capable to be continually burning in a most violent fire without consuming To be in an eternity of regret sorrow vexation rage and horrible despair It is so great a good to be exempted from these pains that according to S. Austin and S. Gregory the justice of God leaves the reprobate in those miseries that the elect may know their great happiness and felicity in being freed from them by the grace of God Vt liberatus de non liberato discat quale supplicium sibi conveniret nisi gratia subveniret And they shal not only be perfectly deliver'd from them but they shal have quite contrary favours and not the contrary only which we may possibly conceive but moreover such as cannot com into the thoughts of a mortal man When then the Scriptures tell us that the Saints possess God perfectly that this infinite Good holding the place of all things satisfies all their desires and makes their souls most happy that they shal be brought into the house of God with eternal joy and gladness and that they shal be inebriated with the plenty of his house and in the torrent of his pleasures He will make them drink all these and the like expressions give us only some obscure notions imperfect images or shadows of that ineffable Glory which hath not ascended as the Apostle says into our hearts 8. And it is not only the Vision and the Fruition of God the joy and delectation which flow from them which the Apostle speaks of in those words But also the particular joys and accidental glorys and Laurells that Saints shal have given them there according to their combats and victories here to Martyrs such an one to Confessors such a one to Doctors such a one to Virgins another as it pleases him which particular Glorys what they shal be how inestimably delightfull they shal be to us and how gracefull in the sight of others we neither know nor can know here If then the lesser things be so great what is all Heaven What is God who is the summe and substance af all reward and felicity I doubt not but all Christians believe more then any man can say of them and I doubt as little but they thinke them well worthy their study and care and of their paines and cost 9. But what is the paines and cost that belongs to them which men and women so shrink at Is it loss of life or limme Not so but in case of Martyrdom Is it to give all to the Poor No though CHRIST advised it one if he desired to be perfect Is it to suffer burning or the paines of hell for them Not so and yet S. Austin and Venerable Bead wished with all their hearts to feel hells torments a good while to be sure of them so great was their apprehension and value of heavens greatness 10. Why do they not then to obtain a happy and eternal life that which they do to preserve this unhappy and languishing life Thy deprive themselves of meats which prejudice their health they renounce all divertisments which may probably distemper them and they quit all that is most pleasing when it may be hurtfull to them Why do they not as much to obtain the happy life When they labour so much to preserve this miserable life they defend themselves not from death and all that they can pretend to by the order of their diet and by their remedies is not to live always but only to die a little later Let them do as much for the other life and testify by their actions that they have beliefe love and esteem of it and they shal live eternally 11. How much would you give says S. Augustine to be Augustine ser 64. de Verb. Dom. exempt from suffering and to be ascertain'd to live always You would think all which you possess would not suffice to buy so great a good though also you should possess the whole world Nevertheless this good and what is yet infinitely more excellent is to be sold You may buy it if you will and you need not trouble your self about the price of it for it is rated but at what you have you may purchase it by alms obtain it by good works merit it by good desires acquire it by becomming a vertuous person Contemne then not so great a happiness which depends not but of grace and your free will and if you have any love of your salvation so run as the Apostle bids you that you may obtain The chief ennemie to this vertuous cours is an idle uncertain and unsetled life Let us busie our felves then always in something which is good Let us have a certain and setled form and method of our practises which we will not without necessity omit and we shal so run as by the grace of God we may obtain a most happy end Resolve from this present moment upon this cours exclude all dalliance and delay and pronounce after the Apostles with mouth and heart this word Amen DISCOURS XVI OF FAITH HE that shal examin by the touchstone of holy Scripture the value and worth of every thing will acknowledg vithout difficulty that amongst the christian vertues one of those that honour God the most And of the most important to our salvation is Faith the first Theological vertue For if S. Paul writing to the Romans says that when we employ Rom. 12. 1. our bodys in the service of God by mortification and the practise of good works we offer to God a very acceptable Host surely when we captivate our understandings in obedience to Faith and mortify them forcing them against their inclination to receive and approve the Articles of our Faith which are obscure and incomprehensible this sacrifice cannot fail to be much more acceptable and pleasing since we offer to him our Spirit which is incomparably more excellent and noble 2. If Faith be so glorious and acceptable to God it is no less profitable and necessary to men For He that believes and is baptized shal be saved but he that belives not shal be condemn'd By Faith the Mark 16. 16. Heb. 11. Ancient obtain'd testimony that they were just and pleased God But without Faith it is impossible to please him 3. A Dissenter or libertine Catholick hearing this will say I am assured of my salvation nothing is necessary to it but Faith and Baptisme thanks be to God I belive and am baptized I shal then infallibly be saved You say true if you have true and living Faith if you have such faith as God demands of you for there is Faith and Faith there is humane faith and divine Faith habitual faith and actual faith implicit faith and explicit faith Interiour faith and exteriour faith dead faith and living faith 4. Humane faith is an assent to a proposition upon the simple testimony of men 5. Divine faith is a special gift of God by which we firmly hold for true all verities revealed upon the assured and
