A SERMON Preach'd before the King and Queen IN Their MAJESTIES Chappel at Windsor on Trinity-Sunday May 30. 1686. By the Reverend Father JOHN PERSALL Of the Society of JESUS Professor of Divinity Published by His Majesties Command LONDON Printed by Henry Hills Printer to the King 's most Excellent Majesty for his Houshold and Chappel 1686. A SERMON Preach'd before THEIR MAJESTIES On Trinity-Sunday May 30. 1686. In Nomine Patris Filii Spiritûs Sancti Matth. c. 28. v. 19. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Matth. c. 28. v. 19. THE Inscrutable Mystery of the most Blessed Trinity propos'd to our Veneration in this Days Solemnity is so sublime that no Created Intellect can reach it the most high-flying Wits fall infinitely short of it so profound and deep that the most penetrating Judgments cannot fathom it so infinite in all its Excellencies and Perfections that neither Humane nor Angelical Capacity can comprehend it The great St. Augustin thought it once worth his labour to employ his noble Thoughts in discovery of these admirable Secrets that are couch'd in this Sacred Mystery he walks by the Sea-shore contemplating the Divine Processions and Relations a true Trinity of Persons in a perfect Unity of Substance the Father Son and Holy Ghost three really distinct Persons yet so that the Father is in the Son the Son is in the Father the Holy Ghost in the Father and the Son all three in each by a strict Identity of one Substance The Father is not the Son the Son is not the Holy Ghost the Holy Ghost is neither Father nor Son and yet the Father Son and Holy Ghost are one and the same thing Lat. 4. c. 2. Idem omnino In the middle of these Thoughts St. Augustin's Eyes chanced to glance upon a Child just by the Sea-side very busie in lading out the Sea into a little Pit he had made there and asking him what he meant to do the Child answer'd To empty the Sea into this Pit But dost thou not see says the Saint that thy Pit is too little to hold all those Waters I can more easily do this replies the Child than you compass what you are about Thus Almighty God did teach this great Servant of his how little proportion all Humane Industry has 〈◊〉 order to the understanding this ineffable and incomprehensible Mystery far less than the Child's little Pit in order to contain an Ocean of Waters Yet for all this St. Augustin ceased not from contemplating this great Mystery of which he wrote Fifteen Learned Books besides divers Sermons but he changed his way of Speculating he studies no more to understand it and therefore to How can this be he ever answers Nescio I know not I am a Christian I believe it I adore I reverence respect and love it but to understand it comprehend it express it as it is I am not able He contemplated it as the prime Object of his Faith Adoration and Affection in like manner we in imitation of this great Doctor neither searching too curiously into that which Faith teaches to be inscrutable nor yet passing over in silence what the Church on this Day proposes to our Thoughts as a Mystery which is to be the Subject of our Eternal Happiness will consider it First as the Object of our Faith Secondly as the Object of our Love Thirdly as the Object of our Imitation In the First Point we 'll see what we are to believe and from the hardness of it learn a Principle which will ground us in true Faith and Religion In my Second we 'll learn where to settle our Affections In my Third how to make our Souls what they were created perfect Images of the Trinity by squaring our Actions according to this Divine Pattern Three Parts of one and the same Discourse so that the Second proceeds from the First Love from Faith the Third from the First and Second Imitation from Faith and Love Now that all may succeed to the greater Glory of this Great Trinity let us have recourse to the Intercession of the Immaculate Virgin-Mother Daughter to the Eternal Father Mother to the Eternal Son Spouse to the Holy Spirit perfect Temple of the whole Trinity saluting her with the Archangel Ave Maria. I Know not by what better means we may arrive to frame a true right and profitable Idea of this Mystery than by contemplating its Image the Soul of Man where you will find that as often as any thing excellent and amiable is objected to her she presently speaks it saying This is fine this is admirable this deserves to be belov'd indeed from whence connaturally proceeds a certain breathing an affection or desire of enjoying that so amiable Object In like manner Almighty God with an Infinite Clarity comprehending his own infinitely amiable Essence and in it all created truths that are possible speaks what he knows expressing himself as he is Infinite in all perfections then he breaths forth a certain Divine Love proceeding from his speaking and the word spoken this speaking or producing the Word constitutes the First Person God the Father the Word spoken is the Second Person God the Son the Third Person is the