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
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
painful accomplishment and fulfilling of them Again by the uncertain things of his wisdom imparted to him he insinuates a further knowledge as to this that it is not known to any in this life whether they are worthy of love or hatred Almighty God by a special providence no doubt having kept this shut up from us that whilst we lye under an awefull fear it might abate our pride and presumption Now the Clouds of this uncertainty were dispersed as to him assurance being given that his sin was removed and the Anathema annexed to it taken off and what greater evidence that he is re-admitted into favour than the entrusting secrets to him than his exemption from the Common Lawes set down by Providence for the conduct and guidance of Mankind These Reflections make him cherish with unspeakable satisfaction his priviledged notions nor do they carry him to vanity but to bless the source from whence they flow since gratitude exacts that tribute from him to whom thou hast laid open the uncertain and hidden things of thy wisdom The Application Here we may observe in what awe and terrour our Holy Penitent remained after his transgression that though the Seal was set to his pardon yet he thought this gave him no right to his former prerogative whose restitution he dares not ask he only presumed to repeat them to his dear Creatour that he might read therein his ingratitude who enriched with supernatural gifts reserved for his choice favourites and by means of which endowments he might have proved a saving Star to guide others to Heaven yet he hath not made use of them but to inure the Author of them and there wrought his Ruine where he might have erected to himself Trophies of glory Next he made this Repetition that he might ruminate upon the sad consequences of sin which so alters a Man that God himself knowes him not This is manifest in the Gospel where God said to the foolish Virgins and to those who had wrought miracles in his name Nescio vos I know you not Again Adam after his sin seemed to be lost to God who made enquiry after him Adam where art thou which imports I placed thee in prosperity and content but find thee now in wretchedness and misery So our Holy Penitent minds his dear God of the blessings he had once showred down upon him and being so signal as few besides since the Worlds Creation could boast of the like he hopes being now again admitted to his presence he may not only be revived in his memory but restored to his former endearments to which he disposes himself by this bashful expression thou hast O Lord made me happpy by the Communication of the secret and hidden things of thy wisdom CHAP. XV. Asperges me Hyssopo mundabor Thou shalt sprinkle me with Hysop and I shall be cleansed OUr Holy Penitent replenished with a Prophetick Spirit seems how to breath nothing but Divine Truths nothing which issues not from such inspired lights Behold wherefore he speaks at present in person of the Church and forespeaks the Oeconomy God will practise in the guidance of her Thou wilt sprinkle me sayes he with Hysop that is pressures will fall upon me from all sides for it is proper to Hysop to be of a small growth to take root in Stony and Rocky places and its vertue is Soveraign against tumours and swellings First then Christ beset his Church with Hysop when he planted her in himself the fruitful Womb of all her productions hear his Lesson Learn of me that am meek and humble of heart from such a stock what can be expected but lowly shrubs Hysop like he instructs his Apostles to bear the innocence of Lambs amidst ravenous VVolves the simplicity of Doves amidst wilely Serpents he bids them overcome Tyrants by sufferings opprobries and contumelies by a patient silence the glory of great ones by humility and the wealth of the World by Poverty With these arms the wisdom power and greatness of the World have been laid prostrate and the humble Cross of Christ erected in Triumph Maugre the malice of Hell and Idolators After Nero Decius Seperus Maximian Diocletian had raged and breathed from their Nostrils death and destruction to the harmless little ones of Christ affrighting them with fire VVheels Gridirons Gibbets Lyons Vipers and innumerable other tortures what was the event Julian the last and greatest persecutour confesses he hath lost the day and that the Contemptible Nazarean I remained Victorious St. Paul gives but a touch yet a dexterous one and represents to the life the posture wherein God hath founded his Church God sayes he seems to have marked our us Apostles unto Death for we are made a spectacle to God Angels and Men we suffer hunger and thirst we are reviled and buffeted we are tossed up and down hurried from one Tribunal to another we are laden with maledictions and in requital distribute blessings we are plyed with persecution but sustain we have blasphemies thrown at us yet we pray and petition in behalf of the Authors in fine we are looked upon as the soum of Mankind and become