with a firm hope cry Lord thou shalt open my Lips The Application We are taught here when we begin to pray that we look upon our selves as infirm indigent and ulcerated Beggars who expect from the merciful hand of God to find some relief in our necessities and we must further reflect upon this great addition to our misery that as that the time was not tedious to him to whom the Saint replyed that the whole world was a great Volume expanded in which he read as it were in great Characters the wonders of its Creatour to which also alludes the Sentence of St. Chrysostom There is not any particle of a Creature be it of worth or not which issues not forth a voice more loud than a Trumpet and speaks the praises of God But above all it belongs to Man by many Titles of obligation to contribute to the praise and glory of God First his natural perfections more lively represent the Divine perfections as being created to his Image and enriched with an understanding able to comprehend supernatural things so that he alone in this Earthly Sphere can acknowledge and make a return of gratitude for all the visible productions we here behold Whence it is evident that Man is obliged to pay the tribute of praise and thanksgiving in the behalf of all Creatures it was upon this score the high Priest among the Jews was wont to have wrought in his Garment a draught of the World to insinuate that it was his part to discharge the duty of Adoration and acknowledgment unto God in the name of the universe Next Man may be aiding to the glory of God employing those gifts of grace he receives in acts of Religion obeying his Commandments embracing his Councels referring all his actions to his honour and evidencing by a holy life that all his endeavours are in order to him and his service For from hence is reflected a certain external glory upon God not only in that he is known loved and respected by such a life of Sanctity but also in that he hath such holy and generous Creatures just as it is the glory of a Father to have a Son vertuous and wise and who by his valour and sage conduct drawes the Eyes of the World with a kind of admiration upon him But the greatest glory Man can give unto God is in a state of Beatitude for when once there arrived he shall see him face to face without any interposed Veil he shall know the wonders of his essence cast his sweetness inconceivable and have his heart ravished with eternal affections He shall there praise him in a full consort for all Eternity This is the highest pitch of glory Man can give unto God in which he is partner with the Angels it is the final end of our Creation we are not put into this World upon any other design than by a constant progress in vertue to advance our selves daily to this end Here you may discern the general Heads of praise in which our Penitent will engage his mouth First he will praise him in the infinite variety of Creatures he hath framed in this inferiour World for Man's use and in his behalf he will powerforth his thanks and acts of gratitude resolving never to abuse them or design them contrary to that end for which they were made Next he will submit all his actions to be led and conducted according to the impulse and dictamens of those Graces he shall please to bestow upon him making his Body a holy chast and maâ—…rated victime to his Laws and by this means he will dispose himself for that last and highest service he is to render him in a compleat Beatitude where his Mouth shall never cease to celebrate his praise And my Mouth shall declare thy praise Whilest our Penitent thus in his thoughts runns over all these motives which might justly afford matter of praise to his grateful Tongue there occurs one more which must not be omitted since it exceeds all others and exalts the glory of God beyond all the submission of Men and Angels it is the mystery of the Incarnation in which Christ Jesus God-Man hath contributed the most to God's glory For he hath saved the World by the effusion of his pretious blood and nothing is more glorious to God than the Salvation of Mankind for good and holy persons will praise love admire contemplate enjoy and adore his perfections in the vast spaces of Eternity Now had he not dyed for Man no Paradise no felicity could have been for them so that God had remained under the privation of that glory he doth and is to receive from blessed Spirits for all Eternity Nay more not only Men do glorify God by Jesus Christ but the Angels likewise in whose concern the Church declares the Angels praise your Majesty the Archangels bow before you the Powers tremble with respect the vertues of Heaven and blessed Seraphims with like joy and love do glorify you So that all the external glory consecrated to God either in Heaven or Earth is in consideration of the divine person as it supports the sacred humanity of Christ Lastly Jesus Christ in Heaven doth praise and magnify the Divinity with an Air incomparable he doth it more copiously