the Iews for to oblige them to be faithfull in his service and obedient to his Laws I am the Lord thy God who have brought thee out of the land of Egipt I am your Lord and Sovereign you are my Vassalls and Slaves ' not only as other people by reason of the benefit of creation but by a new right and a special obligation becaus I made wâ—â—r against Pharao for you and you are my Captives and prisoners of warr JESUS hath much more reason to make the like plea to us and to oblige us to his service for he hath fought in his own person for us He hath been wounded in the combat He hath delivered us from the deplorable servitude of Sin freed us from the most cruel tyranny of Satan and drawn us from his oppression are we not then his slaves Add to this that He hath bought us 1. Cor. 6. 20. with his blood you are bought with a great price Says the Apostle You are then no more your own your Being your soul your body and your actions are not yours if you employ them then for your selves you are usurpers of anothers goods since IESUS hath bought you you belong more to him than a slave unto is Lord than a horse unto his Master 9. Nevertheless what is most uniust and most deplorable Many acknowledge not JESUS-CHRIST to be their Lord He receives no homage from them For what honor what service and what obedience do they render him If they are in a chamber of an earthly King or Lord t is with great respect with a profound silence and with fear to commit the least incivility But if they are in a church in the house of God in his presence they commit irreverences insolences and insupportable impudences What service do they render him In the morning as soon as they are up they fall upon their employments or upon fooleries or trifles and pastimes if they go to Church they give to God their lipps and their hearts to their affaires to vanities and often to worse in the Evening they pray in bed or half a sleep or with so little respect that they would not speak in that manner to a Civil man In the rest of the day they think not of him they speak of him no more than if there were no God unless perhaps pronouncing his holy name or calling upon him irreverently and offending him 10. What Obedience do they yield to his divine laws What little King is there in the world or Lord of a Village that they would disoblige as they do this great Lord If He were a King of cards they would not transgress his commandements with greater impudence than they do If He were a God of straw they would hardly offend him with more temerity and lesse regard to Him They sweare by his holy Name transgress his Commandements commit sins which displeas him infinitely and after this they laugh play and sleep as boldly as if they had done nothing 11. No He is not their Lord they say with the Iews we will not have this man reign over us they deny by their works what they profess by these words I believe in JESUS-CHRIST Luke 19. â—4 our Lord. Who is then their Master to whom do they appertain to whom do they homage and service To the most barbarous Cruel and infamous tyrants imaginable thô they know by serving such Masters they gain but hell that they have not one day of true repose not one hour of solide content that they are tortured by the furies of their conscience by apprehension of death by fear of damnation and by the sight of the inconstancy and mortality of Creatures which they love The world cries I fail you in time of need the flesh cries I defile and cover you with ordures the Devill cries I deceive them that trust in me and many goe after these Masters JESUS our Lord cries come to me all and I will refresh you I will discharg you of the heavy burden of the world I will deliver you from the Tyrannie of your passions I Matt. 11. 28. will free you from the servitude of the Devill And yet few do go to him Ah! few of them also who cry out to him Lord Lord and do seem to honour him for many of these desire to goe but stand still they cannot abide to take paines in the way they will not labour to practise the vertues which He commands tho' He hath given so excellent and heroycal Example of obedience having made himself obedient to death and to the death of the Cross and tho' they know that since He hath redeemed us by his Obedience to the Commandements of his Father He will apply to us the fruit of his Redemption by our Obedience to his Commandements He is made says the Apo-stle the cause of eternal salvation to all them that doe obey him 12. Let us say then with S. Austin Command what you will Heb. 5. 9. give what you Command you may Command what so ever you please for you are Lord You cannot command any thing that is not just for you are a most equitable Iudge You command nothing but what is sweet profitable and facile with your grace for you are our Father Give what you Command There is much repugnance in our corrupted nature much opposition to the observance of your divine Laws But you are Omnipotent and can easily overcome it by your Grace You promised by your Prophets that you would write your Commandements in our hearts they are as hard as stones But you wrote them upon stones Engrave them then we beseech you in the center of our hearts that you comming to Judge may not find transgressions to be punished But good works which are your gifts to be rewarded in the happy Eternity Amen DISCOURS V. OF THE THIRD ARTICLE Who was conceived by the holy Ghost born of the Virgin Marie SPirituall and devout soules who meditate upon the Misteries of this Article are transported with joy and admiration at the sight of the great wonders divinely wrought in the wombe of the B. Virgin in the Conception of JESUS-CHRIST For if in this Conception there is one thing natural there are many that surpass all nature That our Redeemers Body was formed of the Blood of a woman is a natural thing But that it was formed not by mans operation but by the operation of the holy Ghost That his Body was made in an instant without the imperfections in which ours are made That in this instant it receives a reasonable soule without the ignoâ—ance where in we are conceived without the stayne of original sin which Adam put upon us But on the contrary with perfect knowledg of all things and with plenitude of Grace That this Body and soul are united to the second Person of the B. Trinity That that which arises by this Vnion is perfect God and perfect man That He was such in a womans wombe That she remaining
