also for venial for little lies detractions and derisions of their neighbor in things of smal importance for words or unprofitable actions good God! who would believe our judg would be so rigorous as to exact an account of his creatures for an unprofitable worde If Preachers should affirm it without the Word of God clear for it would not men cry-out against them as Impostors 9. They know they shal be damned not only for their own sins but again for those of others to which they contributed And they see now clearly that they contributed to an infinity of sins in others either before they were committed to witt by ill councel or bad example or when they were committed being the cause of them by putting the objects or the subjects or by giving assistance to commit them And after they were committed approving or not exteriourly disapproving them or not avoiding the hante of those that committed them for to give them a horrour of them 10. They know they shal not only be comdemn'd for sins of Commission but mpreover for sins of Omission they will expect to hear Go yee accursed into eternal fire for I was hungrie I was thirsty and you have not given me to eate and drink I was naked and you have not clothed me And if they are to be condemn'd for not giving corporal nourishment how much more for not giving spiritual the life of the soul being of more importance a thousand times then that of the Body if those that refuse material bread to poor strangers shal be so grieuously punished what will becom of them who give not the spiritual bread of instruction corection and good counsel to their children domesticks and strayed neigbours 11. In fine they know they shal not only be condemn'd for sins of omission and commission but shal moreover be answerable for good works which they have don with any imperfection which shal be found mixt with any impurity of intention with selflove secret vanity or any other vicious circumstance Cum accepero tempus Ego justitias judicabo when I shal hold my Psal 74 2. sopho 1. 12. great day I will judg also just works and by his Prophet Sophonias He says Scrutabor Hierusalem in lucernis I will search narrowly the devout soul and that no secret crany may escape me I will light a candle How then will He sound a reprobate soul signifyd by Babylon if He examin so rigorously a devout soul signifyd by Hierusalem 12. Sinfull souls I say know all this and much more they know also that their Iudg is not now a Lamb but is becom a Lion that the time of mercy is now past and the time of justice and reveng is com I leave now you to think in what horrible desolation they must be expecting nothing but as the Prophet Hieremy says the whirlewind of the Lords indignation Hierem. 23. 19. Matt. 25. 41. to com upon them And what whirlewind what tempest what thunderclap what Lyons roaring shal be this voice Go ye accursed into eternal fire prepar'd for the Devill and his Angells As many words so many thunderbolts and Anathemas 13. Depart hence reproved soul I banish thee for ever from my Paradise and from my Grace Get thee gon strayed sheep I will be no more thy Pastor be gon rebellious servant I will no more be thy good Master be gon unnatural child I will be no more thy Father be gon adulterous spouse I will be no more thy espouse get thee gon ungratfull creature thou shalt never have any part in my kingdom nor in my delights nor in my amity nor in my company nor in any thing that pertains to me Get thee gon thou accursed I excommunicate and anathematize thee for ever I strike thee with the sentence of eternal malediction thou shalt be accursed in thy understanding which shal never have a good thought cursed in thy will which shal always rage with spite and desperation accursed in thy eyes which shal never see any light in thy eares which shal never hear the harmonious musick of the Angells cursed in thy mouth which shal never have one only drop of water in thy feet and hands which shal be always bound in the chamber where thou shalt dwell which shal be but a furness in the company which You shal have which shal be but Devills cursed in every thing that can happen to thee Go accursed into fire where thou shalt not have for lodging but a prison for bed but coales for cloathes but flames for meat but serpents for drink but gall for musick but blasphemies and for rest but torments Get thee gon into fire which shal endure ever which shal inflame thee and not light thee burn thee and not consume thee as long as I shal be I will be thy enemy as long as this fire shal be fire it shal torture thee as long as eternity shal endure thou shalt remain in this pain Depart go into the fire prepared for the Devill and his Angells I prepared it not for thee t is against my inclination that I send thee thither But thou hast transgrest my Commandements neglected and profaned my Sacraments abused my graces and hast been ungratefull for an infinity of favours go ungratefull go accursed go unfortunate depart from my presence I will never have pity on thee My Dear Brothers and sisters behold a shadow but a very slender and imperfect one of the sentence which shal be pronounced against the Reprobate Thinke on it if you be wise think upon it in the presence of God to whom be honour praise glory benediction for ever and ever Amn. DISCOURS XI OF THE EIGHTH ARTICLE I believe in the holy Ghost IT is reported in the Acts of the Apostles that S. Paul Acts. 10. entring into the Town of Ephesus and finding there some Faithfull demanded of them if they had receiv'd the holy Ghost and they answered we know not so much as that there is a holy Ghost If we should put now the same Question to many Christians they might make the same answer or at least they might say we know not what is the holy Ghost To exclude and banish farr from Christians an ignorance so pernicious the Apostles employ this Article to instruct us concerning his adorable and amiable Person 2. They teach us that He is a Person distinct from the Father and the Son since they made us to say before I believe in God the Father I believe in Iesus Christ his Son and now I believe in the holy Ghost They teach us also that this Person is God with the Father and the Son since they make us say I belive in the holy Ghost They do not only make us to profess that there is a holy Spirit But to believe in Him to reverence Him as God and to love him as our sovereign Good 3. They call him holy Ghost or Spirit which is common to the Father and the Son For the Father is a
most holy Spirit and the Son likewise is a most holy Spirit But they appropriate this name to him because his Emanation or Procession is so farr above our thoughts and our expressions that there is no language in the world that can express his Person for want of a proper name And becaus we are accustomed to call those things spirits of whose origin and manner of production we are ignorant So we call the wind spectres Angells and our souls spirits and we are likewise very ignorant in the production and procession of the holy Ghost 4. Secondly the Apostles appropriate this name to him because He proceeds from the Father and the Son as from one only Source and not as made or created nor as begotten but produced by the Will by an ineffable way which Divines term Spiration a breathing and impulse of the Will towards the thing beloved 5. Thirdly this name is appropriated to him becaus He is the Spirit of our spirit the Soul of our soul the Life of our life For He is given to the Souls of the just to animate and govern them He is not given so to a Bishop or a Priest in his ordination if he be in the state of sin He is not in him to sanctify him but to operate and act by him Hence it is that a Bishop or a Priest that is in sin and hath not grace gives nevertheless the grace of God by the Sacraments becaus he is the instrument of the holy Ghost as a penne gives to paper characters which it hath not becaus it is the instrument of rhe Writer 6. The Church moreover appropriated to this glorious and holy Spirit the name of Love and Charity becaus He is produced by the Will the authour of Love or by the mutual love and dilection of the eternal Father and the Son 7. From this second name which the Church attributes to the holy Ghost proceeds the third which is that of Gift Donum Dei Altissimi the Gift of the most high For that which is dō by pure love is dō freely and liberally and donation is a free and liberal action The two first names appropriated to the holy Ghost referr him to the Father and the Son but this of Gift relates him to Creatures that are capable to receive him and to enioy him as are men and Angells only and this Gift is the first the most necessary and the most excellent of all gifts that God ever gave or can give to us 8. He is the first and cause of all the rest for there is a great difference 'twixt the love of God and the love of men When we love any one 't is becaus we find in him some goodness some beauty or other Perfection Gods love supposes not its object in any creature but He puts it in them God begins not to love us with a love of Benevolence becaus we are good but we are good becaus He loves us so when the eternal Father gives us his only Son in the Incarnation He gave us first his Love and He gave not to us his Son but by his holy Spirit and by his Love He was conceived of the holy Ghost So God loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son 9. This Gift is so necessary that without it all the other Benefits profit very little the work of creation is appropriated to the Father the Incarnation to the Son the Sanctification to the holy Ghost the two first Benefits are unprofitable to us without the third In the creation God gave us Being He made and design'd for our service all the creatures of this world But our Saviour says to us What profit hath a man if He should gaine the whole world and lose himself and he will lose himself infallibly Luke 9. 