Love which both the First and Second jointly breath forth God the Holy Ghost or Spirit The second is the Son because as it is the property of a Father to propagate his Nature and give it a second Being in his Son so the Eternal Father speaking propagates his own Divine Nature giving it as it were a second Being in that Consubstantial Image whereas the Holy-Ghost being Love gives not any Being to its Object but only embraces what it finds Now because nothing can be in God or affect God but what is God each Person must needs be God Again because the very Notion of God excludes a Multiplicity as including all perfection imaginable and consequently leaving none to be possessed by an other only by participation the property of a Creature it follows that all three Persons are but one and the same God now how this can be three Persons one only God is above our reach here it is we are to obey the Apostle making Reason stoop to Faith But what says the Atheist or Heathen must I then become Irrational before I can be a Christian Must I renounce that very faculty which distinguishes me from a Bruit Must I admit things that evidently contradict the first Principles of Reason and thwart the very light of Nature Three Persons one God the Father and the Son the self same thing and yet two Persons really distinct Nay then adieu all Discourse adieu all Knowledge if we renounce the very grounds of Knowledge and Discourse This Objection lies under the very same inconveniences it objects against the Mysteries of our Faith 't is irrational it contradicts the first Principles of Reason and thwarts the very light of Nature whereas our Faith tho' supernatural tho' above
much for the Adversity of another and rejoyce for his Prosperity as if it were our own we must redress the Necessity of another as much as if it were our own we must as earnestly concur to one anothers Preferment as to our own and rejoyce as much for it then Almighty God will look upon us as making one with his Servants and what our tepidity do's not deserve he 'll bountifully confer upon us for their sakes with whom Charity has united us But tho' you are endow'd with never so great Gifts and Vertues si charitatem non habuero if Charity be wanting if you make not One with all the Faithful Believers all is nothing Away then with all Piques all Misunderstandings all envious Practices let us all become one Soul by a perfect Love Our Great God Incarnate has so united himself to us that he takes as done to himself whatsoever is done to another and when he comes to judge will reward charitable Actions done to our Neighbour as done to himself and revenge all Injuries as offer'd to himself He will invite the Elect to an eternal Happiness not as having done charitable Actions to their Neighbours but to himself and condemn to eternal Torments the Reprobate as injurious to himself He will not say Come you Blessed because you gave an Alms to such a poor Man but because you gave it to me nor Go you Cursed because you refus'd to redress the Necessity of such a poor Body but of me If then Christ makes himself One with his Servants he who permits himself to be separated by Envy and Malice from his Fellow-servants doth in effect separate himself from Christ In the second place we must imitate each Person in their Proprieties The Father speaketh according to his Knowledge conforming his Speech to his Thoughts and expresses all in one only Word This must teach us Sincerity to speak what we think and no more than we know The Eternal Father is the Father of Truth the Devil his deadly Enemy the Father of Lies Chuse what Pattern you 'll follow Besides we must learn to avoid multiplicity and idleness of Speech The Eternal Father expresses all in one Word and that necessary let us use our selves to speak little for happy is he who exceeds not in Speech and many Words always involve an Offence of God From the Son let us learn to express things as they are in reality not as our inordinate Passions would have them The Eternal Word proceeds per Intellectum by the Understanding not per Voluntatem by the Will but our Words often proceed not from our Understanding from a certain knowledge of the thing but from our Will so if any Absurdity be done we presently lay it at their Doors we have a Pique against So in the Primitive Church the Heathens ascrib'd all Mischiefs and Mischances to the Christians as we read in Tertullian and others Those damn'd what you please did it From whence comes this Word from a knowledge of the Fact No but from the malice of our Will This is preposterous our Words must proceed as the Eternal Word do's from the Understanding from a perfect Knowledge of what we speak From the Holy Ghost we must learn what and how to Love The prime and final Object of our Love must be Almighty God other things we are to love only in relation to him he is the fountain of all good and therefore we must remember when we meet with any thing amiable that it is but a