objection which the Catholicks de Ieiunio C. 1. 3. 13. cont Psychicos made against him who would have had them to keep three Lents the Apostles sayd they imposed no other Lent common to all then that in the time when CHRIST was taken from the Church his spouse by his death and Passion S. Hierome in Europe speaking of the Novelty of the Montanists says they observ'd three lents as if three Saviours had suffered but we observe but one of them according to the Tradition of the Apostles And the same holy Father writing to Marcella tels her the Ember dayes as well as the Lent were instituted by the Apostles In Asia S. Gregory of Nazianzen reprehending a Perfect named Epist 74 Celusius sayd to him you dispensing with your self from fasting do injury to the Lawes how will you keep humane lawes since you contemne divine 4. You wiâ—l not thinke the precept of fasting too severe if you consider the reasons which moved the Apostles to institute the Lent It was first to commemorate and honor the retreat and the penance of our Saviour in the desert to honor it I Rom. 8. 26. say by imitation according to our power For S. Paul says his servants must follow and imitate him to be one day with him In what must they follow and imitate him Not in preaching and in working miracles but in fasting or suffering for the love of him his Apostle declares it in these express words Let us shew that we are the Ministers or servants of God by our fasts our watchings our labors and other practises of 2. Cor. 6. 6. vertue Note in Fasts not in fasting once or twice a year as many do when they form some designe but many dayes as our Saviour hath given us example In the second place the Lent was instituted for the conversion of souls to purify our consciences from the ordure of sin by the practise of penance and by this sanctification to dispose us to receive worthily the Eucharist For the Prophet Ioel says fasting conduces much to a true conversion that it is one of the parts of penance convert your selves to me in fasting Ioel. 2. 14. The Lent is moreover fasted to make the anniversary funerall of our Saviours death But sorrow and funeralls are incompatible with good cheer for the holy Ghost distinguishes and opposes them to one another It is better says He to go to the house of mourning then to the house of banqueting 4. S. Paul tels us that many have their Belly for their God for this reason they are very eloquent and zealous to plead its cause they fight for their God with many arguments With some they would shew fasting to be superfluous or superstitious with others hurtfull or pernicious If you are predestinated will you not be saved say they without your fasting do you thinke God did expect your fasting to predestinate you Answer God did not expect our fasts but He foresaw them and other good workes for which He predestinated us to glory or this He did predestinate and this He does decree that by these means we shal obtaine that end not otherwise CHRIST fasted for you to deliver uou from this labor Why do you then afflict your selves in vain by fasting as if Christs fast did not suffice for your salvation without your little fasts Answer CHRIST also would be baptised and indeed for us not for himself and yet it follows not that I ought not to be baptized so though He fasted for me yet I ought to fast by his Example He suffered for us says S. Peter leaving us an example S. Peter 1. 2. Rom. 8. 17. that we may follow his footsteps and S. Paul if we suffer with Him we shal be also glorifyd with him Since you are resolv'd to fast why do you not chose rather to fast voluntarily than necessarily Have you not read in the Psalmist I will Sacrifice to you voluntarily Answer a fast commanded by the Church is better than that we take up by our own election for this proceeds out of one vertue to wit Temperance that from two Temperance and Obedience And if a commanded fast should proceed from obedience obly yet it would be so much better and more Excellent than the other how much the vertue of obedience is better than that of Temperance Obedience is I. Kings 15. 22. better than Victimes sayd Samuel to Saul And obedient Souls fast not as you suppose unvoluntarily with regret and sorrow but voluntarily with alacrity and gladness 5. The Epicurians and the Advocats of self love urge as they imagin yet more forcibly and to justify themselves make this remonstrance We must love our bodys as well as our souls for God created both and loves both and wills that we do love them But fasting and other austerities hinder sleep punish the body and weaken it prejudice health and shorten life and consequently by fasts and other austerities we act against the will of God the law of nature and are injurious to our selves Answer a fool according to his folly lest he seem to himself wise God Would have us to love our Body True but He wills us to love it truly and to love it truly is to procure it by the means of fasting prayer and other exercises of vertue true perfect and everlasting health What does it profit the flesh that You nourish it delicately if you nourish it for hell If you feed it so that it becoms the fuel of eternal fire would you not love it better if you curb it and afflict