not been redeem'd by IESUS-CHRIST sayd to them Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy foul and with all thy forces what ought Christians to do after the Incarnation Redemption and Passion of our Saviour Ought they not to burn with love should they not if it were possible love JESUS above all their forces thoughts and activity of their hearts If I owe my self wholy to him for making me what shal I add now for repairing me and repairing me in such a manner 14. Let us love him then since He so loved us let 's not love him only in words and compliments let us not content our selves to say I honour much my Saviour I love him with all my heart But let us love him in worke and Verity in doing in giving and in suffering for him for so He loved us And since his goodness is so infinite and his love to us so excessive that He preferred us not only before Angells but also before himself it would be a horrible blindeness to preferr any other good before him it would be a strange folly to offend him to disoblige his goodness to lose his amity and his favour for honour pleasure profit or satisfaction of a Passion Do not so if you be wise Say rather with S. Austin all abundance all honour all felicity that is not you my God is but poverty vanity and misery say as S. Francis did my God You are my All Love him with all your heart since He his all your good love him with a sovereign love since He is sovereignly good love adore bless prayse glorify him now and ever Amen DISCOURS VII OF THE FIFTH ARTICLE He descended into Hell the third day He rose again from the dead IESUS appli'd himself so earnestly to our Salvation that whilst He was on earth He let not a moment pass without labouring for it And for this effect whilst his Body lay'd in grave He descended into Hell This world Hell signify's an inferiour and low place And therefore the holy Church makes use of it in divers occasions to signify divers inferiour places By this word she most often understands the place of everlasting damnation And so our Saviour called it in 1. Luke 36. S. Luk. where speaking of the unfortunate rich man says he was buried in hell Other times she uses this terme to signify Purgatory where they are who died in the grace of God but having not fully satisfyed the divine Iustice are further to be punished so in the Mass of the dead she prayes free ô Lord the souls of the faithfull departed from the paines of hell She makes use of it also to signify the place whither the souls of holy and just persons who were not subject to purgation or had duely satisfyd for their offences went before the death of the Saviour of the world expecting He should open them the gates of Heaven by his Passion 2. He descended not only by effect into these two last places making his power and goodness to appear by delivering the soules in them detained But in substance He descended into them his soul was really in those places and He honoured the soules that were in them and made them happy by his presence The third day he rose again from the dead He rose no sooner for to testify that He was truly dead and to fulfill the figure of Matt. 12. 40. him As Ionas was three days and three nights in the belly of a whale so shal be the Son of man in the bowells of the earth He would be three days subject to the law of death to teach us mystically that by his death and Passion He had satisfyd the three Persons of the B. Trinity for the sins committed in the three states of the world in the Law of nature in the Law of Moses and in the Law of grace And to shew us that his Passion was the cause of the delivery of the ancient Fathers out of hell of the Redemption of men on earth and of the reparation of the Angelical thrones in Heaven He rose again By which words the Apostles teach us that He S. Iohn 10. return'd to life by his own power He sayd also in the Gospell I have power to lay down my life and to take it up againe and in another place I will raise up my Body in three daies after death 3. I know well that S. Peter and S. Paul teach in many places that his Father raised Him up to life because this miracle S. Pater is an effâ—ct of the omnipotency of God which thô common Ast. c. 3. 26. and c. 5. 30. S. Paul in the 4. 8. and 10. to the Rom. Phil. 28. and 9. to all the 3. Persons of the B. Trinity yet is attributed commonly to the Father 'T is true then that He rose up by his own Power and 't is true also that the eternal Father raised him to the end He might shew his goodness both ro him and us 4. First to him that his Body might receive the Glory which He merited by his labors humiliations and sufferances For He humhled himself says the Apostle being obedient unto death for the which thing God hath exalted him Note exalted him for his Resurrection was not a simple return from death to life but an entrance into a glorious life That Body which He layd down passible and mortall He receives impassible and immortal that which was inglorious now is glorious which was infirm now is powerfull which was a natural Body now is becom a spiritual These are the excellent qualities which S. Paul attributes to every 1. cor 15. matt 13 43. glorifyd Body But that of Glory or clarity delights me most for the body of every saint shal shine by it as the sun fulgebunt justi sicut sol and nevertheless one shal differ from another in this Quality as much as he exceeded him here in good works or as S. Paul says as one starr differs in glory from another What glory then what admirable splendor what ravishing beauty was given to the adorable Body of JSUS in recompence of his merits And what satisfaction and felicity will it be to see it when our eyes shal be able to behold it as hereafter they shall be by their impassibility These four qualities belong to the Body of the Son of God as a body glorifyd But as a Body Deifyd as subsisting in the Divinity it hath yet a farr other Glory Jt hath a supereminent ineffable and incomprehensible Glory as we may see in the next Discours 5. Wherfore the Son of God thanks his Father for that He brought his soul out of hell and his Body out of the sepulcher and that He raised him up again Exaltabo te Domine quoniam suscepisti psal 29. me Eduxisti ab inferno animam meam And He esteems so much this favour that He exhorts us to thanke God to praise and glorify