Rivulet flowing from that great Fountain and to be found in greater perfection there The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father speaking and the word expressing the Divine Being infinitely amiable Let all our Love proceed so not from a false delusion of our Senses making us fix on Creatures tho' very meanly amiable and that with an amability meerly participated and deriv'd from the Fountain of Amability As often as we feel our Hearts mov'd to a tenderness and kindness let us consider from what it proceeds is it from a word speaking the Creature amiable without meutioning the Creator O then it comes from a false from a lying Word 't is Illegitimate it must not inherit your Heart you must cast it out 't is a base servile affection ejice ancilam but the true Legitimate Possessor of your Heart must be a Divine Love proceeding from a word expressing the Divine Fountain of all Perfection But I must draw towards an end not to abuse your Patience we have then learnt in my First Part to believe what we cannot understand seeing that God would not be God could he not reveal of himself more than we can comprehend My Second Part has led us to the Fountain of all Amability and pointed unto us the true Center of our Hearts In my Third Part we have learn'd to imitate all three Persons in tending to a perfect Unity by Charity and each Person in their Proprieties the Father in being Sincere speaking what we know and in as few words as we can the Son in seeing that our Words proceed from Knowledge not from Affection from Reason not from Passion The Holy Ghost in loving God only as our End and all things else meerly in relation to him There only now remains that with the Tears of Penance Acts of perfect Contrition we wash away whatever deformed the Sacred Image of the Trinity in our Souls and beg Strength Light and Grace to keep it entire for the future O Omnipotent Father whose Power is without Limits give us strength to believe what we cannot understand to love what our Senses cannot reach to keep thy Image in our Souls entire against the World Flesh and Devil who endeavours to dis-figure it O Eternal Word Increated Wisdom Illuminate our Souls with thy Divine Rays that our Interiour and Exteriour Words may speak according to Faith and Reason prefere Eternity before Time Heaven before Earth the Creator before the Creature O Holy Spirit diffuse thy Grace and Charity in our Souls that we may all in a perfect Vnity be One as the Father Son and Holy Ghost are One that appearing in the last dreadful Day of Doom we may appear not separated but united with the Elect and be received into Eternal Happiness as carrying clearly Imprinted in our Souls the Characteristical note of a Christian grateful to Heaven terrible to Hell beneficial to Earth the Sign of the Holy Cross In the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Amen FINIS A Catalogue of Books Printed for Henry Hills Printer to the King 's most Excellent Majesty for his Houshold and Chappel 1686. And are to be Sold next door to his House in Black-fryers at Richard Cheese's REflections upon the Answer to the Papist Mis-represented c. Directed to the Answerer Quarto Kalendarium Catholicum for the Year 1686. Octavo Papists Protesting against Protestant-Popery In Answer to a Discourse Entituled A Papist not Mis-represented by Protestants Being a Vindication of the
even in this Night of Mortality some Souls by the help of Divine Grace and Light of Faith arrive to so high a pitch of Divine Love that nothing here below neither Pleasure nor Torment can move them So S. Vincent in a Bed of Roses contemns the Allurements of Pleasures and S. Lawrence in a Bed of Flames upon a Gridiron the Cruelty of Tyranny How many have fled to the remotest Desarts How many have shut themselves up in Monasteries betwixt four Walls of a little Cell not to be diverted from the delicious Contemplation of their Great God Now all this Amability is common to all Three Persons with this difference that in the Father it is originally as in a Fountain receiv'd from no other Person in the Son it is receiv'd by communication from the Father in the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son Which very Communication is infinitely amiable had we Eyes to behold it The chief Property of the Father is to speak which he does not to the Ear but to the Heart and Eye of the Soul delivering his Great Word with so Divine a Grace that the most delicious Voice that ever was heard the most agreeable Garbo that ever a pure Creature spoke with is but a meer Stuttering and Stammering if compar'd to it But the chief Perfection of Speaking is taken from the Word spoken if that be clear expressive sincere and eloquent both it and he who speaks it become in a high degree amiable The Eternal Word represents its Object to your view infinitely clearer than that could represent it self tho' never so intimately present so expressive it is that being but One only Word it expresses