHAP. XXIV Et spiritum Sanctum tuum nè auferas à me And take not from me thy holy Spirit THe workings of God's Holy Spirit in our Souls are great secrets and if to our selves unknown no wonder that to others they lye hid and though he be in us after a quite different manner than he is said to be ubiquitary by his essence presence and power yet his approach or recess is so insensible as the best persons during this life are left in suspence ignorant whether they be in a condition of love or hatred with their Creatour Of this blessed Job seemed to complain saying Chap. 19. If he come I shall not see him and when he retires I am in the same Cloud Notwithstanding God is pleased sometimes though rarely to dispense with his ordinary proceeding as to give such marks of his grace and friendship to a Soul that it is apparent even to the Eye of the Body Of this we have an example in the Feast of Pentecost when the Holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles in form of fiery tongues so replenishing their Minds with knowledge and enflaming their Hearts with charity as the whole World was in a short time laid prostrate to the power of their doctrine and miracles In this clause of the petition we have likewise reason to pass the same Opinion of our Holy Penitent that he had been gratified with the like visible communication of this divine gift The past transactions 'twixt God and his once happy Soul were fresh in his memory and how he had designed to reveal unto him many secrets of his Providence Nay had given him so many proofs of inhabiting grace as one must be strangely stupid not to acknowledge it Now here he seems to cheer himself with a confidence that after his petition for a clean heart and right understanding he is again in the enjoyment of his blessed presence by grace and charity wherefore he begs
Penitent insinuates the high contentment he once received when a darling to Heaven he had promises made him that out of his Line should issue forth the Worlds Saviour and as the perpetuity of his blood to continue in the Throne was fastned to his posterity upon a condition that they observed his Lawes which promise was evacuated he fears by his transgressions Wherefore now readmitted into favour he hopes to be restored to all his former priviledges and amongst all he most covets an assurance touching the coming of the Messias This is the joy of Salvation after which he languishes In imitation we must rejoyce in that the Incarnate word is come and redouble our joy in the reflection of his glorious qualities First that this sacred humanity is distained from all the corruptions of our nature and though it be of the same species with ours yet it far surpasses all created things even in the first rank of Angels Next his flesh miraculously framed by the operation of the Holy Ghost of the blood of a Virgin all immaculate was so pure as no ray of the Sun could be equalled to it Lastly into this unspotted flesh was infused a Soul of a beauty ineffable adorned with grace knowledge and all supernatural habits as God himself judged it not unworthy of his personal union Let then this accomplished wonder of all perfection be the subject of our prayer that we may possess the joy of thy Salvation Amen CHAP. XXVI Et spiritu principali confirma me And confirm me with a principal Spirit MEthinks our Penitent by this clause seems to have shaken off his Chains and fortifyed with the Seal of his pardon begins to fly at all He had laid claim to the Holy Ghost next he expostulates for the restitution of his primary effect which is joy Now he would have a principal Spirit which might lead him to perfection and by that means put him into the best posture of security from a relaps as our present condition can bear saying confirm me with a principal spirit This perfection or principal spirit so called because it leads to generous and noble exploits consists in a concourse of vertuous habits disposing the Soul to actions most holy and meritorious Our Penitent aims by it to endear himself to God and to prove just and obliging to his Neighbour As to the first this noble spirit settles the Soul in a perfect repose and as the Needle alwayes points towards the North-pole so all her affections guided by this spirit tend and rest quiet in God She looks upon herself in the condition of his spouse a quality the most sublime she can be capable off by which she is enabled to lead a life answerable to that title She hath no remorse of conscience as being at a great distance from sin she is enriched with peace sheltered under God's special Providence and hath power to bend his will by her prayer to any thing she desires because she desires nothing but what is good Her thoughts are all celestial her affections all pure and her life no less admirable than it is rare No wonder then if our Penitent after a grant of Jubilyes alwayes chearful alwayes ravished with pledges of Salvation should petition for this spirit of perfection which might secure all these advantages to him confirm me with a principal spirit It is this wisdom our Penitent aims at which irradiates enflames and gives to the Soul a rellish of Heavenly comforts this is the Evangelical Pearl for whose purchase the wise Merchant sold all he had and it is a good bargain for St. Paul sayes a Soul adorned with perfection is of such a value as the Earth deserves not to bear her and Solomon preferrs one single person fearing God before a thousand impious Sons nay God is pleased to own a special protection of his perfect Servants styling himself particularly the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob So that I doubt not one Soul endued with Perfection doth alone more glorify God than an infinity of others that languish and consume their lives in coldness and indevotion Our Penitent therefore becomes now ambitious of promoting God's honour supplicates for a spirit of perfection and though he knowes usually it is not attained to but by a long practice of vertues yet Almighty God is pleased sometimes to dispense in this proceeding and in a moment raises to a high degree such as he hath designed for his choicest favours and truly he had so far experienced God's liberal hand towards himself that he might reasonably hope to obtain whatsoever he made the subject of his request as here with all fervour and zeal he petitions comfirm me with a principal spirit Many Divines are of Opinion that Christ our Lord suffered more in the rude combat of his passion for the most perfect Souls than for others For though he offered up his blood for the redemption of all Mankind yet all did not equally share in the fruit of his passion Some only have conveyed to them by it sufficient means of their Salvation without any other effect others also receive from thence the true remission of their sins but perfect Souls are raised by this oblation