25. if the holy Ghost sanctifys him not The Incarnation and the Death of the Son of God would not much availe us without the comming of this holy Spirit the torments of JESUS would have made him die and not have made us live He might have satisfyd without restoring us to grace a king offended by his Vassal may receive from him satisfaction and not receive him into favour nor restore him to his former state and to the priviledges which he had lost When I see the Saviour in the Crib or on the Cross I know not whether it be to satisfy only or moreover to restore us to the rights we lost by sin when He rises up again from death I know not whether it be for recompence of his death or to give us life When He ascends to Heaven I know not whether it be to give a convenient place ro his Body or to prepare also a place for us But when He sends the holy Ghost to sanctify us He ascertains us that we reenter into grace and that He applys to us his merits He hath sealed us and given the pledg of the Spirit in our 2. Cor. 1. 22. 1. Ep. 4. 13. hearts says S. Paul And the beloved Disciple In this we know that we abide in him and He in us becaus He of his Spirit hath given to us 10 What admirable favour and what incomparable grace that God vouchsafs to give us his Spirit Love divine and admirable Heart If one should give to a Philosopher the spirit of Aristotle or of Plato to an Orator the spirit of Cicero or Demostenes to a Phisitian the spirit of Hypocrates or of Galen and to a Divine the spirit of S. Thomas or of S. Augustin would not this be a singular favour God gives you not the spirit of Aristotle Cicero Hypocrates but his own Spirit the Spirit of Verity Wisdom and Sanctity When one hath the heart of a person one hath all If you be in the state of grace you have the heart of God for properly speaking the holy Ghost is the heart of God ô Father of mercies and Father of the miserable how deigne you to give them your heart T is that chosen souls are your treasure and you put your heart upon your treasure Quid retribuam Domino 11. What acknowledgment what satisfaction and what return can we make Love is not pay'd but by love nothing corresponds to a heart but another heart and what heart can correspond to the heart of God What love can answer his Would you not desire to be all heart Would you not wish to have as many millions of hearts as there are drops of water and grains of sand in the sea would you not referr apply and consecrate them to the love of God And what would this be compared to the heart of God which He hath given us It would be less than a grain of dust compared to all in Heaven and in Earth But He desires not so much He demands but only one but He will have it all He commands you to give it him Thou shalt love thy God with all thy heart and if you refuse it him He will damn you
THE CHRISTIAN DUTY COMPOSED BY B. BERNARD FRANCIS STUDENT IN DIVINITY ISA. 30. 21. THIS IS THE WAY WALK IN IT 1. COR. 14. 38. If any man know not he shal not be known IHS PRINTED AT AIRE BY CLAUDE FRANÇOIS TULLIET M.DC.LXXXIV with Licence of Superiors TO THE READER GOd desires so cordially and seeks so earnestly our salvation that He calls it his worke and his affaire by excellence His Son Io 4. 34. sayd to his Disciples I have meat you know not T is to do the will of my Father and to accomplish his worke And to his Mother in the Temple Knew you not that I must labour in the affaires of my Father And in the Vigil of his death Father I have accomplished the worke you have given me to do Becaus 't is the worke of workes the affaire of affaires and the ayme and end of other workes He employes in it not men only but also Angells All the Angelicall Spirits that are sent Heb. 1. 14. into this world are sent for the salvation of the Elect says S Paul What say I men and Angells He employes in it his divine Perfections For if He exerciseth his Power in working miracles Wisdom in inventions to convert us Patience in expecting us to penance Goodness to allure us Iustice to frighten us Mercy in pardoning us Providence in removing occasions of sin 't is for our salvation And to the end there be nothing in Him or of Him that is not employ'd in this great work He sends the adorable Persons that proceed from him He sends his beloved Son who applyes himself to it with so great tenderness and affection that from thence He takes his name with so much fervour and Zeal that he spends in it his sweat and blood He sends the holy Ghost who shews likewise His Zeal when our salvation is in danger we being in the state of sin what does He not to draw us out of it and to convert us He excites us wakens us threatens us importunes us knocks almost incessantly at the doores of our hearts and if we open them to Him He Enters into our soules dwells in them animates them governs and conducts them workes by them our good workes in our prayers He prayes cryes groanes in us and by us in temptations He aydes us in perplexities Enlightens us in afflictions comforts us May not the Eternal Father say Quid debui facere vineae meae non feci What should I have don for the salvation of men that I have left undon He hath desired it most earnestly He hath design'd to it his creatures Employ'd in it his Servants Favourits infinite Perfections and the divine Persons of his Son and of his holy Spirit How coms it to pass then that so few are saved even amongst Christians One reason is that very many are yet ignorant of the ways ordinain'd by God to go to heaven Another is that the greater part also of the Faithfull are negligent and careless in the use of the means prescribed to be saved they will not labour and strive to enter by the narrow gate and therefore our Saviour sayes they shal not Wherefore desiring the salvation of every one with all my heart I shew the First and put before their eyes the plain and open wayes to Heaven and to correct the negligence of the other I add the most pressing and urgent motives to walke and run in those wayes Peruse this worke good Reader with the same intention and desire that I present it to you Consider not who made it nor how 't is made but what is therein sayd to you If you shal becom more knowing in the Faith and Law of Christ and in ptactise more Dutifull to Him it will abundantly recompence the labour of YOUR WELL WISHING FRIEND AND SERVANT IN CHRIST F. B. APPROBATIONS JNfrascripti testamur nos librum perlegisse tui Titulus The Christian Duty Idiomate Anglicano a V. Adm. P. Bernardo a Sancto Francisco Ordinis FF Minorum Recoll Provinciae Angliae compositum in quo nil Fidei Orthodoxae vel bonis moribus contrarium deprehendimus verum è contra salutari plenum devotione solidaque refertum doctrina Quem idcirco Communi Bono vtiâ—issimum praeloque dignum Iudicavimus Hac 29 Octobris An. Domini 1683 In Conventu nostro FF Min Recoll Anglorum Duaci F Pacificus a Sto. Albino F. Bonaventura a Sta. Anna S. Theologiae Lector S. Theologiae Lector The Licence of the Superior Ego F. Gervasius a Sto. Francisco Provinciae Angliae FF Min. Recoll Minister Provincialis facultatem concedo ut hoc opus cui Titulus The Christian Duty a V. Adm. Patre Bernardo a Sto. Francisco compositum et eiusdem Provinciae Theologorum judicio approbatum typis mandetur Datum Ariae 9. Septembris An 1683. F. Gervasius â Sto. Francisco qui Supra Imprimatur liber cui Titulus The Christian Duty a Reverendo Patre Bernardo à Sancto Francisco conscriptus Actum in Vicariatu Audomarensi die decima septima Septembris Anno 1684. De Mandato B. DE LARRE Secret DISCOURS I. OF THE FIRST ARTICLE I believe in God AMongst the noble actions which the holy Penitent David practised to appease God and satisfy his justice This is one of the most notable Docebo iniquos