all Truths all Creatures whether actual or but barely possible All the delicious Objects of our Senses whatever can be seen or heard all the Truths our Understanding is able to conceive all the Delights our Will can desire 't is most sincere and true expressing all just as 't is represented in the Divine Knowledge and as it is in it self 't is eloquent above expression exhibiting to our view all the Tropes and Figures all the Art and Skill of Speaking that is possible Now from the Eternal Father thus speaking and from the Eternal Word thus expressing must needs proceed an Infinitely Amiable Love What can be more amiable than Love it self Love I say a Divine and infinitely perfect Love of an infinitely beautiful God Quam bonus suavis est Domine Spiritus tuus How good how sweet is thy Divine Spirit How good diffusing it self by Grace and Charity in Pious Souls How sweet giving them even in this life anticipately a taste of those joys which will beatifie them for all Eternity in the next The perfection of Love is taken from the Lover the Beloved and the natural intenseness of the Love the nobler the Lover is also the more deserving the Beloved is the perfecter is the Love The Lover here are the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity the Beloved are the same three Persons meeting and embracing each other in the perfect Unity of one God The Father loves the Son the Son loves the Father the Father and the Son love the Holy Ghost the Holy Ghost reciprocally loves the Father and the Son and moreover is the very Love whereby they Love each other all Infinite in all Perfections Dearly beloved Christians no Tongue or Pen can ever express the amability of the three Divine Persons it may perhaps by a Pious Soul in Prayer be felt and as it were tasted expressed in words it cannot be Do you desire to experience even in this life a feeling and taste of it Remember what the great Moses was bid to do when he approach'd the burning Bush Gen. c. 3. v. 3. Draw not nigh hither put off thy Shoes we must not approach to contemplate this great Mystery till we have cast off all the Dirt and Dust of terrene desires our Conversation must be no more on Earth but in Heaven Almighty God never regales sensual Souls with Spiritual Delights but such as neither find nor so much as seek after the vain Pastimes of this World This makes your Great Saints proclaim War against Flesh and Blood always annoying vexing and mortifying their Bodies because they experience that the more they withdraw themselves from Earth the more Almighty God permits them to tast of Heaven 't is a real truth though few will believe it that none lead a pleasanter life in this World than those who give themselves wholly to Almighty God for his Divine Majesty will never be overcome in Love The three Persons of the Blessed Trinity will love such a Soul come to it and regale it according to our Saviours Promise St. John c. 14. v. 23. If any Man love me he will keep my Words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him The Eternal Father will perfect that Image he created to his likeness the Son will illuminate it with the Rays of new Supernatural Lights the Holy Ghost will sweetly inflame it with Divine Love But remember the Condition we must keep his Commandments and in order to this let us look upon the Sacred Trinity as a Pattern to square our Actions by which is my third Point You will perhaps wonder how so profound and incomprehensible a Mystery can ever serve us as a Pattern for our poor and weak Actions Is it possible for a miserable Creature to imitate these ineffable Operations of the Divine Persons But remember that our Soul tho' now by Original Sin plung'd in Flesh and Blood is created to the perfect Image of her God God made Man to his own Image Gen. 1. v. 27. What wonder then if we endeavour to reform the Picture by comparing it with the Prototypon Besides do's not our Saviour himself assign the Perfection of his Eternal Father for a Pattern to frame ours by Be you perfect says he as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect Matth. c. 5. v. 48. Come then let us once more cast an eye towards this great Mystery and see whether we cannot find something for our Imitation We learn'd to Believe in the First Part to Love in the Second let us learn to rectifie our exteriour Actions in the Third The first thing which occurs for our Imitation is the Unity of all Three Persons in One Substance We cannot Identifie our Natures really distinct but we may unite them by Charity and Love Hence Christ just before his Passion prays to his Eternal Father in S. John c. 17. v. 20 21. not only for his Apostles but for all that were to believe by their Word That they might be One as His Father in him and he in his Father are One We must remember we are all Members of the same Body under the same Head Christ and consequently each one is to be in one another so as to make his Interest our own we ought to condole as