to a strange pitch in a spiritual life and in consequence to that to a degree of most eminent glory Wherefore the passion of Christ is to them effectively more beneficial This position they prove out of the Canticles where Christ speaking to a beloved Soul sayes vulnerâsti Cor meum that is to say there is not a hair of her head dart of her Eye least motion of her heart or limb which cost him not a wound because they all import acts of obedience humility and love towards him and therefore it was a pleasing wound since it was to be to them matter of all their spiritual benedictions Whence you may see that Christ our Lord doth not like Creatures who love the less those persons that have caused unto them the greater sufferings for one act of gratitude on our part is of a vertue so soveraign as it heals and closes up all his wounds If then his passion however bitter in it self was made delightful to him in regard of the just whom he foresaw would make good use of it how ought it to affect those who reap the benefit it is this satisfaction after which our Penitent aspires for in this a double contentment arrives to perfect Souls First in that his love made him suffer so liberally for them Next in that they have contributed to allay the acerbities of his passion by the foreknowledge he had of their compliance with his grace O what solid matter of joy Now you must know that our Penitent looked upon himself asmuch concerned in the fruit and participation of Christ's merits as those who were to live after his comming and visible appearance upon Earth Our Petitioner in the preceding verse expresses himself in the Terms of thy salvation that is purchased by the merits
of Christ God-man The Church calls it a happy fault in that it merited so great a Redeemer in the same sense our Penitent contemplating the cause of his redemption admires his happy deliverance and urges for this spirit of perfection that as the just was to be the motive of a more copious effusion of his blood so he becoming perfect might asswage his torments to which end he cryes confirm me with a principal spirit Again our Penitent is animated to this his petition upon the consideration that when a perfect Soul whom God hath designed to salvation falls into any notable default as she may not being impeccable he lets her not lye mired in the filth of sin without any feeling of her condition but presently solicits her with his exciting graces and this with such importunity as he told St. Paul it was hard for him to play the obstinate against so many darts of his love and if ever that parable was fulfilled where out Saviour having found the lost sheep witnesses more joy for the recovery of that one than of the Ninety nine he had left in the desart it is certainly in the resettlement of a Soul in his favour whom he hath marked out to be his 'T is true sometimes Almighty God withdraws his sustaining hand and permits them to dash upon the Rock of offence so to humble them that sin might effect what his Grace could not yet the conclusion is alwayes to their greater good and if he makes use of so many stratagems to bring them to their former state of happiness being once reâ—urned with what profusions of his bounty with what inundations of his grace doth he overflow them It is then a Soul makes a new oblation of herself to God renewing her vowes and promises and soon regains her former lustre nay becomes more accomplished improving still her light and vertue and with these penitential ornaments she invites her Espouse to a visit who declares in the Canticles that he is descended into the Garden of Filberts and amidst the Apples of the Valleys Intimating by these words that his satisfaction is to behold a Soul freed from the sink of sin to spring anew and bud forth in the practice of eminent vertues to see her like fire always in motion acting generous things for his service To hear her amidst the baits of this world to send forth amorous Sighs after him passionately coveting to be discharged from the mass of the body so to arrive at the fruition of him and he is so good as to answer every motion of this converted Soul She never looks on him but he amorously casts an Eye upon her she never thinks on him but he requites the kindness with a thought on her she never gives herself unto him but he as liberally bestowes himself upon her These are the entertainments our Holy Penitent doth promise to himself by means of this spirit of perfection he confesses he hath been humbled by his sin Next he hopes he is raised by his Grace and now he expects the consequence of his merciful reconciliation imploring confirm me with a principal spirit When I read this clause it minds me of what St. Paul sayes that where sin hath abounded there Grace doth many times superabound For doubtless nothing adds wings to the fervour of a true Penitent like to the remembrance of their past failings whence I gather our Petitioner upon these seeds of his restauration will add a superstructure of mystick Divinity and raise himself to as high a pitch of Vnion with God as in this life Man is capable of But in this enterprize he is ignorant what method to follow because no certain rule is set down by God for its acquisition it being a pure gift of his like Grace gratis given that we might know we have a Master in Heaven who instructs immediately by himself his Disciples in the maxims of true wisdom Wherefore our Penitent trusts not to his own industry or vertue but supplicates for divine immissions as a thing independent of any other means than his own free Donation confirm me with a principal spirit This Science of mystick Divinity is defined an experimental knowledge of God arising from a most elevated union of the will with him For the will is the Organ of a spiritual rellish by which Man tastes the sweetness of God and by this experience teaches the understanding what God is Now this savour tast or spiritual feeling may be said to be a kind of knowing because love it self according to St. Austin is a knowledge but a knowledge so secret as unintelligible to any but the person in whom it is as it is commonly said of a smart pain none can so justly conceive it as he that suffers Now our Penitent thirsts after this banquet he knowes it fortifies and confirms a Soul in the practice of devotion and at a pinch sustains her in the rude combats of temptations For being united unto God she is above all the attractives and violence of Creatures So that enjoying this delicious guest by an experimental knowledge there is doubtless nothing in this World of force to separate her from God This Job seems to insinuate Chap. 1. Place me near to thee and I fear not the attempt of any And St. Paul likewise apprehending himself in this secure state sets the whole World at defiance who sayes he shall separate me from the love of Jesus Christ As this