vias tuas impij ad te convertentur I will teach sinners thy wayes my God and the impious shal be converted to Thee These words shew me how to do well this worthy fruit of Penance I must not flatter I must not tickle eares but I must teach Docebo And whom must I teach The poor as well as the rich the little and ignorant as well as the great and learned my self also as well as others for we are all sinners and I must teach sinners iniquos And what is it that I must teach Not the conceits of Plato not the discourses of Aristotle but thy wayes ô my God! Vias tuas the ways by which we must go to Thee And why must I teach not to receive popular praise Not to be esteemed learned but that sinners be converted to thee ô my God! impij ad te convertentur The wayes by which we go to God are Faith and the Mysteries which it teaches Hope Charity Grace good Works the Commandements and the Sacraments These wayes God aiding I will open plainly teach practically and urge earnestly that sinners may be converted into them and unto God And first I will consider the material object or the Mysteries of Faith which the Apostles propose in their Creed to us and begin with these words I believe in God 2. That there is a God nature teaches us the Pagans them selves confessed it and it is a thing so manifest that the scripture tells us that none but fools deny it 3. This word God in the singular number teaches us that there is but one And if he were not the only one he would not be God He would not be
of spirit and affection of heart But we are composed of body and soul we receiv'd both from him and we ought to employ both in his service When we kneel reverently bow or prostrate humbly before God we testify his greatness and excellence our lowness indignity and vility that the burden of our sins oppress us and that we com to God to be eased and these humble postures excite our interior humility and devotion they dispose us to receive the dew of heaven more abundantly and the grant of our requests one reason why the man-God was heard of his Father was that He prayed with great humility of spirit with a profound reverence and prostration of body He was heard for his reverence says S. Paul 5. He pray'd in the second place with teares and a strong cry to shew the fervour of his spirit and to testify the aspirations of his heart we may note that very frequently if not as often as 't is sayd any one hath cryed-out in prayer to God the sacred text does add that he was hear'd and God promises it expressly He shal cry out to me and I will heare him What is it to cryout to God in prayer Is it to raise the Psal 90. Voice No for Moses moved not his lipps and God sayd to him you cry-out to me When you pray an ardent desire is a great cry in the eares of God sayd S. Bérnard 6. Why thinke you God deferrs a long time the grant of our requests also when we aske vertues and spiritual favours It is says S. Austin to increase and inflame our desire that we may learn to esteem much and to have a great desire of great S. Ang. tr 1. in Io and ser 5. de Verbis Domini things We are accustomed to say that a thing is little worth that is not worth the asking It is then worth the asking so much the more fervently how much it is more noble and more precious and what is more pretious then the love of God his grace and the Salvation of our soules when we pray coldly or tepidly we make no great account of the graces that we aske if we make no great account of them we render our selves unworthy of them 7. The reason why we pray negligently and that we have not a great desire to be heard is that we ponder not the extream need we have of Gods mercy we consider this affair as a thing indifferent or of little consequence We ought to believe firmly that if God hath not pity on us we shal be most miserable and unhapy creatures we know not that God hath pardoned the sins of our youth that we have had a supernatural and legitimate repentance of them and if we should know this we know not what will becom of us for we are more fragil than glass more weak then reeds and more unconstant then the winds what will then becōm of us if God hath not pity on us 7. He that knows not how to pray let him go to sea and see how they pray in a great strom and in danger of death and let him pray so always and He will be saved infallibly We are in a greater danger of damnation then they are of death they are not so endanger'd but by two or three winds we are by more then six by pride avarice envy luxury and other passions betwixt them and death there is but a planke betwixt me and hell there is but my will which is more fragil than that planke if that planke were left alone it would last a longtime but if my will were left to it self but a little while it would fall into horrible precipices and lose it self we are more uncapable to govern our selves and obtain salvation without a particular grace of God than a man who hath never-been at sea is to govern a ship in a tempest in the midst of rocks and sands Now I make your selves judges if we ought not to pray with all the force of our hearts 8. But let us not go to sea let us stay on land there is no need to go so far to learn to pray I find here a great number of excellent Teachers but I am a bad scholler and learn not my lesson well these are the poor that ask alms they givê us not thinking of it fine instructions if we reflect upon them If they know where early in the morning is a great concours of people they rise not flowly but hasten to the place Rise you so early to have opportunity to pray half an houre or an houre the Spirit is then more fresh less incombred with affaires and more vigorous to pray They range about the streets and Churches where they know are rich and charitable persons make you recours to the friends of God to the Saints who are rich in merits and powerfull with the Son of God The Poor discover their wounds they shew their ulcers and half rotten members and if they have none they counterfeit some to move men to compassion we have no need to counterfeit we have but too many in our souls we must acknowledg them in the presence of God and expose them to the Compassionat aspects of his mercy and say my God! you see I am but darkness weakness poverty and misery I have nothing of my self but ignorance and sin Though many of these Poor are Idiots and ignorant yet they find words reasons and arguments to move us to compassion to perswade us to mercy and to draw from us an Alms Madame have pity on me bestow one penny upon me you will not be the poorer and I will pray for you I am a poor orphan a stranger and far from my friends and country where I was ruined by fire shew your charity to me I ask it for the love of God for the Passion of our Saviour why find they so many words to beg an alms and we find them not to pray God It is becaus they have a great desire to receive an alms from men and we desire but little to receive one that is more necessary from God T is necessary that the feeling of our wants do suggest to us words and one half houre of prayer made with such a feeling wil be better then three houres of prayer without it 9. Salomon made a prayer accompanied with the two first conditions he asked of God continence with humility and fervour he asked it humbly for he acknowledged that he could not have it of himself and that it pertain'd to God only to give it Wisdom 8. 21. to him he asked it fervently for with all the force of his heart and yet he was not heard he obtain'd not chastity whence was this It was becaus his prayer failed of the third condition which is perseverance he prayed once or twice and this was not enough he should have continued it It is the counsell which the true Salomon our Saviour gives us who having preached the