it here a little with hunger and with thirst to have it sound and glorious for all Eternity This is that which our Saviour says Qui amat animam suam perdet eam et qui odit in hoc mundo animam suam in vitam Eternam 1. Iohn 12. custodit eam He that loves this temporal life and therefore permits not his flesh to be molested nor afflicts it with fasting watching and other vertuous labors does not keep it to everlasting life Fasting hinders sleep I believe it and it was also instituted to hinder too much sleep that so you may have more time for prayer spiritual reading and other exercises of a Christian Fasting punishes and afflicts the body I doubt not of it if well practised And do you thinke it was instituted for other purpose than to punish it you will not then go to heaven if the way be not easy and pleasing to the flesh if it be not strew'd with flowers and sweet herbs And where then is the law of christianisme which is a law of mortification and of the Cross And what will becom of these words of our Saviour Strive to enter by the narrow gate You say fasting does prejudice health and shorten life The Church the Canon law good Phisitians and experience Quicqd Etc. legimus de Consecra dist 5. say quite the contrary the Church in the Collect of
than Tyrants 257 they censure althings 259 Confirmation obliges us to endure their censures and derisions 259 D Detraction defined 234. T is a mortal sin in a matter of importance 234. 'T is a greater sin than Robbery 235. It kills also the hearers if they oppose it not 335. It kills the Detracted by a triple murder 236. Remedies of detraction 237. E Eucharist containes really the Body and Blood of Christ Dise 44. It is compared to milk in its Production 268. In the manner it ought to be received 269. In the manner of its Operation 271. Communion in one kind defended 271. Examples move more than words 281. F Faith necessary to believe sins may be remitted 72. The Excellency and Necessity of it 88. Divers sorts of it 88. None suffices to salvation but living Faith 89. Many practise not according to their Faith 91. How a good Christian regulates his actions by Faith 91. Exhort to true Faith 92. Fasting necessary 148. The Lent was instituted by the Apostles 149. The motives to institute it 149. Objections against fasting solved 150. It s lawfullness demonstrated 153. Vertues that must accompany it 153. The ends and intentions we ought to have in it 154. Frauds are very common and pernicious 231. G God is necessarily One only 2. He is ineffable 2. Great in Nobility 3. In Power 3. In Wisdom 4. In Goodness 4. In justice 5. In indepedence 5. Documents from these Perfections 6. He is Father for divers reasons 8. He shews an infinite Power in Creating 9. Incomprehensible Wisdom in Governing 9. Ineffable Goodness in designing the Creatures to our service 10. We are obliged to thanke him for all the good He has don to them 11. Motives to Gratitude 11. Grace divided 113. What is actuall Grace 114. In how happy a state man was created and how he fell from it 114. How necessary Grace is and how freely given 115. We must distinguish carefully its motions from those of Nature 117. How they may be distinguished 118 We must be gratefull for it 118. We must not be proud when it had produced good in us but live in feare 118 Sanctifying or Habitual Grace What and how Excellent 113 241. H Heaven How great are the Goods of it 83. Four considerations to guess at their Greatness 84 motives and meanes to obtain them 86 Hell has divers significations 38 What it is to be damned 85 Hope stands with fear 95 What we ought to hope 95 of whom we ought to hope 97 Catholicks are not touched with the malediction of those that trust in men 97 who are subject to it 97 Relyance on our selves is caus of many inconveniences 97 We must hope with great Confidence 98 Exhor to confidence in our Lord 99 Holy Ghost why so called 60 Why called Gift 6 The necessity an excellency of this gift 62 We offend the holy Ghost in divers manners 6â— I Idolatry cannot be imputed to the Romane Church 169. She adores not Saints nor Relicks nor Images 170. 171. She prayes not Saints to give things desired 172. Builds not Temples Erects not Altars nor offers Sacrifice to them 172. 173. Images are not absolutely forbidden to be made but only to the end they may be adored 167. 168. Imitatours of the world reproved and their objections answered 211 212. Iudgment Particular and General 49. Reasons for a Generall Iudgment 50. This is a great Consolation to the Elect 52 Description of the general Iugdment Disc 10. What things will be therein Examined 57. Paraphrase of the Sentence of condemnation 58 Rash Iudgment Three Circumstances necessary to make it a mortal Sin 228 Causes of râ—sh Iudgment 22â— It s bad effects 229. Remedyes for it 330. L Love of God the most Excellent Vertue 100. It s necessity 101. It s necessary qualities 102 motives to love God 10â— Love of Neighbours very necessary vertue 107. Every reasonable Creature is our Neighbor 108. How we truly love our Selves and neighbors 108. 109. How ill this command is observ'd by many 110 The first and most necessary Effect of the love of our Ennemys is to pardon them 111 Motives to love and pardon them 111 112. Lyes of three Sorts 230 We ought not to speak an officious or Idle ly to save a man 231 Mass See Sacrifice M Matrimony a true Sacrement 303. A great One 304. Dutyes to which it Obligeth 305. Honour we owe to it 307. Merit Catholick Doctrine concerning it 12â— See good Works O Oathes Sometimes lawfull 181. Division and Description of them 181. 