security must needs give birth to continual acts of joy No less are the ravishments which overwhelm a Soul in the practice of this devotion for it is a certain lively experiment of God's intimate presence of his essence of his perfections and divine operations and this with an experimental affection or strong assurance that we love God that we make his glory our interest that by complacence and friendship we share in what he hath it being the Nature of true love to make all things common The first effect is to work a compleat Metamorphosie in us for to transform a thing is to separate it from its natural form and communicate another not only interiour but exteriour Now when a Soul is arrived to a holy complacence in God and to a strict amity with him she is devested of the form of sin and vitious affections which was her natural inclination and receives within the Center of her heart new affections desires wholly Divine and motions quite different from what Nature prompts her to This made St. Paul cry I live now not I but Christ doth live in me and this same motive gave life to our Petitioners present address that gaining this spirit of perfection he might loose himself and by that enterchange come to know what God is That he is a source of goodness eminency and beauty that he merits all honour glory reverence and praise Then comparing himself to God he beholds how vile captive and contemptible a Creature he is Lastly comparing God to himself he
and forcibly entered by Cyrus King of the Medes he resolved rather than become a scornful prisoner to dye on the places upon which design he cast himself into the midst of his Enemies preferring an honorable death before an opprobrious life His Son beholding his imminent danger though to that instant at the Age of twenty years he had been alwayes dumb cryed out spare my Father spare my Father it is the King Whereupon the Enemy seised his person and preserved his life some attribute this to a natural cause alledging the love this Prince had for his Father put all his vital spirits into combustion and by that violent motion broke the obstacle of his speech However methinks this passage may in some sense be applyed to our great Penitent who was morally dumb the Organs of his Soul structed by the malignity of sin insomuch as he could not utter one syllable which might have force to reach the Ears of his Creatour untill he came to have a prospect of his eternal ruine and no sooner these Terrours appeared before him but all the faculties of his Soul were stirred up removed all Obstacles and made him Petition for the opening his Lips the first motion to his happiness Lord thou wilt open my Lips For this imports not a local division of the Lips but an inflamation of the heart by vertue of which heat all the parts of his Body will be disposed to discharge those functions for which they were created St Paul to shew how little Man can do if left to himself sayes 1 Cor. 4. What do we possess which we have not received and if so why glory we in it as if our own Again he powerfully asserts it in the Eighth Chapter to the Romans It is not he who wills or runs but he on whom God will have mercy As if he would say as Esau in vain pursued his Chase thinking from thence to derive to himself his Fathers blessing So Man after sin loses but his time and endeavour if he think by the strength of his natural faculties to be able to observe the Commandements of God or perform what is requisite to the purchase of Heaven So that it must chiefly spring from the mercy of God's assisting grace Nay which is more we cannot so much as desire to serve God according to our obligations unless he first by his divine grace move our hearts and dispose our will unto it as the same St. Paul sayes God works in us both the will and the execution without God assisting we cannot have a desire neither to believe what is proposed as the object of Faith nor perform what we should in order to vertuous actions and therefore St. Austin sayes the prodigal Son had never resolved to return home to his Father if the mercy of God had not inspired him to it To manifest this truth we need go no further than to cast our thoughts upon the Grecian and Roman learning which produced the greatest wits in the World yet in all their inquisition after a sovereign good they were so lost as even to become ridiculous acting things concerning a Deity and Man's supream felicity as if they were destitute of reason St. Paul takes notice in particular how coming to Athens he found an Altar dedicated to an unknown God For they had been visited with a great pestilence and ignorant for what offence a chastisement so severe was inflicted at last fancied it was for want of homage to be rendered to some Deity not yet discovered than this what could be more absurd to shew in what darkness and errours Man doth grope when left to himself So that if at any time a person blushes at his vanities and past extravagancies and doth confess that what before he behold as light and life to be nothing else than obscurity and death this Conversion sayes St. Austin comes not from himself but from the powerful and hidden grace of God which dissipates the Clouds of Earthly opinions and enflames his heart with a desire of knowing the truth Now this change God works in Souls several wayes in some more gently in others more forcibly Solomon insinuates that he particularly gives his call by the outward preaching of his word this Esai confirms Chap. 40. God hath sent Doctors of his Faith into the World who should reduce their Brethren like the blind into the way that is unto Jesus Christ the Messias who is styled the way truth and life In this manner Surius recounts Barlaam was sent to Josaphat Son to a King in the Indies that by his conversion the whole Kingdom might embrace the Law of Christ St. Paul was sent to Athens who converted the great St. Dennis a famous Doctor of the Areopagites St. Philip to the Eunuch of the Ethiopian Queen who by expounding unto him a Prophecy of Christ in Esai immediately received Baptism at his hands In the History of Japonia it is related of a certain Indian who had lived well according to the light of nature how he was restless in his Mind believing his religion to be false he went to the Turks thinking to follow theirs but finding there no satisfaction then he applyed himself to the Jews but still remained in perplexity so that with much fervour he was wont to cry out O God let me know who thou art and that I may serve thee according to thy will otherwise do not charge me with blame for my errour At last it happened St. Francis Xavierus came into the Town where he was and no sooner did he hear him unfold the points and sacred mysteries of Christian Religion but he proclaimed that Man preaches the God I must serve and forth with was baptized By this expedient he likewise