which S. Iohn called our Lords day We read again in the Acts that the first christians met upon the first day of the week which is our sunday to communicate But Acts. 20. 7. a Sabbatharian wil reply again what then The Text does not say they assembled always on that day or only on that day yea we read in the Acts that they communicated very frequently Acts. 2. or every day How do you then inferr from their communicating once upon that day that the Sabbath was abrogated and the Sunday was subrogated in its place Nay you find in the new Law that though the old Law was by CHRIST evacuated yet the ten Commandements were by Him confirm'd For in S. Matthew one came to our Saviour saying what good shal I do that I may have everlasting life Our Saviour Matth. 10. answered keep the commandements And when that man reply'd to know what commandements Our Lord explicated himself to mean those Commandements which that man knew very well S. Mark 10. S. Luke 18. Cor. 7. 19 as appears also in S. Mark and in S. Luke Secondly S Paul in his first Epistle to the Corinthians says Circumcision is nothing and prepuce is nothing but the observance of the Commandements of God this is the thing you must look too if you will have everlasting life Behold here that great Apostle tels you rhat even then when Circumcision was abolished and made nothing yet the observance of the Commandements and he excepts not one was necessary to salvation And our Saviour foretelling his Apostles the destruction of Hierusalem which was to be 40. yeares after his Resurrection when one would think the observance of the Sabbath would have been S. Matthew 24. 20. if ever it were to be abolished yet He bids them pray that their flight might not be upon the Sabbath or the 7. th day for to avoyd the prophanation of that day The seventh day then was to be observ'd long after the supposed practise of Communion upon the Sunday Acts. 20. 7. 1. Cor. 16 and long after S. Paul bids Christians to make their collections upon the first day of the week from whence you draw another argument though the Apostle does not so much as say that they did use to meet that day and seems to appoint that day only for a pious beginning of the week 2. Since then the Scriptures are not clear for us in this important point yea seem rather to be against us How do we know that the obligation of sanctifying the Sabbath or seventh day was taken away And how do we know that a new obligation of sanctifying the Sunday was put upon us we know it by the same way we know the Bible is the Word of God that the Creed was made by the Apostles that infants are to be baptized that the prohibition of the new Law to eate suffocated Acts. 15. meats and blood is repeal'd and to be short as we know other things of great importance not written or not plainly 2. Thes. 2. 15. declar'd in Scripture And this is Apostolical Tradition which S. Paul bids us hold For the Church by the instruction of the Apostles tells us plainly that the Son of God hath freed us from all obligation to sanctify the Sabbath of the Iewes and hath instituted Sunday for us Christians For on this day the principal Workes attributed to the most holy Trinity and don in favour of us were begun or accomplished It was on Sunday that God began to create the World It was on Sunday that our Saviour came into the world that He was born of the B. Virgin and that he rose again from the dead It was on Sunday that the holy Ghost descended upon the Faithfull to sanctify the world 3. These incomparable Workes should be the object of our devotion on Sundays to conforme our selves to the intentions of our Saviour and of the Church For this Commandement is both affirmative and negative as negative it forbids servil workes as affirmative it commands us to sanctify the day that is to employ the day in holy Workes as in assisting devoutly at divine service in praying in contemplating particularly those great workes of God for to admire the excellencie of them and to thank bless and praise him for them in receiving the Sacraments in reading spiritual books in hearing the word of God in visiting the Poor Sick and Prisoners which is an act af Religion says S. Iames in instructing one another in the Mysteries of Faith in the Commandements of God in S. Iames 1. 27. the practise of vertue and Religion S. Chrysostome sayd that Sunday was called the day of bread becaus all Christians then receiv'd the bread of Angells in the Eucharist the day of light becaus we ought to receive tâ—erein light and guidance for all the week by sermons catechismes spiritual reading and meditation If then we employ great part of the day in dancing playing and recreating our selves we offend not indeed against the negative Commandement which forbids servil workes but we do not accomplish perfectly the affirmative precept which commands us to sanctify the day 4. They violate the negative Commandement who employ the holy days in traficking in buying or selling or other servil and mercenary employments and are subjects of the complaynt which God makes by Ezechiel The houses of Israel provoked me and my Ezeeh. 20. 13. Sabbaths they violated exceedingly 4. You wilâ— say If I sell not another will I shal lose my custome and shal want But if this be so S. Paul would not say Piety is profitable to all things that is both to the spiritual 1. Tim. 4. 8 Matt 6. 31. and the temporal Nor would our Saviour conclude Be not therefore solicitous for the Sustenance of your bodys seek first the kingdom of God and his Providence will furnish you the rest by the meanes of moderate labour If we ever ought to seek the kingdom of God we ought to do it at least on Sundays and becaus you seek it not you are not supplyed with the rest You neglect the spiritual for the temporal and you lose both temporal and spiritual you are poor in this world and in the other 5. They have violated my Sabbaths exceedingly God says Exceedingly against those who not only serve not God on sundays but offend him more outragiously than in any other day by debaucheries impieties and dissolutions It seems the sunday is made by some the sink of all the week who having not leasure to offend God on other days transferr this to the sunday It is not now our Lords day with them but the devills their solemnities are not the festivalls of Saints but of Bacchus Ceres and Venus Heretofore the devills left the bodyes of possessed persons and withdrew themselves into the desert as unable to endure the piety and devotion of the Faithfull But now they possess the hearts of Christians as those hoggs of the