more secure to go by the way of Innocencie than by the way penance to everlasting life Amen DISCOURS XLII of the Oblgations we contract in Baptisme I Will poure out upon you clean water and you shal be cleansed from all your contaminations I will give you a new heart and a new spirit sayd God by Ezechiel Which words the holy Fathers and the Interpreters of Scripure understand unanimously of Baptismal water He had reason to make this promise with so great pomp and majestie of words for if we cosider attentively we shal see that after the Incarnation of the Son of God and the Redemption of manking He never more oblig'd humane nature than by the institution of the Sacrament of Baptism which purges us from all sin makes us adoptive children of God members of IESUS CHRIST coheires of Heaven and Temples of the holy Ghost What honor what dignity and what admirable prerogatives They that are members of IESUS CHRIST and the children of God ought they not to lead a life conformable to this dignity thy that receiv'd the Spirit of God in Baptisme should they not act and speak according to this divine Spirit T is is that to which all Christians are oblig'd by Baptism It obliges them to die a morall and vertuous death and to lead a new life conformable to rhe excellencie of this birth as shal be shewn in this Discours 1. Before I proceed to the proofs of these important Points I explicate my self By the sin of the first man and by our own crimes we deserve to die effectually the death of soul and body and to be bâ—ried in hell eternally But the Son of God out of his infinite mercy to the end we might live and merit the crowns of heaven changes by Baptisme that horrible and eternall death into a morall and vertuous one He will that we die to sin to the world and to our selves To sin that is to all sorts of vices To rhe world and its pomps that is you must not set your heart upon the pride riches and passtimes thereof you must reject superfluities and content your self with necessaries and not according to the rules of the world but according to christian frugalitie modestie and humilitie To our selves this is that we call dying to the old Adam that is you must die to ill humours irregular passions vicious inclinations to the love of your own selves which we contracted by our carnal birth and extraction from the first man for by his sin our nature hath been so corrupted that if we follow it we have no other object of our thoughts words actions and affections than our selves and our own interests To all the aforesayd things we are oblig'd to die and see here the proofs of it 2. For when S. Paul says in the 6th chapter of his Epistle to the Romans that we are dead and buried with IESVS CHRIST Rom. 6. by Baptisme It is to prove what he would perswade us in the whole Chapter that we are oblig'd to kill in our selves sin with all its appurtenances and for ever so he says since we are dead to sin how shal we live therein We know that by Baptisme our old Rom. 6 man hath been crucifyd with IESUS CHRIST that the body of sin and the mass of evill inclinations may be destroyed And to the Galatians they that pertain to Christ have crucified their flesh with its vices and Gal. 5. concupiscences Can we be good Christians and not appertain to IESUS Nevertheless the Apostle of JESUS says that we appertain not to him if we crucify not our flesh He says not they that appertain to him in the quality of Religious or Priests But all they that appertain to IESUS CHRIST Crucify their flesh And S. Chrisostome Baptisme is to us that which the Cross and Sepulcher was to IESUS 24. hom 10. in ep Rom. C. 6. it ought to have in us the same effects it ought to crucify us to make us die and to hide us from the world 3. It imports much to note what is the Grace of each Sacrament and what charg it puts upon us for each sacrament conferrs a special grace and to this grace some charg is annexed to which we oblige our selves T is a Talent given us with a strict obligation to employ it The grace of Confirmation is a spirit of Fortitude which obliges us to make profession of the Faith in Presence of Tyrants also with perill of our lives The grace of Confession is a spirit of Penance which obliges us to satisfactory workes to fasts alms prayers and other actions which S. Iohn Baptist terms Fruits worthy of penance the grace of Baptime is a spirit of the Cross and death which obliges us to die to sin to the world and to our selves if then we have any voluntary affection to the Pomps of the world to the delights of the flesh to the satisfaction of unruly passions if we are wedded to our own conduct to our proper judgment and not to that of our Superiours we are wanting to the grace of this Sacrament for we are baptized to be made Christians that is Disciples of Christ and He says to us expresly He that renounces Matth. 16. Luke 9. 23. not himself note himself his unbridled passions bad humours his own judgment and self love and carrys not his Cross daily cannot be my disciple 4. But this death is like to that of the Phenix which dies not but to acquire a new life 'T is as that of IESUS who was spoyled of a mortal and fading life to resume a glorious and immortal We die not to sin to the world and to our selves but to live to God and to his grace we are not crucifyd with IESUS CHRIST but to rise again to a new life we devest not our selves of the old man but to put on the new For we are buried by baptisme with IESUS to die to sin that as the Son of God is risen by the glory of his Father So also we may Rom. 6. Ephes. 4. 24. walk in newness of life says S. Paul to the Romans And to the Ephesians Put ye on the new man which according to God is created in justice and sanctity When the Apostle commends to us a new life he demands of us a great change and an admirable metamorphosis says S. Chrysostom Then he adds I have great S Chrysost hom 10. in ep ad Rom. 6. Gal. 5. 3. caus to groan and weep abundantly considering on the one side the great obligations we have contracted in Baptisme and seeing on the other our great negligence For as S. Paul in the Epistle to the Galatians says every man that circumcises himself engages himself to observe all the law of Moyses So whosoever receives Baptisme obliges himself to keep the law of Christ Now since Christian Religion is a profession of penance mortification sanctity and perfection these things are not indifferent to them that
eternally What horrible ingratitude is it to give ones heart to a Creature to a foolish passion to a shamefull pleasure and not to love God after a gift so precious to refuse him our poor little heart after He hath given us his What monstrous malice is it to offend the holy Ghost who is the end and the non plus ultra the Center and the consummation of all the liberalities and donations of God to us 12. His scripture teaches us that we offend Him in dlvers manners either resisting or in contristating or affronting him or by extinguishing him in our hearts S. Steven sayd to the Iews you resist always the holy Ghost When we feel an impuls to rise out of the state of sin and to convert our selves seriously Asts. 7 51. to God 't is the holy Ghost that knoâ—ks at the door of our hearts It seems that He makes it his imployment so assiduous He is to solicite us by his inspirations if we consent not to his summons we resist him When we have consented to him and He is entred into our hearts we contristate and afflict him if we commit voluntarily and deliberatly a venial sin All naughty speech let it not proceed out of your mouth and contristate not the holy Ghost sais the Apostle We affront him consenting to Eph. 4. mortal sin by which we chase him shamefully out of our hearts and admit into them the euill spirit his corrival and mortal ennemy Such an one hath don contumely to the Spirit of grace says Heb. 10. 29. the same Apostle We extinguish him in our hearts when we commit the sins which are directly and diametrically opposit to him as when we presume of the mercy of God and to have pardon of our sins without doing penance for them when we are sorry for the vertues of others which are the works of the holy Ghost or when we indeavour to destroy them mocking those that pray much that frequent the Sacraments that remaine long in the church or when we oppose the known truth or contradict it t is to extinguish in our selves the holy Spirit 't is to do contrary to this advertisement of S. Paul The Spirit extinguish not â— Thess 5. 19. 13. Since then the holy Spirit enters not into our hearts without our free consent nor without dispositions convenient for such a Guest since we are so obdurat rhat we refuse him entrance and that we have not only indisposition and indignity but opposition and contrariety to his grace and that when we have received him we are so weake and miserable that we often afflict him or affront him Let us pray him humbly and fervently to remove all these impediments to vanquish our rebellion to introduce into us by his mercy the necessary dispositions to open himself the door to enter victoriously into our souls to make them worthy sanctuaries where He may dwell in this world by his grace and in the other by his Glory Amen DISCOURS XII OF THE NINTH ARTICLE I belieue the holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints 1. THe Apostles by these Words make us to believe that CHRIST hath a true Church or Societie of faithfull people upon earth And they oblige us to submit to all that this Church proposes to be believed as a matter or an Article of Faith 2. This Submission is so necessary that unless we believe the Church we cannot reasonably belive any Point of Faith Nay we cannot so much as know what things are to be believed For we cannot be ascertained and assured but by the Church that they have been revealed Some will say that they are assured by the holy Scripture of what is