made a conquest of our Holy Penitent in which action Nathan the Prophet was instrumental who laying before him his obligations to God and his ingratitude occasioned that without delay he had recourse to the Sanctuary of this present petition or Miserere The second manner of his call is by the inward operation of his Spirit and this he communicates to all witness St. Paul 1 Cor. 4. God who drew light from darkness by a word from his mouth hath filled our hearts with the splendour of his knowledge For without this light of Faith Man knowes not God who made him he knowes not whither he tends he knowes not eternal felicity for which he was created nay he knowes not himself for without Faith we know not that we are born Imps of wrath and lyable to eternal death We know not the wounds of our nature our inability to good the necessity of being regenerated by grace Lastly without this interiour light we know not Christ our Mediatour by whose pretious blood we are Redeemed from eternal damnation and restored to a life of Grace and Glory But you will say if God imparts this light of faith to all how comes it so many remain in darkness and infidelity of this the reason is
with a firm hope cry Lord thou shalt open my Lips The Application We are taught here when we begin to pray that we look upon our selves as infirm indigent and ulcerated Beggars who expect from the merciful hand of God to find some relief in our necessities and we must further reflect upon this great addition to our misery that as that the time was not tedious to him to whom the Saint replyed that the whole world was a great Volume expanded in which he read as it were in great Characters the wonders of its Creatour to which also alludes the Sentence of St. Chrysostom There is not any particle of a Creature be it of worth or not which issues not forth a voice more loud than a Trumpet and speaks the praises of God But above all it belongs to Man by many Titles of obligation to contribute to the praise and glory of God First his natural perfections more lively represent the Divine perfections as being created to his Image and enriched with an understanding able to comprehend supernatural things so that he alone in this Earthly Sphere can acknowledge and make a return of gratitude for all the visible productions we here behold Whence it is evident that Man is obliged to pay the tribute of praise and thanksgiving in the behalf of all Creatures it was upon this score the high Priest among the Jews was wont to have wrought in his Garment a draught of the World to insinuate that it was his part to discharge the duty of Adoration and acknowledgment unto God in the name of the universe Next Man may be aiding to the glory of God employing those gifts of grace he receives in acts of Religion obeying his Commandments embracing his Councels referring all his actions to his honour and evidencing by a holy life that all his endeavours are in order to him and his service For from hence is reflected a certain external glory upon God not only in that he is known loved and respected by such a life of Sanctity but also in that he hath such holy and generous Creatures just as it is the glory of a Father to have a Son vertuous and wise and who by his valour and sage conduct drawes the Eyes of the World with a kind of admiration upon him But the greatest glory Man can give unto God is in a state of Beatitude for when once there arrived he shall see him face to face without any interposed Veil he shall know the wonders of his essence cast his sweetness inconceivable and have his heart ravished with eternal affections He shall there praise him in a full consort for all Eternity This is the highest pitch of glory Man can give unto God in which he is partner with the Angels it is the final end of our Creation we are not put into this World upon any other design than by a constant progress in vertue to advance our selves daily to this end Here you may discern the general Heads of praise in which our Penitent will engage his mouth First he will praise him in the infinite variety of Creatures he hath framed in this inferiour World for Man's use and in his behalf he will powerforth his thanks and acts of gratitude resolving never to abuse them or design them contrary to that end for which they were made Next he will submit all his actions to be led and conducted according to the impulse and dictamens of those Graces he shall please to bestow upon him making his Body a holy chast and maâ—…rated victime to his Laws and by this means he will dispose himself for that last and highest service he is to render him in a compleat Beatitude where his Mouth shall never cease to celebrate his praise And my Mouth shall declare thy praise Whilest our Penitent thus in his thoughts runns over all these motives which might justly afford matter of praise to his grateful Tongue there occurs one more which must not be omitted since it exceeds all others and exalts the glory of God beyond all the submission of Men and Angels it is the mystery of the Incarnation in which Christ Jesus God-Man hath contributed the most to God's glory For he hath saved the World by the effusion of his pretious blood and nothing is more glorious to God than the Salvation of Mankind for good and holy persons will praise love admire contemplate enjoy and adore his perfections in the vast spaces of Eternity Now had he not dyed for Man no Paradise no felicity could have been for them so that God had remained under the privation of that glory he doth and is to receive from blessed Spirits for all Eternity Nay more not only Men do glorify God by Jesus Christ but the Angels likewise in whose concern the Church declares the Angels praise your Majesty the Archangels bow before you the Powers tremble with respect the vertues of Heaven and blessed Seraphims with like joy and love do glorify you So that all the external glory consecrated to God either in Heaven or Earth is in consideration of the divine person as it supports the sacred humanity of Christ Lastly Jesus Christ in Heaven doth praise and magnify the Divinity with an Air incomparable he doth it more copiously with more variety with a note more lively and ravishing than all the Choires of Angels and Saints put together The reason is that the most perfect knowledge and most ardent affection are the â—ources of the most sublime and magnificent Panegyricks Now the Soul of our Redeemer enjoyed without dispute a more clear and penetrating wisdom and knowledge of the Divinity is enflamed in that Abyss of essence to a higher degree than any other whatsoever and consequently his most pure Soul breaks forth into praises which outstrip and surpass by far all the Harmony both of Angels and the blessed spirits in Heaven I doubt not but our Penitent with much satisfaction let his Tongue strike upon this Theam for if the very thought of the Messias replenished his Mind with abundant joy what consolation to consider that by him alone God would derive to himself more glory than from the whole mass of Creatures that he was to share with him in this task of praise that he would procure encrease and magnify the honour of God to his utmost and since Angels and Men were to pay their homage of praise and benediction by and in the person of the Messias our Penitent would not be exempted from that priviledge of bearing a part in the confort and bless the divine goodness in that by the bloody Sacrifice of the Messias God's honour should be repaired and as many voices gained to promote his greatness as there were to be glorious spirits in Heaven that by his sacred Mouth the praises of his God his sovereign good and object of his love were to be ecchâ—…d forth in the midst of Paradise with what â—…y would he put a helping hand and conspire in this design