one cannot practise effectually all good workes but a chosen soul is disposed to do them promptly whensoever God gives him abilitie and occasion These Words of S. Paul instruct us to employ the Talents and to cooperate with the grace that God gives us faithfully In what consists the fidelity of a servant in that he employes the goods of his Master to as much profit as he can and therefore the servant in the Gospell who had employ'd well the five talents which were given him to trafick was called faithfull servant S. Matt. 25. 26. serve bone fidelis and the other who gain'd not with his talent was term'd naughty servant This ought to admonish us Gregory hom 9 in Evang. sayes great S. Gregory to consider carefully lest we who have received more from God than others should be therefore judg'd more severely and rigorously than others for when the gifts of God are augmented in us the accompts which we must render of them also do increase every one of us ought then to be so much more humble and more diligent in the service of God how much he finds himself more oblig'd for the fovours he receiv'd from him 9. Nevertheless there are very many Christians that make not good use of them there are but few comparatively to whome one may not say as to the idle servant in the Gospell who hid his Talent serve nequam naughty servant Some have the Talent of a good wit and understanding And in what do they employ this fine wit to speak a witty word in company to jest pleasantly to study curiosities and complements to make ingenious replyes to the end they say there is a Lady that hath a great wit there is a man that knowes how to intertain company they do as that foolish Emperour who spent the day in chasing and killing flies with a golden bodkin they have golden understandings which are not employd but to catch flies the flies of vain glory of worldly praise of complacencie in them selves and at the best but in the affaires of this world God gave it them to consider his workes to contemplate his perfections to meditate upon the Mysteries of Faith to conceive acts of repentance to do good workes to assist the poore to confort the opprest to help widows and orphans and to instruct the ignorant and they do nothing less is not this to lose or abuse their Talent Others have the Talent of perfect health a body entire and well compos'd that they may bear the labours of good and vertuous workes and the austerities of penance and they let this health wâ—ste away in an idle slack and faint life Ladies if you are good Christians after you have don your devotions you ought to labor in some worke for the Poore since S. Paul does say so To others God hath given riches of this world to do good with them to buy heaven and to redeem their sins by alms if God had don this favour to one man only to be able to redeem eternal paines with temporal goods to be able to oblige his Saviour and to gaine his favour with money how happy would he be esteem'd when a rich man is upon his death-bed and dispair'd off by Phisitians we are wont to say ô if life and health could be bought with money how glad would this man be how willingly would he give the halfe of his fortune to free himself from present death Yes life and health may be purchased with money not the fragil and temporal health but the solid and eternal not this life which is full of miseries but the happy life which is a collection of all goods And instead of purchasing this life instead of redeeming their sins by alms instead of traficking with this Talent they keep it â—id and lock'd up in a Coffre or they throw it away in vanities superfluities and debaucheries Another Talent which God desires us to manage with more care is the time He gives us to do penance and other workes of holiness He desires so much that we make use of the present time that he leaves us vncertaine of the future we know not that after this year this month this week this day there will be any time for us Is it not then a great want of prudence to let it pass without making good use of it Consider well your life see in what you employ the precious time You rise at eight or nine a clock you lose two or three houres in dressing your selves you content your selves to hear a short mass the afternoon is spent in giving or receiving visites the evening in frivolous discourses in cardes or other pastimes is this the life of a Christian is this to bring forth much fruit is this to be a Pursuer of good Works But that with which we ought to cooperate most diligently is the grace of God Wherefore S. Paul cryes-out to us receive 2. Cor. 6. not the grace of God in Vaine Nevertheless holy Iob notes our abuse of it Ipsi fuerunt rebelles Lumini they have been rebells against the light Is it not true that this word is verifyd in you you Iob. 24. 23. do not sin through ignorance you know well that you live not as you ought you would not dye in the state of negligence Vanity worldliness in which you are you do many things which in the houre of death you will wish you had not don you do not many things which you will wish you had don you seek arguments and apparent reasons to flatter your selves in your imperfections and abuses of Gods graces But We need not to go out of the parable of the Gospel to confute them The Master sayd to the servant who had hid his Talent naughty servant why have you not put it out to profit He had not dissipated nor imploy'd ill the Talent but because he had not gain'd by it he sayd to him naughty servant take him and cast him into exteriour darkness Let us then apply our selves to good workes so that we may say with S. Paul the grace of God hath not been fruitless in me that 1. Cor. 15. 10. Colloss 4. 12. Apoc. 3. we may be of the number of those to whome 't is sayd You stand perfect and full in all the Will of God that we may not be subject to this reproach in the Apocalyps I find not thy workes full before God Consider what you would say to a workman that should rest two or rhree houres daily more then he ought what you would say to your farmer if he should bring you but half the rent he owes you These holy dispositions must com from God it belongs to him to give the beginning the progress and the accomplishment of our vertue Beg then these graces of him humbly fervently and frequently cooperate with them faithfully render to him all the glory of your actions and confess that when God shal crown your merits He will crown his