182. Conditions requisite to make them lawfull 182 183. We cannot Swear to confirm a palliated untruth 183 Divers bad causes of Swearing 185. Order a true Sacrament 298. It Confers to Priests two singular favours 299 300. P Parents Why God has not recommended to them in the Decalogue their duty in respect of children 198. They owe them Nourishment 198 Instruction 200. good Examples 201. correction 202 Exhort to educate well children 202. Penance Necessary 134 279 Conversions it makes 137 138 Two dangerous Errours concerning Penance into which we are apt to fall 138 Fruits of true Penance 140 means to obtain true Penance 140 Exhort to do Penance in the present time 136 Prayer Very necssary 141 What things are to be asked in Prayer 141 How we ought to pray 142 143 144 Excuses of indevout removed 146 R Religion Vertue may be practised in all Occasions and Times 175 The practise of it by the Vnderstanding 176 By the Will 176 by exteriour Actions 176 177 The practise of it in respect of Gods Attributes 177 It obliges us to honour God also in his Friends and Servants in Times and Places particularly consecrated to his service 177 Irreligion indevotion and irreverence reprehended 178 Exhort to honor God c. 178. Restitution must be perfect 224. 'T is absolutely necessary 224. All that concurr to an injury are obliged to it 225. It obliges always 225. Motives to avoyd injustice 225. Resurrection proved 79. the words of the article declared 80 We shal rise in the same Bodys but without defect 81 The Resurrection of the Elect and that of the Repâ—oâ—ate very different 81. Robbery defined and its definition explicated 222. It obliges to perfect Restitution 224 S Sacraments all instituted by Christ 238 He shews therein divine Perfections 239 They represent their effects very properly 240 They conferr sanctifying grace more or less according to the disposition of the Receiver 241 They give also auxiliary graces 242 Exhort to frequent them 242 Sacrifice in the new Law 273 T is very acceptaâ—le and glorious to God 275 greatly advantagious to men 276 Very beneficial to Souls in Purgatory 277 How to be offered 278. Salvation of men earnestly desired by God and the most important worke Epist to the Reader 'T is to be procured by the securest way 43. Satisfaction third Part of Penance must be made according to the multitude Enormity and diversity of our offences 283 We may satisfy the divine Iustice by all Crosses that befall us 28â— Motives to fly sin and to returne to God by true Penance 285 Scandal What properly 210 'T is sometimes a Word 211 Often Actions 211 Othertimes Omissions 213 What Actions are not to be omitted and what are to avoyd Scandal 214 Motives to avoyd it 215 Sin the greatest evill 245 248 In Christians t is far greater than io infidells 248 By sinnlng mortally we hazard Salvation 76 Carnal sins Contrary to mans nature and abominable to God 216 Species or Kinds of them 217 218 Individuums or particulars innumerable 219 Remedies of them 219. Sunday why instituted 189 How to be observed 189 190 Exhort to observe it well 191 T Tradition necessary to excuse Christians from observance of the Iews Sabbath 187 188 189 V Vnction of the Sick a true and proper Sacrament 292. It s Saving Effects 203. 294. 295. Dispositions requisite in the Receiver 296 297. Exhort to Charity 297. W Works of supererogation proved 121 good Works necessary to Salvation 122 123 Why God requires them 123 'T is necessary to be fruitfull in them 124 We must apply our Talents in them faithfully 124 Many Christianâ— lofe or abuse them 125. Exhort to practise good workes 127 We must not defer our Conversion and the practise of good Works Discours 22. FIN
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
he not who is Wisdom 3. 5. worthy of God Invenit illos dignos se Blessed a thousand times his holy and vertuous life which disposes him to such a glory blessed his happy death which will be to him as a door to enter into an immortall life Blessed his understanding which shal see one day openly and face to face the divine Essence his Will that will love God and enjoy him for all Eternity Blessed a thousand times his head upon which the holy Trinity will put a Crown of Glory in the presence of the Vnivers Blessed and happie his hands which shal carry always palmes as the ensignes of his Victories Blessed his feet and his steps since he shal walk upon the celestial Glob in the company of Angells Blessed and happy a thousand times all the members of his body and the powers of his soul which shal be filled and satiated with all sorts of delights joys glory happiness and with eternall Beatitude What I say of this elect Soule I say to every one that shal do violence to himself to rise out of the state of sin to overcom his passions to keep the commandements and to live according to the maxims of the Gospell Violenti rapiunt illud the Matthew 11. 12. Violent beare heaven away they that do violence to themselves to their vices and their passions obtain Heaven God grant us the grace to whom be honour glory praise and benediction for ever Amen DISCOURS XV. OF THE TWELFTH ARTICLE Life Everlasting Amen IN this last Article is declar'd to us the End for which we were created for which we were made Christians and to which all Laws Sacraments Vertues and other things are directed we ought then to believe firmly and to ruminate often that after the Resurrection there shal be in the Vnivers two conditions the one most happy the other most miserable and that neither of them shal ever end that every one of us shal be either of the one or of the other of the right hand or of the left of the number of the good or of the bad of them that go to heaven or of those that go to hell And that 't is now the time to look to our affairs fitting our selves to be of the happy side for after this there shal be no more time for us This doubtless we shal do if we consider and ponder well What is Eternal Life and how great are the goods of it 2. S. John in the Apocalyps speaking of sinners says their Apoc. 28. 