with more variety with a note more lively and ravishing than all the Choires of Angels and Saints put together The reason is that the most perfect knowledge and most ardent affection are the â—ources of the most sublime and magnificent Panegyricks Now the Soul of our Redeemer enjoyed without dispute a more clear and penetrating wisdom and knowledge of the Divinity is enflamed in that Abyss of essence to a higher degree than any other whatsoever and consequently his most pure Soul breaks forth into praises which outstrip and surpass by far all the Harmony both of Angels and the blessed spirits in Heaven I doubt not but our Penitent with much satisfaction let his Tongue strike upon this Theam for if the very thought of the Messias replenished his Mind with abundant joy what consolation to consider that by him alone God would derive to himself more glory than from the whole mass of Creatures that he was to share with him in this task of praise that he would procure encrease and magnify the honour of God to his utmost and since Angels and Men were to pay their homage of praise and benediction by and in the person of the Messias our Penitent would not be exempted from that priviledge of bearing a part in the confort and bless the divine goodness in that by the bloody Sacrifice of the Messias God's honour should be repaired and as many voices gained to promote his greatness as there were to be glorious spirits in Heaven that by his sacred Mouth the praises of his God his sovereign good and object of his love were to be ecchâ—…d forth in the midst of Paradise with what â—…y would he put a helping hand and conspire in this design
torment them Jeremy weighs the wrongs Nebuchodonozer had done to Jerusalem by dishonouring Matrons deflowring Virgins killing little Children tormenting the aged burning houses their robberies and spoils and yet all these he passes over in silence though he took it much to heart and presses only the prophanation of the Temple having made of it a stable for his Horses When the Angel appeared to Joshuah with a drawn sword and commanded him to put off his Shooes as before he had done to Moses in the flaming bush enjoyning him the like many grave Doctors assert thâ—… this Angel was the Son of God wherein he would insinuate two things First the reverence they ought to bear to that place where in a manner so particular he was pleased to manifest himself Next that against those who should lose this respect he had Fire and Sword ready to vindicate his honour For the Majesty of a King or regal power upon Earth is respected throughout the whole jurisdiction of his Crown but yet much more where he hath his Throne and Chair of state So God as he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords over all the Nations of the World ought in all places to have homages of submission and obedience paid unto him but especially in places dedicated to religious acts in Heaven at the right hand of his Father is the supream throne of his greatness in the Synagogue he had the propitiatory and in the Temple his Sacrarium and as to a Temple or Church wherein God is to be honoured Nilus sayes a Christian should bear no less respect to this his Holy Tabernacle than if he were in Heaven Because the glory of God is more apparent in the adorable Sacrament of the Altar and from thence a greater reverence may justly be required than from all the Temples that were in past ages dedicated to God's honour For in this dread Sacrifice God is adored honoured appeased loved and served by his Son Jesus Christ in all the Corners of the World where this mystery is celebrated all the adorations and homages of other Creatures contribute nothing to his Glory if compared to what he receives here by his Son because he is an object infinite and as a King receives more honour from the submission of a Prince than of an ordinary vulgar person in like manner the adorations rendered to God by Jesus Christ do glorify him more than those of all Men and Angels together by the Mouth of Malachy the Prophet God sayes my name is great among the Gentiles because in all places a pure oblation is offered up unto me which Theodoret explicates an unspotted Lamb taking away the sins of the World and which is Sacrificed unto him in this mystery The Master of the Family Matth. 