and no man doubts to set any Painter or Graver on worke notwithstanding these words of the law God then forbids them to be made to the End divine worship be given to them and to signify this He adds Thou shalt not adore nor serve thâ—m He confirms us in this sense in the 26. chapter of Leviticus You shal not make to your selves an Idol and graven thing neither shal you erect Pillars nor set an Image of stone in your land for to adore it We gather this sense also from the reason which God gives of the command I am the Lord thy God all soveraign honor all divine worship all supream adoration is due to me I am a jealous God I Suffer not any divine worship but my own I connot allow my honour to be given to another Wherefore S. Austin and other Interpreters of scripture so understand these words that we make not images against the intention of the law if we make them not S. Aug. in Quest Iosue 22 30. for to adore them so the Israelites were fatisfyd that the Tribes of Ruben and Gad erected not an Altar against the intention of the law since they made it not for sacrifice but only for a monument S. Admire here the goodness of God who seperates us from idolatry the most vile foule and cruel servitude imaginable which made the poor idolaters to serve a thousand most vile and most base Masters which urged men and women in their publick service to actions so foul and impudent that impudence it self would blush to see or hear of them which engaged them to such inhumanities and cruelties in their sacrifices that we cannot without horrour speak or thinke of them And He does not only endeavour to free men from this most hard and pernicious slavery but moreover binds them to himself not that He hath any want of us He hath no need of our goods nor of our service He was most happy from all Eternity and would be for all Eternity without us But it is becaus He desires that we be perfect He will that we be happy and He sees that our perfection consists in loving and serving him And therefore He moves and solicits us to it by most effectual means He commands strictly and threatens the transgressours of his command to punish them in their children to the third and fourth generation and to move our mercenary hearts yet more He promises to recompence our obedience in thousands and all this is but a pledg and gage of the great goods which He prepared and promised us if we love him and keep his commandements 4. After such Commands threatnings and promises can we thinke that a great Church a Church so learned so curious and carefull in other points and so addicted to good workes would give supream honour divine worship and adoration to Saints and to their Relicks which she believes to be no Gods Nay to statues and pictures which she declares to have no Divinity or vertue and this with the loss of Gods favour forfeiture of his promises labour in this world eternal punishment in the other and without gain of any honor pleasure or profit whatsoever May be believe that CHRIST having banished Idolls out of the world for ever or out of the greater part of it as it was by the Prophets foretold He should and that the Turks who adore Isaiah 2. 18. Zachar. c. 13. V. 2. him not and the jews his greatest enemies enjoy the fruit and accomplishment of this promise and Christians who honor adore and love him should not but should live and dye in Image Saint and Host Idolatry He hath not made by himself or his Apostles Idolatry to cease one only moment of time if it be Idolatry to adore the B. Sacrament to honor the Saints their Relicks and their Images so as the Romane Church does honour them since these things have been so practised in all times in both Greek and Latine Church You see then that to make Catholicks Idolaters is to tear one of the most precious and replendent jewells out of the Crown of JESVS that it is to make the Prophets of his Father Lyars and that it is to give occasion to Infidells to make him this reproach Thy Prophets see vain things and divine a ly Is it Possible that the Catholick or universall Church the Church to which God promised that the gates of Hell shal not prevail against Matt. c. 16. v. 18. Matt. c. 28. v. 19. Iohn c. 16. v. 12. Osee c. 2. v. 19. Her That He would be with her all days even to the consummation of the world That He would preserve her from falling into errors and guid her into all truth the Church which God Espoused to himself for ever The Church which He obliged all to believe and follow I believe the holy Catholick Church Is it possible I say that she breaks always notoriously the first commandement by teaching and committing Idolatry It is impossible she should adore any other thing than God alone Note that I say Adore 5. For though this word Adore is used in the Bible and in the Hebrew Greek and Latine tongues to signify all sorts of honor supream and divine honor which is given to God only Psalme 96. where it is sayd adore him all ye Angells Inferiour honour which is given to Saints Iosuah 5. 14. where it is sayd that Iosuah adoted an Angell Humane and civill honor which is given to men on earth 3. kings 1. 23. where 't is sayd the Prophet Nathan adored David and in many other places it does signify these three different sorts of honour Nevertheless since this word Adore does signify in our language divine honor and worship proper to God alone I say 6. We adore not the Saints becaus we acknowledg not soveraign and supream excellency and perfection in them But we give them an inferiour honor according to their dignity their holiness and relation to God for according to the law of God and reason a proportionable honor is due to excellency 7. Secondly we honor and Venerate the Relicks of the Saints though with an honor inferior to that we give to the Saints themselves For we find in Relicks some dignity holiness and relation to God They were the living members of CHRIST and Tempells of the holy Ghost They are the Organs and Instruments of God by which He workes many miracles and imparts divers benefits to men and they shal be one day raised up again to be the habitations of glorious souls and to live and reign with CHRIST therefore they deserve some respect and the primitive Church as the holy Fathers testify did not deny it them Thirdly we adore not Images and pictures For we know and believe that there is no divinity in them Neither do we give them any inferior honor veneration or respect absolutely or for themselves or which is terminated upon them becaus we acknowledg not any vertue or perfection in them