8. part shal be in the pool burning with fire and brimstone which is the second death The second or everlasting death then is when the soul and the body are depriv'd of their Beatitude and confind to the fire of hell And on the contrary eternal life is when they are freed from those and all other evills and do enjoy the eternal Goods of heaven 3. These are so great that the Apostle who was rapt up into heaven would not describe the Greatness of them he speaks not of them but with astonishment neither eye hath seen says he nor eare hath heard nor hath the heart of man conceiv'd what God â—ath prepar'd for them that love him Nevertheless for to attain to some knowledg or rather to some slender conjecture of their greatness fourt hings shal be considered 4. First the liberality of God towards all men in this life cast the eyes of your consideration with S Austin upon the extent of the Vnivers see what stately buildings there are what chambers richly furnished what beauteous gardens what pleasant medows what odoriferous and coloured Flowers what sorts of savory fruits what delicious meats what delicate wines what sweet odours what melodious voices what sumptuous garments what dogs for chase what birds of prey for recreation It is God that gives all these things to men But to what men And who are they that more usually enioy them Atheists Infidells and others that forget him and incessantly offend him Now if He do so much good to his enemies what will he reserve for his friends If He be so liberal to give how much more to recompence if He be so charitable to those that offend him how much more to those who love him if He be so magnificent to those He owes but punishments how much more to those to whome He hath made so many promises Run through in your mind all that you have ever seen heard or imagin'd all that is great rich magnificent precious pleasant and desirable all that is nothing if compar'd with that which God hath prepar'd for you if you love him for all that may be seen recounted or desired and it is impossible to see decipher or desire the great goods which God hath promiss'd and prepar'd for those that love him 5. To have a second conjecture of them you need not but weigh and consider the iourneys and toyles of Apostles the torments of Martyrs the watchings and austerities of confessors the temptations combats and Victories of Virgins the alms and charities of Widdows the heroical vertues of other Saints and that after so many toyles so many sufferances penances mortifications good works services merits the Apostle says that Rom. 8. 18. the very sufferances and afflictions themselves of this life are little in comparison with the glory of heaven And again the tribulation which at present is momentary and light works above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory in us note above measure exceedingly 2. Ior. 4. 17. 6. Nevertheless a third consideration will make this weight of glory to surpass yet much more all value and esteem of it For Heaven is not only the Salary of the Saints but also the recompence of the merits of JESUS Consider what He is in his divine Person what He is with God his Father the ardent love He had for him the Zeal which He had for his Glory the great services He did him what He suffered for his honour what his pretious Blood is worth the Glory of Heaven is the Salary of all that given by a King most liberal in his gifts and most magnificent in his recompences 7. Hell also though very low may serve us for a footstool and a step to mount up to Heaven by contemplation and to make a guesse at the felicities of it What is hell 't is an abyss a Collection a Rendevow of the most excessive sorrows bitternesses and afflictions imaginable What is it to be damn'd 'T is to be eternally in a prison most deep most obscure and most incommodious to be eternally in captivity under a Tyrant most insolent most cruell and most barbarous not to have one mite of bread in an eternal and most ravenous hunger not a drop of water in a most burning thirst not a ray of light in the greatest darkness not a moment of rest in an unsuportable and eternal weariness to be eternally afflicted with all the miseries a humane body is
a poor man not through tenderness of heart but because JESUS hath commanded him and sayd that which you shal do to the least of mine shal be don to me Who Matth. 25. 40. ever shal give a cup of cold water to one of mine in the name of a Disciple shal receive reward He promises you nothing if you give an alms to a poor man becaus he is your countreyman of the same condition of the same nature with you but if you give to him Becaus he is a Christian and a Disciple of the Son of God in the name of a Disciple Matt. 10. 42. 13. Let us hear then with respect and put in practise this Word of JESUS Habete fidem Have faith It is the extream misery of a Christian to lose Faith whilst it subsists in the soul there remains always some hopes of salvation when it is once lost all is lost there is no recovery but by a miracle 14. Have divine faith not humane only You ought to believe what I say to you not because I say it but becaus God sayd it becaus God revealed it to his Church and the Church teaches you it by my ministery Divine faith believes all the words of the Scripture without exception if you believe some and not the other it is humane faith or opinion or phansie not divine faith which believes becaus God is the soveraign and infallible Verity who cannot deceive in any point if He could in one He might in all the rest 15. Have actual faith not habitual only It is very profitable to exercise often formal and express acts of faith especially in temptation and in occasion of Sin to do as our Savior who being tempted in the desart oppos'd to each temptation a text of holy scripture And S. Paul counsells us to make use of the shield of faith in every occasion are you tempted by imprudence to defer your conversion oppose to it this shield enliven your faith by Ephes. 