20. having had his Servants ill treated by the labourers in his Vineyard sent his Son to reduce them to obedience saying they will respect him So God the Father would render his Son present in this mystery to induce all Christians to pay their duties to his greatness Who would not then Combat in the presence of their King We may reasonably expect to live with Angels and with them contemplate the divine essence since now we live with Jesus Christ himself who is the Food of our Souls he who gives himself to be eaten here will not deny us to see and behold him in eternity Now our Holy Penitent in his prophetick view beheld this Hill of Sion as a place marked out for the admirable structure of the Evangelical Temple whereof the Messias was to be the Corner stone and therefore he calls it holy wherein Sacraments conferring grace by their proper vertue were to be administred upon this score he preferrs the Gates of Sion before all the tabernacles of Jacob He forespeaks the building of this Sion and that God will there be seen in his glory as much as the Cloudy Scene in this World can represent him and as on mount Sinai the written Law a carnal and Earthly Law was given so on Mount Sion should be enacted a Law Evangelical holy spiritual and heavenly These fore-notions imprinted in our Petitioner a reverence to this model of perfection and stirrs him to implore his mercy in her behalf that since it is to be a Law of love all powerful to conduct Souls unto a great pitch of sanctity in this life and glory in the next he will hope his prayer may contribute somthing to draw from his liberality a confirmation of his gracious promises unto her in this confidence with much fervour and zeal he repeats Deal favourably O Lord in thy good will with Sion The Application We have a Lesson here of Charity which shews us inexcusable if we fail to endeavour the succour of our Neighbour For there is none so impotent but may lend the assistance of his prayers and how powerful that is to avert danger appears in that God seems willing to prevent the Prophet Jeremies mediation commanding he should not resist him that is he should not stand between him and the destruction of his people as if it were in the power of this Prophet by means of his prayer to hold God's Hand and force him to a merciful composition Besides we are much encouraged to relieve the distressed in this supplicating way by the form of prayer which Christ prescribes in that we should conjure him under the title of Father nay more our Father which speaks I have a right to ask not only as I am your Child but likewise to intercede for him who hath the same relation unto you and by that an alliance towards me which naturally exacts my help if then as a Maker you can destroy as a Father nature will prompt you to save In fine God playes not the stately like the great Princes of this World but gives audience upon the place whether in behalf of your self or Neighbour Nay he excludes not his greatest Enemies but doth treat with them of peace upon the least overture they make Ah! let us then daily present our supplications before his throne of grace in behalf of all persons capable of eternal Salvation Amen CHAP. XXXVIII Vt edificentur muri Jerusalem And let the Walls of Jerusalem be built BY the Walls of this Sion or Jerusalem for they are usually taken for the same thing is meant the Prelats and Pastours of this happy Congregation within whose circumference or direction we are all piously to walk and to whose care and protection all Mankind is committed Our Penitent beholds the Messias as the foundation and prop of this eternal structure for the Office of a Priest consists in the power of administring sacred things and to offer prayers gifts and Sacrifices unto God for the remission of sins and this in the name of the universal Church Now Iesus Christ was constituted by God over all Souls with a plenary authority to reconcile them to him and for this end he offered up a true and real Sacrifice
Idols and plunge themselves in transgressions of the highest nature However he did not here forget his promise but at the prayer of Moses reassumed them into his Sovereign Protection the same Night which was blest with the institution of the sacred Synaxis or Eucharist was also conscious of the horrid Treason of Judas and yet this Monster of ingratitude according to all Divines might have sheltred himself from God's wrath by a true Repentance Thus all along we see God justifyed in his Clemency towards sinners so that victory must needs remain to him when questioned by blasphemous Tongues for creating those who were to perish A Nabuchodonozer speaks for him a Thief upon the Cross a St. Paul a Magdalen and a Million of others that have redeemed by a few hours repentance what had been contracted in many years impieties and wickedness Our holy Penitent will also come in for a witness First he cryes what return shall I make to my God for all he hath done to me he praises blesses his holy name and then layes open his enormous crimes believing it is but reasonable to do him all right that hath dealt to him so much of mercy and though every thought of his sins afflicts him yet he glories that his Creatour's goodness will appear resplendent through his deformity he is content to become nothing that he might add the least tittle to God's Honour and greatness He values not his own confusion so God may be justifyed and this sweet experienced truth made good that the Divine will is that all shall be saved and to this end proportions sufficient means to all so that none can perish but through their own Impenitency and Perseverance