and he will be responsible The holy Ghost tells us not with what punishments He will chastise him beeaus he sends divers sorts of them some He chastiles in one manner other in another according to the Rules of his Providence and good pleasure But why labour I in this behalf This word which the Son of God sayd ought to be S. Matt 5. more then enough to avert men from unnecessary Oathes You have heard that it was sayd to them of old Thou shalt not forsweare thy self But I say to you Sweare not at all He understands here vainly or in vaine for He explicates or extends this Precept Thou shalt not take the Name of God in vain 15. If Christians must abstain from oathes with greater reason yet from Blasphemy Which is a reproach or contumely thrown upon God himself or upon his Saints This Vice is so detestable that vertuous Persons in the Scripture had a horrour to pronounce it and in stead of sayng blaspheme God they were wont to say Bless God Lest perhaps my children have sinned and blest God sayd holy Iob. The Iewes had this Vice in so great-abomination Iob. 1. 5. that when they heard a blasphemy they rent and tore their garmetns to shew they would have no part in so enormous a Crime and that they detested it extreamly I would not counsell you to tear your cloathes as often as you hear blasphemy you would do it too often in these times I dare not counsell you that which S. Chrysostom counselled his Auditours when you hear a monster of Chrysost hom ad pop Antioc infin nature who dares to blaspheme give him a great blow upon his face you will sanctify your hand by this action this service which you do to God will be as sacred oyle and a holy unction that will consecrate your hand I dare not give you this counsell unless for those that are under your care as your children and your servants But when you hear others blaspheme you ought at least to rent your heart to be displeased at this impudence and to shew that it displeases you admonish charitably the insolent and if he will not hear you fly his company and adore the high Majesty of God making him by this action as it were amends for the injury He received that you may avert from you and from the Community the wrath and Vengeance of God that blasphemy brings upon you 16. Follow then if you be wise and put in practise the advertisement of the Son of God Let your speech be yes yes S. Matth. 5. no no when you will affirm any thing content your selves to say this is so or els it is not so and that which is over and above these is of Evill says JESUS-CHRIST if you add any oath it is an ill effect of an evill cause This evill comes sometimes from the incredulity of him to whome you speak But if he will not believe you let him go see or let him stay there ought his incredulity to make you disobedlent to God if you sweare not he will not believe you and if you sweare God will be offended with you which of the two is most to be feared It is of evill This evill coms often from your bad Conscience you sweare becaus your Conscience dictates to you that you deserve not to be credited upon your simple word and consequently you shew that you are subject to lying if you be subject to lying you are bad if you are bad you deserve not to be believed also when you sweare It is of evill This evill coms from a bad habit you have contracted you will never put it off if you watch not over your selves if you do not some penance as often as you sweare Give something to the Poor say a Pater noster bite your tongue pull a haire out of your head that the rigour of the penance may make the ill Custome to give place says S. Austin Can you cure a dangerous and inveterate infirmity without bleeding phisick or any remedy Thinke you to root out this bad custome without labour penance or any violence It is of evill this evill coms from your anger you excuse your selves there upon but it is to wash your selves with inke you are culpable both for being angry and for swearing or blaspheming in anger If you correct not your self God hath anger as well as you but very different from yours He hath anger most reasonable and just which will punish yours most justly It is of evill This evill comes from the evill Spirit who rages with hatred against God and against you and who is glad to vse your tongue to spite God and to make you criminal unhappy an enemie of God as he companion in his miseries and his paines Let us then detest the execrable language of sinners and let us say with Saints I will bless our Lord in all times I will bless him in the morning becaus He ought to have the first and the best of all things In the evening becaus He is the last end of all my workes During the day becaus by his order the day continues to enlighten me I will bless him in adversity becaus then He is with me In prosperity becaus it is a present that he makes me to oblige me to praise and love him I will bless him in all times that I may begin in this life what I shal do by his grace in heaven where I shal praise bless and glorify him for ever Amen DISCOURS XXXI OF THE THIRD COMMANDEMENT Remember that thou Sanctify the Sabbath day 1. IF this commandement does oblige us Christians as it oblig'd the Iewes we commit three great faults each of which does bring damnation This Commandement oblig'd the Iewes to rest on the same day that God Exod. 20. 9. Levit. 23 3. Exod. 35 3. Exod. 16 23. Levit. 23. did rest to wit on saturday and we rest on Sunday It forbid them all worke as to light a fire to dress meat to waâ—k in the fields except one mile or there about And we do on sunday these workes which were forbidden The day of rest began from the evening of its Vigil and we begin it but after midnight Who hath given us all these dispensations Who hath licenced us to break all these Lawes We find not in the new Testament one only word that gives us a playn and clear excuse We read indeed in the Apocalyps that S. Iohn was in spirit upon our Lords day there was then such a day as our Lords Apoc. 1. day But a Sabbatharian will say to us he does not tell you that the Sanctification given to saturday was taken from that day nor that there was given a command to all the world not to worke upon that day which he called our Lords day nor does it appear there or elswhere in the scripture that it was not the day of the Resurrection or Ascension or Christmas day