and second the generous intentions of the Messias by a million of toylâ—…e Labours might he but live to see the Day-break of his coming however he is resolved by him to offer up all his stock of praise and benediction And my Mouth shall announce thy praise Cassianus admires the goodness of God that possessing within himself an inexhausted Treasure of all good in whom cannot be found the least want of any thing desirable is yet pleased to play the Merchant with poor Creatures entrusting into their hands not only the visible stock of this inferiour World but also the dispensation of heavenly graces and this whilst he can expect no return this our Petitioner himself confesses in the last Chapter of the first of the Chronicles where He and the Princes of the people had made a large Offering of many Talents of Gold Silver and other Metals For reflecting then upon the state of Accounts 'twixt God and his Creatures he said Who am I and what is my people to offer any thing unto thee for all things come from thee and of thine own we have given So that none can offer unto God but what they have received from him Nay he is so indulgent as though we can return him nothing but what is his own yet let them be stamped with the mark of gratitude he will put them upon account as satisfactory In a word we can exchange nothing in return of all his benefit but the oblation of praise and is it not strange we should râ—fuseâ— him this Nay to encourage us though we give him but a trifle not worth the regarding yet if it be done with a real intent of serving him he blenches not at it but by his acceptance makes it valuable and of a price not to be esteemed I must needs then say our great Penitent hath pitched upon a right way of traffick and which is most suitable to the state of his affairs Wherefore I wonder not if in divers other Psalms he protests he will live no longer than he shall be able to remit unto his obliging Creditour the just tribute of praise and that he will be punctual in this commerce whilst he hath a Being which resolution he again here confirms And my Mouth shall send forth thy praise St. Bonaventure forbids two things in those that would praise the name of God to wit Pride and fear For if proud though he take up the Subject of anothers praise and descants upon it with much seeming zeal yet he alwayes so manages the Encomiums as to involve himself as a Party which spoils all for God will have no Riâ—al he communicates it is true unto his Creatures the participation of his divide essence I but in matter of glory he will be singular and protests that none shall bear a share with him in this he proclaims himself to be a Joâ—loâ—… God Next if the Praiser be timorous he can never be faithful for this unmanly passion like an Apoplexy seizes upon all the vital spirits Whinders the speech nay even be rayles any interest at the Face of danger So that you never see any thing great or generous to issue from a Coward wherefore our blessed Saviour declares he will not owne him at the Latter day who hath here blished and not dared to acknowledge him Our great Doctor was far exempt from these irregular motions As to the first he was the meekest of Men the Character he gives of himself shews he was not elevated with an Any conceit of his own worth when he pronounces in his Psalm That he is a Worm and not a Man the opprobry of Men and scorn of the people So that the brain blast of Pride did not stifle or any wayes obstruct those just Attributes he promises here to give unto his Maker As to the other branch of fear his Heroick exploits are abundantly set forth in the sacred History so that to go about to clear him from apprehension of terrour when God's â—…use â—ay 〈◊〉 â—…e were the same as to use Arguments in a glorious day to perswade the Sun shines Let us then conclude he was compleatly qualifyed in border to the performance of his task and that his Mouth was admirably fitted to Sing forth the praises of his God And my Mouth shall announce thy praise Whilst our Penitent goes on in his designe to make an Elogy of his Creatours praises he is startled at an opinion that God is glorifyed in the damnation of a Soul as much it in her Salvation But he soon recovered himself upon the principles he hath laid for as a rare and accomplished piece of work speaks more the art and perfection of the workman than one that is imperfect and be set with many faults so a blessed Soul adorned with many perfections and being lively image of her Maker doth more express the power wisdome and other Attributes of God than a lost Soul all stained with a horrid guilt of sin Again it would be indifferent to the most zealous in the love of God whether a soul perished or not because they desiring nothing but the glory of God and if that were equally concerned in the loss or Salvation of a Soul certainly either would be a like to them but it is most evident they practise the contrary entertaining passionate desires for the gaining of a Soul and much resenting nay with great desolation the ruine of any which evidences that God derives to himself more glory from a Soul enlivened by his grace than from another wallowing in the filth of sin Wherefore he concludes the task of God's praise cannot be carried on but by a life of Sanctity which he looks upon as a happy necessity that the glory of our Creatour is annexed to our greatest happiness For he hath produced all things to be finally referred to himself and if in this Creatures find likewise their interest and full delight how great an obligation is it That he hath linked his glory to our happy condition and utmost perfection that is whilst we procure unto God the greatest glory in the same action we purchase to our selves our greatest felicity So that our Penitent will never cease And my Mouth shall send forth thy praise The Application Here we are instructed that our Being is conferred upon us to no other end than to love praise and glorify God and to procure as much as in us lyes that others likewise discharge this designment of their Creation If then we direct our actions to our own praise sucking in the Air of humane applause we commit an act of injustice against God and pervert the noble employment allotted to our nature We play the Thief and plunder the lawful propriety of our Creator The utmost perfection of a stream is to be reunited to its source and that of Man to praise and glorify God in loving serving and manifesting his perfections and since all other Creatures conspire according to their capacity to render him glory Let us