as the mockery of the World Behold the Epitome of a life Apostolical and the maximes to which the Primitive Christians conformed themselves by which you may judge how pat the allusion of Hysop is applyed to the Church for what is more abject and despicable than the institute of Christianity nay it was the usual argument of Infidels towards any person of eminency embracing Christian Religion to reproach them with the baseness and contemptibility of it The Rocky foundation also which gives life to the Hysops Root is no less suitable if you reflect upon the promises made to St. Paul when first he listed himself under Christs banner Ananias was to be the bearer of his letters Pattents the substance of them was that he should see what sufferings he must wade through for his Name and how punctual God was in the accomplishment of his word his own Epistles sufficiently declare that from the time of his conversion he had constant supplyes of tribulations from his unwearied preaching of the Gospel unto the Snares and malice of false accusations from thence to Prisons then to Chains Opprobries and lastly to a publick Death in the Capital City of the World Now that he alone was not doomed to these sad Catastropheys he tells us into what confusion poor Christians were universally in all places cast some lurking in Dennes others flying into desarts some groaning under want others exposed to scorn and contempt of whom the World sayes he was not worthy then he enumerates a multiplicity of horrid tortures which ushered their ignominious deaths And these outrages were not confined to any one Province or City but executed throughout the whole habitable World and to that height as one day was witness of a hundred thousand who were Sacrificed by the rage of Tyrants nay they fancied their work so compleatly finished
any stop as if the Sage ruler of all things took no cognizance of their actions and which is done parhaps from a foresight they will persevere to the end in wickedness and having performed acts of moral vertues God allowes them a little calm in this life But in our sense when God passes over as undiscerned our faults he remits them without punishment and so seems to have been a stranger to our misdeeds but yet he never doth this that is never turns away his Face from our sins unless we first turn our Face upon them placing them before our Eyes and touched with a horrour at their deformity abjure and protest against them having done this we must then expose that abstract of wonders Christ Jesus before the Eternal Father that his wounded body may serve as a bulwark to defend us and appease his angry looks which implies the aversion of his Face or fury from us Our penitent having in this manner made his way he hopes the effect will follow that God averting his Face in that act will give him an abolition of his crimes that so he may reap the fruit of a Holy penitential fear We kow St. Peter fared not the worse when prompted by a low esteem of himself he requested his Lord to withdraw from him because a sinner No more did the good Centurion lose any thing in acknowledging his little of merit to have his house blessed and made happy by Christ's presence So our Penitent's awful respect in declining the Face of his Creatour springing from a sense of his own unworthiness and believing his sins an object unfit for an Eye so pure and unstained may perhaps draw benedictions upon him and contribute in a large measure to his happiness Wherefore he goes on still repeating turn away thy face from my sins The Application From this discourse we may learn the agitations of a Soul which hath once been defiled with sin sometimes he Figures God unto him as an angry judge and is affrighted to appear before him then again as a purity so compleat and Essential that though he should be conscious of no guilt as having been cleansed and washed as white as Snow he dares not yet stand to the examen Nay on the contrary it makes him petition to have that face which is the joy of Angels to be diverted from him we must then in imitation of our penitent fix only to this comfort that humility repentance and reverential thoughts though they keep us here depressed and under hatches will at last render that face we would now decline through the terrour of our Sins amiable and pleasing into our possession whereon we may gaze and feed our glorifyed Senses for all Eternity Amen CHAP. XX. Et omnes iniquitates meas dele And wipe away all my iniquities ST Cyril of Alexandria saith in the jâ—…stification of a sinner are required certain previous dispositions amongst which he reckons up faith hope repentance and fear Whence I conceive the apprehension of our Holy Penitent lest God should fasten his regards upon his iniquities mentioned in the preceeding verse was initiative and preliminary to his present address That his iniquities may be wiped away St. Austin holds it a thing most rare that any should embrace Christian Religion who have not first received within them an impression of the fear of God That the Ninivites became Penitent