revealed and learn in it what is to be believed 3. But how know they which is holy Scripture And how know they that the Gospells are the Word of God God never appeared to them to tell them this Book printed in such a place is my Word is my Scripture The Bible also says not I am holy Scripture And if also it should say so it should be in this suspected since it gives testimony of it self and another book might say I am the Word of God I am holy Scripture and we ought not to believe it They will say the Scripture is known by its own light to be divine or a light within them makes them see that 't is the Word of God 4. If this were so How could it com to pass that there should be hardly one book of Scripture that hath not been rejected The Marcionits rejected the five Books of Moses the Manicheans rejected the Prophets the Albigenses the Psalms and all the ancient Testament the Ebionites received but one of the four Gospells to wit the Gospell of S. Matthew the Cardonites admitted but one part of the Gospell of S. Luke Luther rejected the Book of Iob Ecclesiastes the Epistle to the Hebrews that of S. Iames and that of S. Iude the second of S. Peter the two last of S. Iohn and the Apocalyps all which books the Calvinists and our Protestants in England admit as holy Scripture How coms it that Protestants in England and in France do see divers books to be the Word of God which Protestants in Germany and other parts do not And How does the whole Catholick world admit divers bocks to be Canonical which Protestants reject as Apocryphal If there were any such light in the Books by which they discover themselves to be certainly divine or in men by which they see them to be the word of God all must necessarily see the same Books to be Canonical and all would acknowledg the Lib. cont Epist Fundamenti Cap. 5. same since the same Faith is necessary for all And S. Austin would not have sayd that He would not believe the Gospell if the authority of the Church did not move him to it for he would have seen them to be divine Must we not then necessarily believe the Church and learn of her which is holy Scripture And what is to be believed And since we have not the original of one only Canonical Book must we not believe the Church and trust her for a faithfull Copy 5 But suppose that God gave the Bible in English and that He sayd this Bible printed at London is his Scripture I say again that we must yet believe the Church and rely on her for the sense and meaning of it For S. Peter in the same Bible sais 1. Pet. 3. 16. in the Epistles of S. Paul there are things hard to be understood which the unlearned and the unstable deprave as also the rest of the Scriptures to their own perdition Note perdition Have not Disputes controversies and contests always risen concerning the sense and meaning of them and that in matters of the greatest importance Have not the best copies of the Bible been consulted and all passages confer'd the controversies stil remaining and increasing Doe we not see that divers and
is good and deserves to be loved for God is so good great holy powerfull and worthy to be loved that if He did desire it we should sacrifice our selves for his service though there were neither heaven for those that love him nor hell for those that love him not 11. We should do as the blessed Spirits do it is IESUS that gives the Counsel putting these words into our mouths Your will be don in earth as it is in heaven that is as the Angells do it they do the will of God and obey his Orders with a free pure and disinteressed love all that they pretend is to obey God to do his will all the recompence that they passionately desire is to receive new Orders to be employd again in his service purely for the love of him 12 This is not sayd that a faithfull soul may not hope and keep the commandements for reward or retribution as the Prophet says he did But that it be not the principal yet less the only aime of our love for as S. Bernard says perfect love of God intends no recompence but merits much The loving soul receives from the hands of God ineffable and incomprehensible goods but though she should not though there should be no Paradise nor reward she would not omit to love God serve him and to be pleasing to him and if she practises vertue for reward the reward which she desires is the increase of her love if she is glad to merit to be higher in heaven this is not to have there more of honor and glory but it is to have more of love if I merit much says she I shal see God more clearly and perfectly in heaven I shal glorify him more excellently I shal praise him more advantagiously I shal be united to him more strictly and intimatly I shal love him more ardently and so love is the true salary of love 13. In fine your love must not be idle and paralitick but active to render service to God and to do good works for his glory Charity works great things where it is and where it works not there it is not says S. Gregory S. Iohn 14. 23. 1. Ep. 3. 18. Psai 96. 10. He that loves me will keep my word says IESUS My little children says his beloved Disciple let us not love in word and tongue only but in work and veritie and the Royal Prophet You that love our Lord hate ye evill he says not only commit not evill but hate it He says not hate it in your self but absolutely hate it If you love God you will hate sin wheresoever it is found you will destroy it in your self and in your neighbor also if if you can if one should say I abuse not my friend but is not sorry that another does nor hinders him when he can may one truly say he loves him Let us conclude with a reflexion upon these words of JESUS I Came to cast fire upon the earth and what desire I but that it be inflam'd Luke 12. 49. And does He not move solicit and stir up our hearts to this fire and flame of love by all possible wayes 14. He prevents us with great love He lou'd us more than riches He was made poor for us more than honours He suffered a thousand infamies more than his ease and pleasure He led a life in pain and labor more than his body He depriu'd it of glory and of life more than the Angells He redeem'd them not And though we are so ungratful and unworthy as not to return love for love He tryes yet other means 15. He heaps Benefits upon us and makes us presents to engage our mercenary hearts He practises the counsel He gives us by the Wiseman and by his Apostle Give meat and drink to your enemy Prov. 25. 21. Rom. 12. 20. when he hath need and you shal heap upon him burning coales to heat his love to you so many prosperities that are sent you so many morcells of bread you eate so many creatures that serve you are so many burning coales He heaps upon you to heat your love so many presents He makes you to gain your affection so many baits he laies to catch your heart Et si parva sunt ista adiiciet majora And if it seems to you that all this is too little and that your heart is yet worth more He assures you that all the favours whiich he hath don you and which he does you yet every day are not but gages and pledges of the great Goods He hath prepar'd and promis'd you if you love him Neither eye hath seen nor eare hath heard 1. Cor 2. 9 nor the heart of man can comprehend the things which God hath prepar'd for them that love him says S. Paul 16. But since we esteem not these promises enough and are like those Israelites who contemn'd she desirable land He lifts up his hand He commands us ro love him and threatens punishments if we do not Is not this to be extremly desirous of our love to put as it were a dagger to our throats and say to us love me J will kill you if you will not He does not only say it but he does it he damnes us eternaly if we love him not 17. And when He sees that fear of future punishments doe not sufficiently move our hearts He sends us sometimes afflictions to force our love He takes away all you love in this world becaus you love not well that which ought to be loved above all things He removes from you all that may amuse and employ your heart that it may be in a manner forced for want of other object to unite it self to Him ô great God what can you do more to have this heart which you so passionately desire you besige it on all sides and it renders not neither the preventions of your love nor the attractives of your benefits nor your promises of paradise nor your strict commands nor threats of hell nor constrains of afflictions can open this lockt heart Extremis morbis extrema remedia 18. When a passionate lover hath tryed all wayes and finds them unsuccesfull he coms to the last makes use of a charm composes a love potion JESUS makes use of this artifice to gain our affection He puts himself upon our Altars and into our Tabernacles there he is the charm of love They say that in a charm of love to render it more powerfull the Lover ought to mix with it some of his own substance some drops of his blood and JESUS puts all his blood into this potion not a part of his substance only but all his substance Body Soul and Divinity 19. What think you Judg you not that God ought to have your heart after so many pursuances do they not inflame you to beg that of God which is so necessary and which you cannot have of your own selves Aske it of God fervently humbly frequently aske it of