he does wish it otherwise if his consent be any ways extorted either by force or fear it excuses you not from robbery for there is nothing so contrary to a free consent as force or fear He then is a robber who to do justice to a Party that hath right receives a bribe or present He is a robber who wearyes another with suits and expences to the end he quit that which he may pretend to justly He is a robber who makes his dependents to do him services to which they are not oblig'd wâ—thout paying them well for them He is a robber who forces his Creditors to composition for fear of inconveniences which he may bring upon them becaus the consent to these and the like actions is not free and voluntary so far these palliated injustices are from being justifiable in the sight of God that on the contrary they add to simple theft a circumstance which changes the species of it and which is called Rapine 9. To have a horrour of these and the like disorders Consider that this vice engages you in an ocean of sins and precipitates you in a manner-irreperably into eternal damnation For t is not so in this sin as in others You are not quit of it by repenting confessing and doing penance for it it obliges moreover to Restitution And see here what Divines say of it 10. They teach us in the first place that restitution is an act of commutative Iustice and consequently that there must be an equality between the dammages which you have caused and the reparation which you make of it In Vindicative Iustice if mercifully you relax a little the rigour of the Law if you make not the greatness of the pain precisely equal to the grievousness of the crime the mercy of God excuses easily your fault But in Commutative Iustice if having stolen 50. shillings you restore but 48. you are stil a theef 11. Secondly they assure us that Restitution is necessary to salvation that without it sorrow confession and absolution are unprofitable that nothing can excuse you from it but only impossibility to make it 12. But to restore all must I fall from my estate and Condition You are oblig'd to it having built your fortune upon the ruine of your neighbour it is most reasonable you repair that of your neighbour by the ruine of yours ought not the condition of the Innocent to be better then that of the Criminal 13. But I cannot make restitution without defaming my self for he to whom J shal restore will see that I have injured him and will decry me You must give it in this case to your Confessor or to a faithfull friend who may render it without naming any personne take an acquittance of him and shew it to you that you may be sure of your discharg from this obligation an obligation so strict that no power on earth can free you from it Death it self which dissolves consummate marriage delivers you not from it and if God should raise you up again you would not be oblig'd to retake your wife but you would be to pay your debts and your heires ought to do it in your defect 14 Divines inform us further that not only he who does an injury but moreover all that cooperate or concurre to it are oblig'd to Restitution as Receivers fals Witnesses makers of antidates and fals contracts Counsellours who counsell you to prosecute a suit which they know to be uniust or they who by notable negligence make their Clients lose a just one and Notaries who by ignorance or malice change the intention of the Testatour 15. Infine they conclude that this commandement obliges always and incessantly becaus it is not an affirmative precept only that commands us to restore but also a negative that forbids us to retaine and as such it is expressed commonly by negative terms in the Bible 'T is the property of negative commandements to oblige always and for always and therefore we sin at least so often as the thought of paying satisfying restoring coms into our minds if having power we neglect it 16. Do better injure no man commit not sins which oblige to restitution for you will make it or not if you make it you will have contracted sin and obligation to punishment without receiving the profit of it since you must restore the principal and make good all prejudice and dammage and if you make it not being in capacity to make it you are undon you are lost for ever 17. If then you have been so unfortunate as to oblige your selves to it doe as a rich man of our age who going from a Sermon distributed his goods to those he had injured saying Pereant mihi ne ego Peream may I lose these goods lest I lose my self these goods are for the earth my soul is for heaven these goods are perishable my soul is immortal these goods will stay here my soul will go with me they will be the possession of my heires my soul will be my owne these are not true goods however great and abundant they be since they make not good so many bad men that possess them they are not true riches since they make not rich nor content those that are flaves to them I must leave them one day necessarily and without merit t is better then that I quit them now voluntarily and with merit 18. This good man did very well to cure his wounds But I advise you by flying avarice which was the cause of them to prevent all wounds Hear then what the holy Ghost hath sayd of it Nothing is more wicked than to love money Hear our Saviour Eccli 10. 10. mark 10. 24. Tim. 6. 9. How hard it is for them that trust in money to enter into the kingdom of God! Hear also his Apostle They that will be made rich fall into temptation and hurtfull desires which drown men into destruction and perdition For the root of all evills is avarice Root out then covetousnes says S. Austin and plant charity the root of all good This will make you feed Christ in the hungrie refresh him in the thirsty harbour him in the stranger cloath him in the naked visit him in the sick comfort him in the prisoner and this will make you one day hear this most joyfull word which will put Matth. 25. 34. you in Possession of all good com yee blessed of my father possess tâ— kingdome prepar'd for you from the foundation of the world Amen DISCOVRS XXXVIII OF THE EIGHT COMMANDEMENT Thou shat not bear fals witness against thy neighbour IF the fifth commandement ougth to be much respected becaus it forbids us to assault the life of our neighbour and the sixth which forbids us to dishonour his wife and the seventh which prohibits us to steal or to hurt him in his goods with more reason the eighth commandement ought to be looked upon as of the greatest importance since it forbids fals witness which