observers of it as that rain should fall in due season their Lands become fertile their Trees be laden with fruit abundance in their Vineyards that they should be preserved from wild Beasts enjoy a full peace overcome their Enemies and plant themselves in the midst of them Nay more that these temporal blessings were to be Crowned with eternal life of which promise made to the first inhabitants of the Earth they had a Tradition though their Law made no mention of it So that not only for their temporal prosperity but likewise in order to spiritual and eternal treasures they were bound to obey their legal precepts and this in conscience under the penalty of a mortal or venial guilt according to the matter wherein they transgressed Now this obligation was extended not only to their moral and Ceremonial precepts but likewise to their Judicial and Politick for why should not civil and temporal Lawes bind in Conscience since we are tyed by a certain external Justice in morality to contribute to the peace and quiet order of the Common-wealth Lastly they are commanded by God as well as the others and pronounced with the like benedictions and maledictions and therefore obligatory after the same manner It was upon this ground they set more by one precept of the Law than by their lives or whatsoever else most precious to them For example Eleazer and the Mother of the Machabees with her Sons chose rather to dye than to eat Swines flesh forbidden by the Law it was in pursuance of this their zeal that when the Romans first took Hierusalem under Pompey and forcibly entering the Temple mowed down all before them neither the terrour of death nor outcryes of the dying Multitude round about them could divert them from their divine service oblations and Sacrifices but on the contrary were resolved to lye at the mercy of the victorious and suffer what they pleased rather then abandon their Altars on quit any part of their duty in observing what was commanded by their Law and forefathers Now since these legal Sacrifices were so much valued by the Jews and observed with so much zeal as instituted by God's own appointment in Testimony of our acknowledgment of his supream power and our subjection and being they were their sole refuge to shelter themselves from the darts of his anger how comes it to pass that in the case of our Petitioner they are censured useless and no wayes to be countenanced from Heaven For as here he expresly declares that God would not have him pay this tribute or homage of Sacrifice so we have reason to believe he did it not for it is no where read that he offered up any Sacrifice for Vriah's murder or his adultery with Berfabee though usually all offendours in that nature did it nor were to be admitted into humane Society untill they had purifyed themselves by a Sacrifice of expiation Some there are who fancy that our Petitioner understands here that legal Sacrifices were most of them appointed for sins committed through ignorance and negligence Now he not finding himself guilty in this kind presumes that God would not exact a Sacrifice of him upon that score But this cannot hold Water for certain it is that many of those Sacrifices were instituted for the expiation of several trespasses of commission and namely those which gave birth to this his penitential Psalm Besides he seems to be much devoted to that kind of Sacrifice which was ordained for sins of ignorance often supplicating the Divine mercy in behalf of his secret and hidden sins which must needs import his faults into which through ignorance he may have fallen and therefore upon that score he would never desist from the offering up of a Sacrifice Others again interpret this clause of our Petitioner as if he would say Lord should I offer up those Sacrifices commanded in the Law they will not please nor appease thee They are but figures and representations of that true Sacrifice thou wilt one day give us and from the efficacy of which future Sacrifice the weak vertue of these are derived at whose approach all these are to be evacuated and cease Were it not then better that I present you with one that will never be refused that is a heart pierced with sorrow and bowed with repentance this is a Sacrifice I am sure you require and if I give you this you will not think I grudge you the other Upon these Terms the three Young Men in Babylon petitioned That God would receive a contrite heart and spirit of humility in lieu of Ramms Bulls and a thousand fat Lambs offered up in Holocaust But with submission I conceive our Petitioner in this clause appeals to his great God and insinuates it is his revealed will he should desist from these Sacrifices as being all satisfyed with his internal acts of repentance which more perfectly contribute to the effect of a Sacrifice though not to the formality of it than any external oblation For this expression if you would have had one supposing the command of God in general to the Jewish Nation that in all their distresses they were to make their way to him by the means of Sacrifice imports a knowledge he had to the contrary otherwise he would never have put in an if nor made a Quere whether he should do it had he not been first warranted in the forbearance Now if you ask me why God should proceed so particularly with him it seems to me probable that it was in consideration of his vigorous Faith and ardent zeal for the coming of the Messias by which he merited the effect of what the legal Sacrifices did represent and so was dispensed with in order to all those Sacrifices as to him with these circumstances little beneficial For we see in several Emergencies that God would not tye himself to the strict rules he had set down for the guidance of his people he had ordained that Priests only were to be the lawful Ministers of Sacrifice and the prevarication of this Law he punished severely in the persons of Ozias and Saul Yet at another time by a particular Ordination he enjoyned Abel Abraham Isaac and others though they were not Priests to offer Sacrifice For by vertue of this Command they were consecrated Priests and had the power of Sacrificing committed to them In like manner our Petitioner living in the time of the Law a Law of bondage where many harsh impositions were laid upon them might be exempted from the burden of Sacrifices upon the score of his Heroick Love Repentance and ceaseless groans for a Redeemer For doubtless amongst all the Patriarchs of the old Testament none ever interessed themselves so much in that particular as he and it is believed he much obliged the World by those his longing desires in hastning the coming of the Messias For all this at the first glance one would think our Penitent were lyable to censure That knowing he addressed