it to be good if your penance be not of this stamp it is steril as the figtree neer Bethania and is likewise cursed by our Savior 11. If you aske S. Paul what are the fruits that this good tree of penance ought to beare He answers writing to the Corinthians that it is a great care of our salvation a holy indignation against Sin a fear and apprehension of Gods jugements 2. Cor. 7. 11. a great desire to be pleasing to him an ardent zeal of his glory a spirit of vengeance to punish in our selves the offence of God If you demand of S. Chrisostome what are these fruits He answers that they are the practises of vertues wholy contrary to the crimes you have committed for example you have usurped Hom. 1. in Matt. circa sin anothers goods content not your self with the restitution of them but give liberally of your own You have wallowed in the mire of sensual pleasures deprive your self of the delights which are not forbidden You have offended your neighbour by word or worke render good for evill to them that disoblige you You have been given to excesses and to drunkenness addict your self to abstinence and fasting If you aske S. Pacian what are the fruits worthy of penance Epist 31. He answers that they are mortifications of of the flesh retrenchments of pleasures privations of temporal goods distributed to the Poor and the labours of life 12. This penance cannot be a worke of a man it must be an effect of Gods mercy wherefore beg it of him affectionately say often vouchsafe to bring us to true penance He disposes us and brings us to it sometimes by alms give as many as you can either corporal or spiritual Redeem your sins with alms sayd the Prophet Daniel He Dan. 4. 24. leads us to it by mortifications for as exteriour humiliation is the way to interiour humility says S. Bernard so austerities and exteriour penances are dispositions to interiour compunction He brings us to penance by the intercession of the Saints and by the examples of their vertues implore their aide devout ly have in your houses the history of their lives read it and make it to be read to your families excite your selves to penance by the consideration of their austerities if you have perfectly this second Baptisme it will restore you to the innocency of the first if you have this shield you will save your selves from the anger of God if you have this planck it will carry you to a good haven to the haven of eternal felicity Amen DISCOURS XXIV OF PRAYER 1. IESUS-CHRIST being the Idea Mirrour and the Model of the Elect He instructs them by his Example in all which they ought to do to obtain salvation He says to them Exemplum dedi vobis I have given you example And becaus Prayer is one of the most profitable important and necessary actions in a Christian life He would give most authentike and remarkable examples Tract 24 in Iohn sub med of it This is the reason as S. Austin notes why He pray ed often with a lowd voice if He had pryed only to obtain graces for his Church it would have been enough to have prayed interiourly in secret or with a low voice But being our Advocate He remembred that He was also our Doctor and the prayer which He made for us He pronunced before us that He might profit us not only by impetration of graces for us but also by giving us a model Whence it follows that to be heard in our prayers we ought not to aske any thing but what IESUS hath asked He never demanded nor will He ever demand for his the Glory of the world the riches of the earth or delights of the flesh we ought then to aske of God as his members and by his merits love fear grace conduct vertues and temporalls precisely necessary and we ought to ask them so as He asked them His Apostle teaches us that his prayer was always accompanied with Heb. 5. three circumstances wherewith ours ought also to be seasoned During the cours of his life He offered prayers and supplications to God with teares and great Cry and He was heard for his Reverence first then we ought to pray with Humility secondly with Fervour thirdly with Perseverance For his Reverence there is Humility with teares and great cry there is fervour During the cours of his life there is Perseverance 2. We ought to pray with humility and with interior and exterior Reverence The interior consists in a profound abasement and annihilation of our selves in the presence of God we ought to esteem much and apprehend lively the greatness of his Majesty the excellence of his Being and the infinity of his Perfections our lowness littleness and infirmity to acknowledg and avow that we are more then most unworthy not only to convers with him or to speak to hâ—m but also to appear in his presence we must go to Him as a poor begget to a rich man for an Alms as a sickman to a Phisitian to be cured as a criminal to a judg to implore favour and pardon and say with great S. Austin you are infinitely mercifull I am extreamly miserable you are the true Phisitian I am sick to death you are an Abyss of all good I poor and in want of all things We must go to him with a lively sense of the extream need we have of his assistance and of the severeign independency He hath of all without himself believing firmly that all the service we can do him all the homages and praises of the highest Seraphins add not one grain to his essential Beatitude and glory 3. From this interior disposition proceeds the exterior reverence by which we prostrate on the ground before God or we kneel and if we cannot we hold our selves in an humble modest and respectfull posture This exterior humility is so sutable with the honour we owe to God that it hath been always used by them who desired to appease Him to obtain his mercy and the grant of their requests The just Lot being prostrated â—en 19. 2. before an Angel who personated God his prayer was heard and this humble posture help'd him to obtain his Request Iosuah and the Ancient of Israel desiring to calme the Spirit of Iosuah 7. God prostrated a long time before the arke The valiant Iudith to obtain success in her generous enterprize prostrated in her oratory clothed her body with a hairshirt and cover'd her head with ashes And what is more considerable our Saviour himself when He prayed in the garden fell upon his face Whereupon S. Ceser Bishop of Arles complaining says Mercy prostrats himself and Misery does not Sanctity humbles himself and iniquity will not Innocence inclines and malice will not bow the Iudg lies upon the ground and the criminal rests himself indecently 4. 'T is true God is a Spirit and He demands chiefly of us humility
rigour and the severity of the last judgement concludes watch therefore praying at all times He speakes not to Religious or to Priests only but to all Christians He knew the impediments we should have the importance of our affaires and He says pray at all times It was by perseverance that the Cananean woman obtain'd of the Son of God the deliverance of her daughter as Saint Chrysostome hath noted she prayed with interior humility since she sayd whelps also eate of the crummes Chrysost hom 5. in Mart. S. Mrk. 7. 29. and with exterior for she prostrated at the feet of our Saviour with fervour of Spirit which she shewed by crying-out clamavit Nevertheless the Son of God rejected her and would not hear her But she strugled with him and got the Victory by her importunity so must you to have success stand obstinate in a holy obstinacy and pray unto the end And therefore our Saviour himself sayes to you in S. Luke It behoves you to pray always and not to be weary S. Luke 18. 1. 