6. 16. Luke 12. 40. these words of our Savior the Son of man will com in what hour ye think not Death and judgment will surprize you when you think least of it Are you tempted by injustice to do any injury to your neigbour oppose this shield actuate your faith by these words of JESUS Do not to another what thou wouldst not have don to thy self Are you tempted by choler to abuse another by your words actuate your faith by these words of our Savior He that is angry with his brother he that calls him fool shal be guilty of fire Are you tempted by impurity oppose this shield quicken your faith by these words of S. Paul know that all fornicators and unclean Eph. 5. persons have no part in the kingdom of IESUS-CHRIST Are you tempted to go in an open dress and to shew your breasts Stir vp your faith by these words of IESUS Woe to him by whom a Scandal comes that is to him who gives an occasion to one only person to commit a mortal Sin 16. Have firm and perfect faith which doubts not wavers not staggers not at all You must be more convinced and perswaded of all that the Church does teach than you are of what you see S. Peter having seen the glory of IESUS vpon Luke 17. 1. mount Thabor having heard the voice of the eternal Father This is my beloved Son says that he was yet more ascertain'd of it by the testimony of holy Scripture habemus firmiorem Propheticum 2. Pet. 1. 19. sermonem And since the sacred text does say Fornicators Avaricious Robbers and other sinners shal never possess the kingdom of God if they correct not in themselves these Vices you must be more certain never to be saved if you commit these sins and have not true repentance then of what you see or hear if you doubt of it or have doubted of it voluntarily you must accuse your self thereof as of a Sin of infidelity I say voluntarily For when thoughts do rise against faith if they displeas you or if you reject them promptly as soon as you perceive them there is no Sin But to avoyd the occasions of them do what S. Paul commands you avoyd those that would seduce you they will cast always into your mind I know not what maligne and venemous disposition if your calling be to serve though they would give you great wages serve them not if you pretend to marriage beware to marry them for you put your selves in danger of being seduced and when there should be no danger yet you may die and leave children who being bredvp by them will follow their errors and lose their souls Beware also to read or to have in your house naughty books some of your people may happen to read them and be perverted or prejudiced by them 17. Have explicit faith content not your selves to say I am a good Catholick I believe all Articles of faith but learn them in particular at least the principall and most remarkable To learn them you ought to hear as often as you can sermons catechismes to read Spiritual books to frequent devout persons who can instruct you to meditate upon them for to conceive the importance of them 18. And to make a publick profession of them you should of ten explicate them and make others to admire them You must not fear to oppose those who speak unworthily of them of God or of his Church nor be asham'd to practise the observances and devotions prescribed by the Church in consequence to them But remember this word of the Son of God He that shal be asham'd Luke 9. 26. of me before men I will be asham'd of him in the presence of my Father and his Angells 19. Have living faith animated with charity and fruitfull in good works otherwise S. Paul will say Your faith is vain for 1. Cor. 15. 17. Iames 2. yet you are in your sins S. Iames will say Shal dead faith be able to save you S. Bernard will say behold a fine honor you render to your God! you offer to him a dead carkess a faith joyn'd to infamous and stincking actions The Saints did not so they practised Heb. 11. vertue by their faith they converted kingdoms by the heroical actions of their faith they obtain'd the promises which God made to the true faithfull the possession and enjoyment of the principal object of faith the intuitive and clear vision of the essence of God in the happy eternity which God granr us all Amen DISCOURS XVII Of Hope 1. THe God of Hope says the Apostle replenish you with all Rom. 15. 13. sort of joy that you may abound in hope In which words he wills not only that we hope but he demands of God for all the Faithfull an abundance of this gift and vertue by which we may hope through the merits of IESUS-CHRIST to possess God and to enjoy eternal felicity This Vertue is so necessary that
the first saturday in lent says this solemn fast was holily instituted for the health both of soul and body And in the Decretalls of Gratian we read that many who had infirmities their goods being confiscated and they reduced to poverty so that they could not make good cheer were cured by this forced dyet All good Phisitians will tell you that for one hurt by fasting fifty are killed by eating and drinking And Experience shews that the more abstemious usually enjoy better health and longer life It is true that Fasting macerates and weakens bodys that are not well accustomed and hardned by it But it strengthens souls and makes them reign they are disposed by it to prayer and contemplation they please God by it satisfy his justice merit and impetrate of Him Benefits temporal and eternal The servant body then must indure theses paines and labours by which accrew so many and so great advantages to the lady soul nor does the Soul do injury to the body making it to fast but much obliges it She exempts it from punishments which it merited by rebellions for nothing appeases more the anger of God nothing averts better the thunderbolts of his justice then fasting and other macerations of the body which proceed out of true conversion and compunction of heart