this fall makes him very humble and that by his humility he is more pleasing to God than you by your proud Innocence and when nothing of all this should be how know you what will becom of you and what will becom of him there is inconstancy and weakness enough in your heart to make you one day one of the greatest sinners in the world and there is power and mercy enough in the heart of God to make this sinner becom one day a most great Saint in heaven 9 The second sort of falsities which this commandement forbids are those of the mouth and men are accustomed to speak them in three manners First in injuring their neighbour as when they testify that he hath rob'd or kill'd and this lye is called hurtfull or pernicious secondly in pleasuring your neighbour as when you ly to deliver him out of some perill and this is called a serviceable or officious ly Thirdly in neither hurting nor ayding and this is called a vain or idle ly There are many also of those that make profession of vertue who detest fals witness and pernicious lyes but make no difficulty of idle and officious they consider not that the holy Ghost distinguishes a ly from fals-witness and says that both displeas God Prov. 6. 16. 2. 2. q. 110. S. Greg. lib. 18. mor cap. 4. S. Thomas concluds that we ought not to ly for to save a man S. Gregory sayd the same speaking of officious lyes S. Augustine who wrote whole books upon this subject goes farther yet and says that one ought not to ly for to procure the salvation of our neighbour ad sempiternam vitam nullus ducendus est opitulante mendacio And to the objection which some propose of the Egiptian midwives who kylled not the Children of the Israelites as Pharo had commanded and excused themselves by lyes the scripture adding that God rewarded them S. Gregory answers that they were not recompenced for their ly but for their Piety And as to the Patriarke Iacob and other Saints who seem in the scripture to have spoke untruths the hoy Fathers answer that they were mysteryes not lyes becaus they spoke not in their own persone but in the personne of those of whom they were the figure 10. Officious lyes oblige us to the paines of Purgatory but pernicious to the paines of hell The mouth that lyeth kills the soul says the holy Ghost it brings damnation most due to them who are so injurious both to God and man 11. In fine the third sort of falsities forbidden are frauds circumventions dissimulations and hypocrisies These are so common in the world that if the Prophet Hieremie were in this age he would say of it what he sayd of his That our houses are fall of guile In the houses of great ones what chringing suppleness and treachery to supplant others in the Courts of justice what injurious judgments what superfluous delayes what unjust appeals In the shops of marchands and tradesmen what frauds what fals weights and measures what fals coyne what corrupted and sophisticated marchandise To be short in the Churches themselves what counterfeit devotions what disguised confessions what hypocritical communions 12. This Vice is so detestable that the sacred Text joyns it with homicide God will abominate the murtherer and the the Deceiver says the Royal Prophet And you will not find Psal 7. that the Son of God sayd a word so sharp and nipping of any absent persone as He did of Herod saying that he was a fox becaus he was a Deceiver Dicite vulpi illi 13. Let us end this discours with three powerfull passages of of Scripture and three reasons against these vices Against the first out of S Matthew Iudg not that you may not Matth. 7. 1. be judged For in what judgment you judg you shal be judged and in what measure you mete it shal be measured to you againe There is notâ—hing so terrible as the judgment of God the greatest Saints have reason to fear it a thousand times happy he who shal not feel the severity of it you shal be the person if you will the Judg himself assures you of it Iudg not and you shalt not be judged if you judg your neighbour with sweetness and mercy God will judg you with sweetness and mercy Against the second Vice S. Paul says to us away with lying let every Ephes. 4. 25. one speak truth with his neighbour becaus we are members of one another he then that will be a living member of that Body where of IESUS-CHRIST Verity it self is Head must not by pernicious falsities hurt his neighbor but love and cherish him as a member of the same Body Against the third Vice the Son of God having sayd that we shal not enter into the kindom of heaven unless we becom as little children S. Peter teaches us in what we must be like them be yet as children newly born without guile with out malice 1. Epist 2. without dissimulation Holy Iob who was but in the Law of nature practised perfectly this advertisement the first praise which God gave him was his simplicity Have you considered my servant Iob that there Iob. 1. 8. is not his like on earth a man simple and just and fearing God and departing from evill happy he that imitates him he walks confidently Prov. 10. 9. Prov. 20. 7. Prov. 3. 32. Wisd 1. 1. says the Wiseman he fears not to be taken in a ly as often impostors are the children which he shal leave behind him â—hal be blessed he shal have the honor to have communicationâ— with God for his Communication is with the simple And for the accomplishment of his happiness he hath God for his inheritance For to find God we must seek Him in simplicity of heart 'T is the most precious treasure a man can possess a treasure which makes him glorious rich content and happy for ever and ever Amen DISCOVRS XXXIX OF THE EIGHTH COMMANDEMENT Thou shat not bear fals witness against thy neighbour AS detraction is a very dangerous and common Vice so it seems commonly forbidden Some say that 't is forbidden by the fift commandement Thou shalt not kill becaus it takes away our civill life by which we live in the good opinion of men Others say that 't is forbidden by the seventh Thou shalt not steal becaus it robs men of their fame and good name Others in fine will have it forbidden by the eighth becaus this say they forbids all injuries that we do to the goods to the honor and reputation or the person of our neighbour by our unruly tongue all which does shew what a pernicious sin this is which kills robs and injures so much our neighbour And yet as I sayd 't is a most common vice becaus Detractours want not specious pretexts nor excuses which seem legitimate to palliate and plaister it Wherefore in this discours I first lay open the nature of it