and shrowded themselves under a veil of Sackcloth and Ashes The only cause was a fear of vengeance threatned them by the preaching of Jonas St. Hierom upon the First Chapter of Malachy sayes behold O Lord how the fear of punishment diverts us from evil and that the priviledge of being your Children arises from a servile apprehension Our Penitent was not ignorant of this when after a dread conceived of God's judgments he immediately proceeds as if prepared by that terrour to demand an abolition of his crimes Wipe away my iniquities Besides he here explicates himself more fully that in case he do procure the Face of God to be averted then he is confident the sequel will be an expulsion of sin by grace For it were absurd that faith love and other qualities inherent should be necessary to dispose us for pardon and yet the formal effect to be extrinsecal and a justice not ours but imputed to us St. Paul desides this in his Epistle to the Colossians Christ hath freed us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of the love of his Son Where you see the infusion of justice by which a Man becomes pious succeeds to the Remission of sin by which we cease to be impious and just as the Air by the same ray of the Sun hath not only its darkness expelled but also is filled with light so that true Son of Justice communicating unto Man his divine grace doth at once by this gift disperse the Clouds of sin and replenish him with the splendour of inherent Justice The same Apostlâ—… Rom. 5. takes away all doubt in this point saying that the grace of God is diffused into our hearts by the Holy Ghost who is given unto us and that no mistake in this Text may happen St. Austin explicates it in this Sense The charity of God is said to fill our hearts not with that love by which he loves us but by â—heâ—…by which we love him It is then in this fountain of love which springs within us whose over-flowing streams arise from Christ's donation in these we are washed we are sanctifyed and made just by this regeneration we are said to become a new Creature and from an Enemy purchase the title of being the Son of God all which powerfully import a mutation and real change within us St. John in his First Epistle sayes he that doth justice is just Abel was just in that he sacrificed unto God with all the circumstances of homage due unto a supream Being Noah just in that he gave credit unto God feared his judgements and obeyed his commands St. Luke affirms Zachary and Elizabeth to be just from their compliance and obedience to Divine precepts so that it is clear the Principle of their justification was inherent and that nothing extrinsick or imputative can be the formal cause of our actions for if not issuing from something within us we cannot own them to be ours Our Holy Penitent filled with supernatural illustrations was not a stranger to Divine Lawes established in order to Man's conversion Wherefore he knew well his Petition to have his iniquities strook off involved the gift of grace by whose power alone they were to be destroyed Nay even Natural Reason will lead us to this Truth for justification is a motion from sin to justice whence its name is derived as calefaction from heat Now it is evident to expell cold will not be thought calefaction unless the quality of heat be introduced So the bare remission of sin cannot amount to an act of justification without the consecution
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
all unto him that suffers for his name It is a Sacrifice of what is most dear unto us that is the Friendship of Men For Christ foretold his Servants that they should be hated of the whole World so that by this immolation we forfeit what is natural and of all things most delightful to us But whilst we are in this consuming task we must remember that the Husbandman expects not the fruit of his labours until the seed he casts into the ground be corrupted and thence a plentiful Generation spring forth So we must continue perishing to the last that so we may rise under a new form never more to be crushed by the Flail or Mill of grinding persecutors but to flourish in eternal quiet as the just recompence of a troubled spirit Amen CHAP. XXXVI Cor contritum humiliatum Deus non despicies A contrite and humble Heart O God thou wilt not despise ST Chrysostom sayes no fond Lover dotes so much upon his Mistress as God doth on a Soul truly Penitent and then making an Apostrophe unto Tears he cryes O happy streams all principalities and powers strike Sail to you The countenance of a Judge affrights you not your accusing adversaries are struck dumb before you It is you alone that finds admittance and are entertained by your Sovereign you only can overcome the invincible and tye up the Omnipotent When I read these words of this great Saint upon the efficacy of Tears I am startled at the slender Character our Petitioner gives in this clause A contrite heart sayes he O God thou wilt not despise An expression which falls much short of a Lovers passion for to have no other return of a present than barely