the terrours of the Law he sayes thou art not delighted c. Christ our Lord abrogated the bill of divorce practised amongst the Jews declaring that vvhosoever dismissed his wife and took another played the Adulterer Now it is most certain that it was alwayes unlawful though in the Law upon the score of the Jews proness and obstinacy in evil no punishment vvere ordained for the fame as there vvere for other crimes so that it vvas an evil permitted not approved off And this not as to the guilt but defect of chastisement If then the Law practised a kind of connivancy in forbearing the use of its coercive power to prevent a greater inconveniency that might ensue Why may vve not inferr vvith more reason that where the most perfect conditions as to the effect of a Sacrifice are found others of less moment may be omitted The legal Sacrifices not having power to conferr Grace nor without the internal worship of vertues as Charity Repentance and the like were grateful no more than our external good works at present are even in the highest and more perfect oblation if a disposition in the Mind be wanting wherefore our Petitioner enriched with all essential requisites of a lively faith love sorrow c. And being a person according to Gods own Heart I see not but with these circumstances he might rest fixed in his Oblation in Spirit and cry thou art not delighted with Holocausts This Clause hath set a work many great wits and pushed them on so far as to assert that Sacrifices were not commanded in the old Law but only permitted as a lesser Evil as to make them decline Idolatry which that gross people were so apt to slide into and to shew this was the end of that Institution they observe those Beasts were appointed and marked out for their Sacrifices which were the Deities adored by the Egyptians as a Sheep a Goat a Kid an Ox a Calf a Dove a Sparrow a Turtle that whilst they mangled and destroyed those Animals they might reflect upon that one supream God before whom all other powers must lye prostrate and by their destruction acknowledge his Sovereign Dominion Now I confess as to the Vniversal tye of the Law I go not along with this Opinion in matter of Sacrifice for before the written Law it is clear in the Sacrifice of Abel Noah and Abraham that they were Obligatory and likewise acceptable to God and this the Church confirms supplicating that this unbloody Sacrifice might find acceptance at his Hands as those of Melchizedeck and other just Patriarchs had done Nay in Exodus the 12. God makes an accurate and distinct settlement of the Ceremonies inflicting punishments on the infringers which speaks more than bare permission Nay he owns the perfume arising from a Sacrifice to be most Odoriferous and pleasing to him You must know then that one motive in the Institution of Sacrifices was to divert the Jews from dangers of Idolatry just as now one of the intentions in marriage may be to avoid fornication Another motive was to prefigure that bloody Sacrifice of the Cross to be offered up in the new Law for the end of the Law was to know love and obey Christ so that all their Sacrifices tended to his instruction They were as a kind of bond or engagement by vvhich the new Law vvas promised to them So that if they addressed them under that Form and attired vvith these circumstances they were questionless holy and grateful in the sight of God and in this sense the Law obliged all in general unto Sacrifice yet this hinders not but our Petitioner prevented with extraordinary Graces may be taught another method of Sacrifice and truly he insinuates as much in his 39. Psalm where he owns to have received a command to performe the will of God and adds he had done it and this in planting his Law that is Sacrifice in the midst of his Earth wherefore as to himself he might say Thou art not delighted with Holocausts c. I am not Ignorant there are many who lay the force of this expression upon the sole inefficacy of the Law whose Sacrifices and Sacraments did not Physically and really conferr Grace but only after a moral way prefigured and shadowed it forth depending more upon the disposition of him that offered than on any innate vertue contained in themselves and upon this ground our Petitioner might alledge that burnt-offerings would not serene his angry looks since they did but discover the Vlcer not heal it Yet the difficulty still remains that however inefficacious they were they had no other remedies so that they were duties to which they were obliged and the sole expedient to relieve them in distress Some were propitiatory to divert and shelter them from the storms of Gods vengeance and this was a victime for sin others were in thanksgiving for blessings received and for the continuation of them and was stiled a pacifick oblation part of this Animal was burnt the rest eaten by the Priests and those that offered the same Sacrifice likewise if not consumed the same day but reserved till the next was directed to the impetration of new benefits whence you may see that upon every turn and in all their Exigencies they were necessitated to flye unto the help of Sacrifices and how liberal and unwearied they were in that devotion appears by a just account as Josephus relates given into the President of Syria who was desirous to acquaint Nero by this with the greatness of their Common-wealth it was there found and exactly set down that they did Sacrifice at every one of their Solemn Sabbaths two hundred fifty six thousand five hundred Lambs So that you see their fervour was not slack and tepid in matter of Sacrifices and though they were a Nation of all others most addicted to avarice Yet in this they jumped not with the Opinion of Socrates who judged things of the least value most fit to be offered up to the Gods because as they stand not in need of our gifts so do they more value our affection then what we give but they on the contrary thought nothing better spent than what was laid out in Sacrifices a clear Evidence that the main part of their Religion consisted in these external rules Nay they were so bent upon them as St. Chrysostom by way of similitude sayes as a Physitian to cut off all opportunity from his Fevorish Patient that he might not ruine himself by intemperate draughts of cold water in a kind of passion throwes away that liquor and breaks the Vessel in which it was brought just so sayes he Christ the original and accomplishment of all their Figures appearing amongst them who came to make a perfect cure and free them from all their distempers saw he could not wean them from their habitual practises of the Law at that time not only unnecessary but even obnoxious to them without proceeding like a resolute Physitian by way