Witness the Ninivites It is doplorable that they who glory in the name of Christians have not so much sight and judgment as those poor Pagans the Son of God hath reason to say that they shal rise in judgment and condemn them Ionas sayd not to the Ninivites fast put on hair-cloth do pennance but only fourty days and Ninive shal be subverted and yet Pagans as they were had the light to know that to appease God it was necessary to fast and to do penance they published a fast so general and severe that all from the greatest to the least from the eldest to the youngest also bruit beasts fasted three days and nights without any meat or drink Should the Church command such a fast how would they cry-out against her but he Creatour approv'd this Edict and pardoned the sins of those that had so fasted 6. To be short if austerities be unlawfull and forbidden we must condemn all the ancient Anchorets and a great part of the primitive Christians who fasted almost daily in bread and water through the Spirit of penance and mortification we must condemn the Religious of the present Church who weaken their bodys by the exercises of penance We must condemn our Savior who fasted and spent whole nights in prayer upon mount olivet to give us example we must condemn the holy Ghost who exhorts us by the Apostle earnestly to shew that we are the Ministers or servants of God by Patience by Watchings 2. Cor. 6. 6. and fastings by longanimity and sweetness by the sincerity of our words by chastity and by cordial charity 7. These are the vertues and dispositions which ought to accompany our fasts They who have not health or strength for the one ought to addict themselves with more zeal to the practise of the other shewing that they are the faithfull servants of God and true Children of the Church By much patience You say you cannot fast because you are big with child or you are a nource And well says S. Chrysostome God excuses you from this fast But He requires another of you S. Chryâ— hom 22. ad pop which is that you abstain from anger this abstinence will do no hurt to the fruit you bear on the contrary the too ardent Passion by which you are transported may hurt it much and make it to dye without Baptisme By longanimity and sweetness If God say to you in judgment why have you not fasted if you answer I had a great weakness of stomake a continual and great giddiness of my head when I fasted And well if you say true God will admit of this excuse But what will you answer when He will reply why have you not pardoned your ennemie Why have you not thrown that hatred out of your heart which filled you with gall and betterness One sweet word sayd to salute your neighbor and to gain his heart would it have burnt your mouth or caused dizziness in your head By sincerity of words you are sick they command you to eate flesh obey your Phisitian and Confessor but eate not that flesh which is forbidden you I fear I shal see one day that many eate flesh in the Lent not boyled but raw and also humane flesh by calumny and detraction it is the Scripture that speaks so the harmfull approach upon me and eate my flesh sayd the Royal Prophet And holy Iob why do you persecute me Psal 26. 2. and are filled with my flesh They make a conscience to put their teeth into a piece of dead flesh and they make no scrupule to tear with their tongue the living flesh of their neighbor by calumnies and murmurations which is wors By Chastity fast not only with the mouth for it is not the mouth only that offends God make all the members of your body to fast Impure looks touches lacivious thoughts and delectations are carnal meats these are prohibited in all times and chiefly in the Lent he that fasts not commits but one or two sins a day but he that consents to dishonest thoughts commits sometimes more than ten By cordial Charity The holy Fathers say fasting is not only instituted to punish the body but also that we may have more means and leasure to give alms to viset sick and to practise other workes of charity fiat refectio pauperis abstinentia jejunantis Either you fast or not if you fast you should give to the poor what you would spend in a supper if you do not fast seeing you honor not God by abstinence honour him by mercy corporal or spiritual We ought to fast so in charity towards our neigbor We must fast in charity also towards God and not for terrene and temporal Ends. 8. The Son of God says to us When you fast wash your face Matt 6. 18. that is to say purify your intention Make not a fast of Gallen to be well and in good health nor the fast of the Avaricious to spare the purse but the fast of a Christian to obey the Church to have more means to give alms more leasure to practise good works the spirit more free to pray to satisfy the justice of God to make the funerall of our Saviours death to dispose our selves to communion to honor and imitate the fast of JESUS in the desert so having accompanied Him in his penance and fast on earth we may merit to be satiated by the torrent of pleasure with him in heaven Amen DISCOURS XXVI OF ALMS BLessed is the man that considers the necessities of the poor to have pity on him God will treat him sweetly and mildly in the day of judgement Psal in the day which the Royal Prophet