in sin The Church would not style Adam's sin a happy sin if our Redemption and the merits of Christ's sacred passion were not extenedd to all even the highest offendour St. Paul sayes as Death found its entrance by the default of one so life was restored by one whence it is clear the remedy brought to us by Christ reached as far as the Disease St. John entitles him a Sun which enlightens every one that comes into this World there is none wrapped up in so black a Cloud of sins who may not if they will take in the Rayes of his Mercy and by their Deliverance justify God's Promises to Man In the production of every the least Creature saith St. Thomas the power wisdom and goodness of God are made manifest how much more then are they exalted in the Transmutation of a Soul from the Privation of Justice to the Possession of a Supernatural Gift of Righteousness whence St. Paul sayes God doth predestinate us according to the councel of his will that we may praise and diffuse abroad his glory Ah then let us give unto God what is his due as near as we can by despair we condemn our selves in rendring our Judge Inexorable and deaf to Mercy By Hope animated with Repentance we quit our scores of guiltiness and justify the hand that wipes them off To our justification by his grace he doth not only invite us to dispose our selves for it promising to refresh such as are oppressed c. But declares he is at the door of our hearts knocks solicits and expects but our consent to enter in at last defies the World to object the least failing on his side having done to his Vineyard what ever could be required to make it thrive To conclude God will be still justified that sinner who doth finally perish is the Author of his ruine by his own impenitency rejecting graces abundantly sufficient offered to him So that in the height of his misery when it is too late he will be forced to acknowledge crying O Lord thou art just and thy judgements equitable That sinner again who hath imitated our Penitent in having had timely recourse to the throne of mercy will not blush to unfold his wickedness since he now breaths a new life of grace which obliges him to proclaim how just God is in his promises and glorious in his Mercies That thou mayest be justifyed in thy words and overcome when thou art judged The Application In this clause we read the clear view our Holy Penitent had of the unquestionable proceedings of God with Man for beholding in his all-displaying Eye the ingratitude of Millions of Souls who would abuse his favours yet did not this restrain his munificence to them he first gave them a Being added to this Being the exhibition of his Graces all sufficient nay in a greater proportion than to many of the elect and to the acquisition of these benefits he made his only Son instrumental by whose blood is conveyed to them a capacity of Salvation Now if afterwards they come to perish it is through their own malice in misusing his gracious endearments and proving refractary to his commands for since he had conducted them indiscriminately with the predestinate by a supernatural Providence with which all along he obliged them what wisdome prudence or justice were it to gratify Traytors obstinate even unto death in rebellion with his Glory So that the motive of their reprobation is a foresight of their final perseverance in Sin their guiltiness gives matter of God's hatred and eternal damnation the effect of their impenitency 'T is true it was not in their power to be born or not be born but to fight generously or be vanquished by the Devil this depends on us It seems unreasonable that a King opening a Tournament and proposing a reward to the Conquerour should admit onely that person into the list whom he feresaw would be victorious So God in Creating an infinity of persons whereof the greater part would become reprobate is not to be blamed no more than that Prince who lets all run at the ring though it cannot be gained but by one for if we be foyld it is by our own Cowardize and remissness Thus the goodness of God appears in the Creation of Reprobates and no less his justice in pouring vengeance upon them so that he would be justified in his words and silence any blasphemous Tongue nay though these unfortunate wretches miss of their particular end that is paradise to which they are created yet the general design of their Creation to wit the promotion of his Glory will take effect for after his patience hath been strained if it may be so expressed in supporting their insolencies he will give lustre to his Saints Glory by the opposition of their misery just as a Moor sets off a great beauty Wherefore let us keep consort with our Holy Penitent avowing his just providence and submitting to all his Decrees as most equitable and worthy our Adorations Amen CHAP. XI Ecce enim in iniquitatibus conceptus sum For behold I am conceived in iniquity OUr Penitent here appeals to the World whether he hath not reason being reinvested with the rich ornament of Grace to stand up and maintain Gods proceedings with his