in this life If you consider the immense obligations you owe to your Redeemer you will lament in that you have but one life to Sacrifice for him that hath lost his own so worthy upon the Altar of the Cross for your sake You will repine that nature allowes you but a term of sixty years or thereabouts in this world to spin out in his service since he hath surrendered up his life for you of which one moment is more to be valued than all the duration and existence of Men and Angels This is the Sacrifice of Calves which our Penitent had in his prophetick view and it leaves a sweet relish in his Mind with which he concludes his petition It was doubtless matter of great joy to our Penitent to consider the powerful operation of Christ's Spirit that would draw Men from sensual pleasures and baits of this World induce them to contemn riches honors and Earthly glory and exchange these for hair-cloths fasting disciplines and other mortifications of the flesh and this to be acted by persons great in dignity swimming in a full plenty of wealth and endued with intellectual parts even to admiration Millions of these have shrowded themselves within the Walls of a poor habitation where cloathed with a course habit they have led a life wholly Angelical and made themselves a daily Sacrifice unto God beautifyed with a religious simplicity which surpasses all the wisdom of the World and so fulfilled the prophecy of our happy Penitent Then that is in the Church to be established and founded by the Messias they will lay Calves on thy Altar The Application Our Holy Penitent here entertains himself with the grateful returns which Christians were to make in consideration of Christ's eternal Sacrifice and certainly there is no state speaks so much a generous love to God as that of a contemplative life where we behold Men devested of all self love to become perfect slaves to the divine will freed from all adhesion to created things that in charity they might be united to God avoiding the World's conversation the better to enjoy God's presence that since they cannot live without him at least they might live with him as much as the condition of this mortal life will bear To contemplate so many thousand Families where Creatures anticipate their felicity by praising God incessantly and who seem not to subsist but by the dew of a Holy Love like the Seraphims in Heaven Ah let us then conclude with our Holy Penitent and bless the divine Providence who hath in the revolution of so many ages received the perfume of prayers and thanksgivings from an infinity of pure innocent Souls consecrated in a peculiar manner to his glory and service Amen FINIS A TABLE Of the principal matter of this BOOK A. Affliction WHy God conducts Souls by way of affliction Pag. 8 Adversity foundation to eternal happiness p. 143 Why God lengthens out our afflictions p. 380 381 Affliction of David p. 282 Anger Means hovv to avert God's anger p. 178 Adultery All Lavves violated by adultery p. 56 57 Punished by death and great torments by all Nations p. 58 It subverts the rules set dovvn for our education p. 303 It is a vvrong not to be repaired Ib. A passage of St. Paul terrible concerning adultery p. 304 The civil lavv permits parties interessed to be Judges Ibid. It is a kind of Sacriledge p. 305 306 B. Body It is fit the Body should share in the punishment of sin p. 36 Saints Bodies alvvayes had in veneration both in the old and nevv Lavv. p. 170 Divers examples of this subject ib. Why God favours Saints Bodies with the working of miracles p. 168 What David means by humbled bones p. 167 Beatitude To anticipate our Beatitude is here to think alwayes of it p. 248 249 Why we cannot be happy here p. 249 How sweet the thoughts of Beatitude p. 290 Good works the means to Beatitude ibid. C. Carnal Sins Carnal sins destroy both Body and Soul p. 52 53 Punishments of Heaven for carnal sins p. 53 54 Why carnal sins are most dangerous and most abominated by God ibid. Church A pillar of truth c. p. 127 Upon what terms God founded his Church p. 138 seq God punishes such as violate Temples or Churches p. 409 410 The sublime institution of the Church p. 422 seq Christ Christs presence how amiable p. 234 Christ loves to be with men p. 235 Christ dyed for all p. 280 seq Christ's Revelation to St. Bridget p. 283 Christ the source of all merit p. 316 Christ supream pastour of Souls p. 415 Christ Sovereign Bishop of the Church p. 416 Christ a true Holocaust p. 433 434 Christ a true oblation of Justice p. 431 Charity Order of charity p. 403 404 Conversion Of an Indian in Japonia p. 328 Sometimes wrought by outward preaching ibid. Sometimes by the inward operation of his spirit p. 329 D. Mystick Divinity It s definition and several operations from p. 259. unto 263 David Why David begged to be freed from temporal punishment p. 48 49 David the most accomplished Prophet p. 131 The world's creation revealed to David p. 131 132 The Incarnation Nativity and Passion revealed to David p. 133 134 135 The state of his conscience in order to God was revealed to him p. 135 David desired to be a Martyr p. 150 What means he by the joy of his Salvation p. 251 He was very meek and humble p. 3â—7 Death Death concludes all our merit p. 38 39 40 Desire Why our desires are never satiated in this life p. 43 44 Despair Why we should never despair p. 293 E. Men of all conditions are bound to give good example 86 87 seq F. Fear Difference of fear in the good and bad p. 43 Friend Loss of a friend not to be lamented p. 143 144 Faith Springs from God p. 126 and 216 Moral vertues c the way to faith p. 127 Faith teaches what we owe to God and our Neighbour p. 205 Faith of all things ought to be the most unquestionable ibid. God proceeds like a Soveraign in matter of faith ibid. This his proceeding a stroke of his goodness ibid. Christ our Master in matters of faith p. 207 208 The mysteries of faith our greatest comfort p. 208 209 What habitual faith is and its effects p. 210 211 G. God If God deprives us of one good it is but to give us a better p. 49 50 God never rejects a truly repenting heart p. 90 91 seq God will be justifyed in his proceedings with man p. 97 God a primary and essential truth p. 128 God is not the efficient cause of obdurateness p. 218 219 What sign of God's leaving us p. 226 Two derelictions of God p. 227 How God is lost by sin p. 232 God still gives more than we ask p. 231 235 How to escape God's anger p. 236 237 How comfortable the belief of God p. 288 Grace Definition of grace and