of hatred or iâ—l will 't is out of love or xeal of justice his strokes are favours and his wounds are antidotes He is angry as a dove with out gaule or malice our anger is of a contrary quality 't is the anger of a viper with interiour venime and black bile when we are angry we are full of aversion and bitterness and the malignity also of this viper is so great that often it vomits out its poyson against the goodness of God himself 7. What remedy for a passion so unreasonable maligne and prejudicial First we must remove the cause in our own selves must pull out the root which is an inordinate affection to temporal goods or to our selves or to some other creature An Ancient named Cottis broke many Vessells which his friends had presented him fearing he should be angry when his servants broke them I counsell you not to destroy or to quit wholy all that is or may be the occasion of your anger but to moderate your affection to them and to love them rather out of obedience to the Will of God than by inclination so having no tye of irregular affection to them you will not be in danger to be much moved when you shal be depriv'd of them 9. Consider in the second place from whence the accidents and Crosses com which are wont to move your anger Know that all that happens in this world I say all except sin does com from God and therefore ought to be well receiv'd both in regard of the divine source whence they proceed and the beneficial effects they are sent to produce in us The holy Ghost sayes in Ecclesiasticus that good things and evill life and death poverty Ecclus. 11. Aug. in Psal 48. and riches com from God And hence S. Austin assures us that whatsoever happens in this world against our wills coms not but by the will of God by his Providence and order though we know not the reason of it Whosoever considers well this Providence of God his goodness and his Wisdom hath a true and sweet prevention of his passions he cannot thinke the Crosses are design'd for ill to him because they are disposed by an Infinite Goodness who intends and projects his good He will not Gyant like set up his will against the will of God and with a foolish rashness kick against the spurr but submit to all that hath been decreed in his counsells receive all patiently and thankfully as comming from so good a hand and happily rejoyce also in so good a hope 10. By these means well practised you may prevent your anger so that it will not easily surprize you And to extinguish it or moderate it when it is inflam'd your companions may by the grace of God do much if they imitate him in a like occasion you see sometimes a thick cloud that covers the skie darkens the Sun and makes as it were night at midday you hear a thunderbolt that runs in it lightens thunders and astonishes the world you will say that all goes to rack and the end of the world is com What does our good God to dissipate this tempest Educit ventos de the sauris suis He brings out of his treasures a gentle west wind a little wind that dissipates these clouds calms this tempest and makes the Sun to shine again this tempest is resolv'd into refreshing showers which water the earth and brings a thousand commodities When your neigbor is in passion he is like this cloud is in a tempest and in a rage the Sun of his reason is ecclipsed and hath with in him a darke night he murmures storms and makes a noise like a clap of thunder gives looks that resemble lightinings threatens rants and tears and makes appearance of overthrowing all If you are well disposed you will dissipate all this easily you need not but to let out of your heart which ought to be the treasure of God a mild word as a gentle wind you must not disavow any thing that he says at that time you must not resist him nor retort a fault upon him but excuse him and demand pardon though you have not committed any fault to morrow when this violent heat of passion is cooled and his spirit quieted he will return to himself will admire your patience acknowledg his fault repent himself of his folly and love you better than before 11. But the souveraign remedy of anger and other passions is the grace of God We commit great faults not making fervent and frequent recours to it Our Saviour had no need to pray and yet to give us example being neer his passion sayd to his Father My soul is troubled my fother save me from this houre Do Iohn 12. 27. as He when you percieve any temptation in your heart cast your selves at the feet of the Son of God beg help say with the Apostles Lord save us we perish And when you are not Matth. 8. 25. in temptation court him pray him practice vertues that please him to the end he assist you when you shal be assaulted And ruminate sometimes these words of S. Paul Patience is necessary Heb. 10. 36. for you that doing the will of God you may receive the promise If you be patient the promise of God will be fulfilled in you first in this world He sayed the meek and gentle shal possess the earth Matth. 5. 4. moderate patient and well tempered spirits dispatch affaires with more conduct and better success than hasty turbulent and violent Fabius Maximus did more by his Patience against the Carthaginians than Scipio with his Armies Promise for the other life He sayd In your patience you shal Luke 21. 19. possess your soules you will avoyd an ocean of sins which would put you in danger of losing your soul you will diminish the paines due to your crimes so many injuries so many affronts so many displeasures which you endure for the love of God are so many penances and satisfactions for your offences By patience you practise humility charity towards your neigbbor resignation to the will of God and other vertues which will increase in you the grace of God and make you merit Glory Amen DISCOVRS XXXV OF THE FIFTH COMMANDEMENT Thou shalt not kill AS the reasonable soul is incomparably more noble than the body So the Spirituall murther is much more pernicious and damnable than the corporall That which I call Spiritual murther is Scandal for S. Paul speaking to a corinthian who scandalized his neighbor 1. Cor. 8. sayd to him You are the cause that your christian Brother for whome Christ hath dyed does perish This word of that great Apostle is enough to oblige us to speake all our words and to do all our actions with great circumspection that we may never give ill example nor scandalize so many who have their eyes upon us and who more usually and willingly do imitate our evill than our good By