10. And what hinders you from praying Is it that you have not leasure that you have many affaires and affaires of importance this is that which should oblige you to pray for the more serious your affaires are the more it concerns you to have success in them and prayer is the means to obtain it You have not-leasure to pray Why not You find time for dinner supper and other necessities of the body notwithstanding your great affaires and why find you not time for the refection of your Soul it is as necessary to pray God well for to work your Salvation as to take your refection to preserve your life You have not time to pray Believe me you have enough if you manage it well Cut off superfluous visits idle words unproâ—â—table workes and conversations and unnecessary divertisements and there will remaine time to be employ'd in prayer But are you so prest with business that you cannot find now and then a quarter of an hour to spend in prayer At least then in working elevate often your heart to God by jaculatory prayers adore him from time to time and beg of him his love grace and guidance put a pin upon your sleeve that seeing it you may be minded of it ' til you are accustom'd to it for it behoves you to pray always What is that which hinders you Is it that you have offended grievously This is as if you should say I am too much wounded I must not go to the Surgeon On the contrary this should incline you more to go to him Com to me all ye who areburdened Says our Saviour He says not receive me communicate so much the more often and the more boldly the more you are burdened with sins but com to me to pray me and to ask help and succour of me however great and numerous may be your sins if you have a lively resentment of them if you desire to be deliver'd from them it is a good motive to shew God to obtain his mercy It is that which David did when he sayd I am poor and needy 'T is that which the Publican did saying God be mercifull to me a sinner 'T is that which the Church puts into your mouth we sinners do beseech thee to hear us What is that in fine that hinders you Is it that God heares you not that He rejects you and withdraws himself from you and that it is long since you beg'd of Him not temporal goods but spiritual and you obtain not This gives you cause to persever and to pray more fervently since He defers so long to hear you 't is a signe that what He will bestow upon you is most excellent and precious though He seems to refuse what you ask He is pleased with your devotions and if He delays to hear you it is for good reasons 'T is to exercise your patience to heat your desire to try your perseverance to augment your merit And if you have patience and persever importuning him Sooner or later He will accomplish your desires and give you grace in this World and glory in the other Amen DISCOURS XXV OF FASTING And the Institution of Lent 1. IF the Apostle S. Paul were now on earth he would bewaile extreamly the horrible blindness of those who prefer the pleasure of their mouthes before the precept of the Church and the Salvation of their soules He would say to us what he sayd to the Philippians there are many amongst you of whom I weeping tell you that are enemies Philip. 3. 18. of the Cross of Christ that abhoâ—r all mortification of the flesh that have the belly for their God and shal have eternal damnation for their end for our fasts are not things indifferent or workes of supererogation they are workes of precept and obligation Some will say to me your fasts are not prescrib'd in Scripture they are commandements of men and therefore obâ—ige not other in Conscience But if a Dissenter should command his child a thing very profitable or necessary for his family and his child should say to him Father you are a man the Commandements of men oblige not in conscience I find not In the Scripture that God commands me to go to such a place or to do such a thing No he wiâ—l say to him But he commands thee to obey thy Father and thy Mother So I say to you It is not in Scripture that you must fast such a day that you keep suâ—h a holy day But God commands you in many Ephes. 6. Coloss 3. 20. Heb. 13. 17. places of the Scripture to obey the Church your Mother For the Apostle that sayd in the behalfe of God Children obey your Parents the same sayd also Obey your Prelates If men have not power to command other men nor to oblige them in Conscience whence comes it that JESUS-CHRIST sayd to his Apostles and Luke 10. 16. Matth. 23. 2. Matt. 18 17. Rom. 13. 2 to their successours who heares you heares me and who despises you despises me And to the people do all that they shal say to you whence is it that JESUS-CHRIST hath sayd He that heares not the Church esteeme him as a Pagan or a Publican Whence is it that S. Paul said He that resisteth Superiour power resists the ordinance of God and they that resist it purchase to themselves damnation But 't is to resist Superior power and to disobey the Church not to observe the fasts which She commands 't is to transgress an Apostolical command not to fast the Lent when you have not a legitimate excuse I say Apostolical command 2. And to prove this Verity I might alledg many testimonies of the ancient Fathers but becaus JEUS-CHRIST does say that we ought to give credit to two or three good Witnesses I will alledge the depositions of three or four of three parts of the world Africa Europe and Asia In Affrica Tertullian reports an
with Salomon that you cannot have continence unless God gives it you demand it then of him with all your heart use the meanes of mortification to obtain make daily supplication to the Mother of Purity that by her powerfull intercession you may be drawn out of this deep myre 15. Consider in fine what the sacred Text does teach us of this vice and of the contrary vertue The holy Ghost will not Prov. 22. 11. Matt. 5. 1. Cor. 6. 15. 13. Rom. .8 dwell in a Body subject to sin He that loves purity of heart shal have the King his friend Blessed are the pure and clean of heart for they shal see God Know you not that your Bodys are the members of CHRIST Taking therefore the members of CHRIST shal I make them the members of a harlot Know you not that your members are the Temple of the holy Ghost God will destroy him who violates his Temple 2. Cor. 7. If you live according to the flesh you shal dye But if hy the Spirit you mortify the workes of the flesh you shal live Having these promises let us cleanse our selves from all inquination of the flesh and Spirit perfecting sanctification in the fear of God Amen DISCOVRS XXXVII OF THE SEUENTH AND TENTH COMMANDEMENTS Thou shal not steal Thou shalt not covet thy neigbours goods GOd having made an express Commandement to defend the life of man and another to secure him from injury in the person of his wife 't is with great reason that He gives this Commandement to secure his goods to which I joyn the tenth by which He forbids us to covet or desire them And to explain well the crime of Robbery which both forbid we must consider first what is the cause of it In the second place what is the essence and nature of it And in the third place what is the proper effect of it 1. The Ordinary cause is Avarice a vice contrary to the Gospell condemn'd by the Law of God and pernicious to the Salvation of an infinity of people For the world is full of avarice and the Poor are very often more reprehensible and more slaves to this passion than the Rich themselves When we praise poverty or inveigh against riches there are many poor who rejoyce and look upon the rich with disdain and contempt JESUS sayd not simply blessed are the poor but Blessed are the poor of Spirit by love and affection who love poverty If you Matt. 5. 3. be as poor as Lazarus and have affection to riches if you be as much wedded to your raggs and trifles as the Rich to their silk and costly furniture if you forsweare your self to gain a little money if you steal little things not daring or not being able to steal more this first Beatitude is not for you you are not poor in the sight of JESUS but richer than the Riche themselves poor by necessity by a miserable not by a laudable Will sayes S. Bernard S. Ber. ser 1. in festo omnium Sanctorum 2. The Rich also often deceive themselees grosly in this point Whatsoever affection and tye they have to riches they think themselves secure in that they would not possess the goods of their neigbour nor covet to have them by unjust wayes as if the holy scripture did condemn injustice only and not also avarice They consider not that S. Paul distinguishes avarice from robbery and that he says not only the robbers but also the 1. Cor. 5. 10. 1. Cor. 6. 9 S. Basil hom de Divite avaro S. Ambr. Ser. 81. S. Aug. Ser. 196. de Temp. S. Aug. Ser. 19. de Verb. Apost 1. Tim. 6. 