not to have it rejected argues the gift very little prized by the receiver and is in the next door to a contempt But yet the addition our Penitent makes of humble speaks very much and helps out the sentence For it imports that humility teaches him the excellency of God and at the same time his own nothing so that not to find a repulse in the exhibition of any homage rendered to a Being infinitely perfect is an endearing beyond what a poor Creature could any wayes in Justice expect and therefore in these lowly thoughts it seems to him he sets out God's mercy in saying A contrite and humble heart thou wilt not despise Wherefore it is evident our Petitioner relyes upon sure principles and speaks he is well read in Divinity for if satisfactory and penal works be a Sacrifice pleasing to God as is demonstrated in the precedent clause much more a contrite heart must needs be highly acceptable which is a total destruction of all love to sin a detestation and dislike against it which involves a passion of sorrow consequent to this hatred and a firm purpose to avoid all future relapses But the motive of this sorrow must be in that we have offended the Majesty of God who merits all love honor and obedience from us and therefore meerly in that sin is displeasing to him we are to retract and abominate our past misdeeds Our Holy Penitent the more effectually to create within him this lively compunction considers that by sin we deny unto God the just tribute of ohedience as if in a manner we would wrest his Scepter from his Hand and in sequel reduce him to nothing for God cannot be God nor subsist without a soveraign Empire over all things it being an attribute immediately resulting from his Divine and Infinite Majesty Next he weighs how God hates sin even to death witness his Commandements imposed under such heavy penalties on the transgressors The rebellious Angels our first parent Adam the universal Deluge conflagration of Sodom c. are frightful examples After he had run over all these punishments it was easy for him to judge of sin's horrour and how much it is abominated by God nay he yet stooped lower and beheld many eternally doomed to the flames of hell and this perhaps but for one only mortal sin After these dreadful presidents he proceeds further and in his prophetick view contemplates the Son of God innocent undefiled and set at a great distance from any sin to pass through the highest rigours of Justice and this meerly because he had taken upon him our iniquities Hence he concludes if the eternal Father be so severe to the dear production of himself in chastising the prevarications of another he will certainly redouble his stripes on Man for his own proper defaults Conformably to this meditation St. Austin sayes If a Redeemer be so roughly handled upon the score of anothers transgression what may a sinner expect in revenge of his own miscarriage Lastly our Penitent layes down how by sin we are declared Enemies to God enslaved to Satan odious in the sight of Angels and doomed to suffer in Hell without end which infinitely exceeds all the disasters of this life Besides we lose the grace and love of God a treasure above all other imaginable and whose forfeiture we ought more to deplore than all other misfortunes joyned together Wherefore one mortal sin is more to be lamented than all the disgraces and hardships which possibly may befall us in this World Our Petitioner having by these remonstrances alarm'd all the faculties of his Soul and so disposed them for action just like Souldiers commanded to Arms he then instructs them how to redeem all their dammages they have sustained by sin First they must abhorr their past misdeeds that is have such an aversion as heartily to wish they had never been committed and since the birth and essence of sin springs from the will it must be ruined by the same power retracting disowning and as much as in us lyes breaking the force of sin in becoming unvoluntary This done he reads unto them the efficacy of contrition by which our Souls are sanctifyed and all the Characters of sin defaced So that from Children of perdition in an instant we are declared heirs to eternal felicity the reason of this is that contrition comprizes a love of God above all things and the nature of charity is to make an absolute destruction of all vice which other vertues do not as having a repugnance only to the opposite sins So that there is no medium 'twixt charity and sin Man hath the one or the other but cannot enjoy them both together This is confirmed by the Prophet Ezechiel Chap. 53. The impiety of the impious shall not do him harm whensoever he shall be converted For love saith St. Gregory is nothing else but a flame and sin may be compared to rust So that when Christ said Many sins are forgiven her because she loved much it imports her Soul enkindled with a fire of divine love had worn away all the rust of her sins But what need we seek for authorities to strengthen this Doctrine when our Penitent had this happy Truth wrought in himself for no sooner he had cryed peccavi