17. avaricious shal not possess the kingdom of God Do not Erre neither theeves nor the covetous nor extorsiners shal possess the kingdom of God 3. Who is he whom the scripture terms covetous sayd S. Basil and after him S. Ambrose He say they who is not content with that which ought to be enough And S. Austin declares that not only he who takes the goods of another but he that keeps his own with avidity is covetous And the same Saint makes us note that all the Rich that are damn'd and declar'd such in the Gospell were not Vsurpers of other mens goods but only too greedy and tenacious of their own Wherefore the Apostle writing to his Disciple Timothy charges him to command the rich of this world not to trust in the incertainty of riches but in the living God to do well to becom rich in good workes to give easily to communicate their wealth to those that want to heap unto themselves a good foundation for the time to com that they may obtain the true life We see then that avarice is pernicious though it prevail not so far with us as to make us to commit injustice which effect avarice so frequently produces that the earth is filled with it though injustice does oblige to perfect Restitution and this be hard and very rare You will avow these verities if you consider with me the Definition which Doctors give of Robbery 4. They say that t is to take or retain or to endammage the goods of another against the will of him to whom it belongs T is to take either by your self or by others either secretly and by theft or openly by force exacting receiving or permitting others to exact or to receive what is not due to you as when you exact fourshillings for marchandise or service which is not worth three 5. To take or retain Not only to take but to retain that which is not yours is robbery If you inherit goods ill gotten by your Father or by your Ancesters if you owe any thing to others if you have found that which another lost by retaining it you commit robbery There is no great difference sayd Pope Innocent the third in the Lateran Councel as to the danger of the soul betwixt unjust detention and invasion of anothers goods 6. Or Endammage if you damnify your neighbor in his corne or other thing if you thrust your self into an office Trade or other employment of which you are uncapable and are the cause through your ignorance that any one be preiudiced in health or other good you commit robbery To good of another understand ether spiritual or corporal which is not pondered and considered enough by some If you have destroyd your neighbors house you are judg'd a Robber you are oblig'd to make Satisfaction you have made a horrible destruction in his soul you destroy'd in his heart the treasures of the grace of God soliciting him to sin and you reflect not on it you thinke not to put again into a good way this unhappy soul which you have made to stray you are a robber 8. They add in the definition against the will of him to whom it belongs that is to say without his voluntary and absolute free consent For though he consent to it if he consent unwillingly if
are baptized but they stand obliged to follow them Which made great S. Basil say whosoever hath receiv'd the Baptisme of the law of grace is oblig'd to live according to the Gospell and hath oblig'd himself by an irrevocable contract to imitate IESUS CHRIST 5. I know well than to excuse your selves you say if I live not according to the world if I cloath not my self gorgeously if I lead a retired and mortified life I shal pass for an extravagant person they will not esteem me they will say I am an abhorrer of society and a man of another world You say true but what is this to say It is to say they will esteem you a christian that you will pass for a Disciple of IESUS This is that which you have promised in Baptisme T is in this the perfection of Christianity consists in declaring war against the world and its pomps in opposing its maxims and customs contradicting flesh and blood Take courage then says S. Chrysostom fight valiantly consider what Chrysost To 3 ser de Martyr you have promised under what condition you were made a Christian and in what war you are enrolled Think not to tryumph without Victory to be victorious without fighting to fight without enemies that are contrary to you 6. But some do say where are pastimes delights and pleasures forbidden in the ten commandements or in those of the Church If those frequent and almost continuall pastimes delights and pleasures are not against the first and chiefe of the commandements Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul with all thy mind and with all thy forces they are at least against the second which our Saviour says is like to it For is this to love your neighbor as your self to employ in superfluous delights that which might deliver him out of great inconveniences and miseries you know that so many orphans so many other poor who are the children of God members of our Saviour are eaten with vermin for want of a little linnen that they are starved with cold and that they dye with hunger for want of assistance and the money wherewith you might succour them you spend in superfluities what insensibility is this where is the fraternal Charity or the Christian Compassion or the bowells of mercy which the elect ought to have The Prophet Amos 6. 6. Amos weighed well how much Charity was by this violated when he sayd Woe to you who seek exquisite meats and delicious wines and yee have not pity on the miseries of the people 7. S. Denys says that in his time if one desired Baptisme the c. 2. Eccle. Hier. parag 2. et 3. first thing he did was to intreat a Christian to be his God father the Christian on the one side desiring the salvation of the Petitioner and on the other weighing the weakness of a man with the weight of the affaire was troubled with fear and seized with apprehension to conduct him to the Bishop Nevertheless in fine he led him to the Prelate Who sayd to him that his designe ought not to be imperfect but entire and with all his heart as approaching to God who is entirely perfect and having declar'd to him the forme of life he ought to lead to live godly receiv'd from him promises and protestations to aspire with all his force to that perfection And that he might not undertake such a charg lightly and inconsiderately he made him pass 2 or 3 years in Catechumenate which was the Noviciate of Christianity where he exercised himself in fasting prayer and other penances to make tryal if he could apply himself to the austere and vertuous life of Christians By which you see that the answers made for you in Baptisme are not ayrie words they are according to this great Saint and other holy Fathers promises and protestations which oblige us By the same you see also what life the Christians of those times did lead to satiâ—fy the obligations contractd in their Baptisme 8. Do as they did renounce the Devill and all his pompes works and suggestions renounce the World with its vanities follies and maxims renounce your selves your flesh sensualitie selflove particular judgment and all the inclinations of the old man separate your will from his and turn to IESUS your God and the Source of your salvation Acknowledg the excellencie of your Dignitie the noble and divine Allyance to which you are elevated to whom you pertain by Baptisme Remember that you have the honour to be the members of IESUS-CHRIST not improperly nor metaphorically but really and truly Let us remember that he is our Head and that we must conform our selves to him otherwise we shal make a great deformitie in his body and dishonour him extreamly Would not this be a monstrous and unnatural deformitie if to the head of a handsom man were joyn'd the body of a beast the paws of a Lyon the belly of a hog the tail of a serpent IESUS is the Head of the Church we are the members of it what dishonor should we do him what unnatural deformitie should we make in his Body if we should be unlike to him if He being as meek as a lamb as pure as the sunbeam and as simple as a dove we should be cruel like lyons unclean like hogs and deceitfull as serpents Let us assure our selves that He will not suffer such deformitie in heaven and that to be associated to him in the life of glory we must be like to him in the life of grace Amen DISCOVRS XLIII Of Confirmation AS the eternal Father hath shewn effectually the ineffable love which He had for the world in giving his only and beloved Son in the Mistery of the Incarnation a love so wonderfull and prodigious that though admiration be the daughter of ignorance and IESUS be the infinite and eternal Science He speaks not of it but with astonishment and admiration Sic Deus dilexit mundum So IESUS hath shewn effectually the infinite love which He had for his Church in giving Her his holy Spirit who is equal coeternal and consubstantial with Him and his Father 2. But as in the distribution of graces where of the Apostle 1. Cor. 12. 10. speaks the holy Ghost is communicated to divers persons for different operations to some to worke miracles to others to interpret the holy scripture and the like so in Sacramental grace the holy Ghost is given for divers intentions to produce divers effects according to the difference of the ends for which IESUS instituted the Sacraments In Baptisme the holy Ghost is given us to be the Soul of our souls the life of our life and the Spirit of our spirit to create in us the spiritual and Christian life make us Children of God Members of IESUS CHRIST and Heirs of the kingdom of heaven In Confirmation He is given us to make us Souldiers of IESUS CHRIST to enrole us in his warfare and to