of supernatural lights and a capacity of discerning not only vvhat is past or present but vvhat is to come and this in the secret and uncertain things of God's VVisdom It is true there is required in that person who is made a repository of Prophetick Truths that he shine with integrity of life have an absolute command over his passions and possess a Mind elevated and fitted to contemplation Yet God is not tyed up to previous dispositions by degrees but can in a moment both prepare and render perfect that party he designs for such a dignity as he hath done in the person of King David and so as to make him one of the most accomplished Prophets that ever was For there is a great disparity in prophetick irradiations some are imperfect lights and improperly called Prophetick as what may proceed from an evil spirit or from nature as that of Pharoah when he saw oxen and Ears of Corn not knowing from whence that vision might come or whether he was sleeping waking and the like Another degree more elevated is when a ray is infused by which I certainly comprehend that which I see only by a species imaginary such is Joseph's case who had an assured knowledge of what he saw that is the signification of them whence he is more justly called a Prophet than Pharoah who only saw and knew not what they signified A Third degree more perfect is when there are both an impression of species and sensible representations as also an infused light by which I can judge of the verity of the thing displayed before me as Daniel could tell the King his Dream and what it signified for the Corporeal forms vvere fixed in his Spirit and the meaning of theâ—… revealed in Daniels Mind The last and noblest degree is when a Truth is represented to us by species intelligible and a light infused Superadded which enables me infallibly to judge of what is represented by them without any external medium of word fact or imaginary Vision and this last irradiation Cassiodorus ascribes to David whence he entitles him the most eminent amongst all the Prophets But it will more recreate us to know what are those uncertain and hidden things laid open to him than the manner how it vvas done Some opinionate it vvas the Creation of the World vvhere the wisdom of God appears glorious in the admirable reduction of a confused Chaos to light and order In the contrivance of the Heavens that such vast and numerous Bodies should keep constant and uninterrupted motion vvithout any jarring or hindrance to one another in their Rapid Course In their Soveraign influences conveyed incessantly to inferiour things In the prodigious fixation of the Earth poysed and sustained by its own Center In the rare vertue of its plants in the variety of Creatures in the Air Earth and VVater And above all in Man the Epitome of the Vniverse to see him sway as Sovereign and by his reason to quell the fury strength and cunning of the most savage beasts To behold the revolutions of Cities Kingdomes and Empires the strange vicissitude of humane things to day a City swelling in pomp and magnificence not long after become a fallow Field an Emperour weeping in that there is no more Worlds to conquer hath been seen to perish howling dispatched away by a few dropps of poyson on the other side another is beheld drawn from a dunghil set on a throne and to Raign vvrth that felicity as if Heaven and Earth were held in fee to make him happy Here a person drenched in a life of Sin and impiety upon a suddain becomes a Saint there another endued with grace and vertue whom the World Eyes not but with a kind of veneration by a little presumption of his own strength and merits falls to nothing and proves an Imp of darkness To contemplate I say all these works in Nature all the strange events of humane actions and all managed by the Divine wisdom so as to make a Harmony to God's glory and out of the clashing and thwarting malice of Men to draw good who would not be ravished at such a prospect And confess with transports they are truly secret and hidden effects as to man of an all-seeing inscrutable and increated wisdom So that with unspeakable delight our holy Penitent repeated oft this Verse the uncertain and hidden things of thy wisdom thou hast revealed unto me Others and more happily I believe say those communications were the Incarnation Nativity Passion and all the other mysteries which relate unto the humanity of Christ and doubtless the contemplation of those mysteries clearly objected to him could not but strangely regale his mind to consider an infinite Being from all Eternity Soveraignly happy in the perfect enjoyment of his blessed self to be Hypostasiated in humane Nature and that this compositum of so many perfections should be born of a Virgin have no other pallace then a poor stable no other Courtiers then simple beasts from whose Breath he must borrow a little warmth to preserve him from the rigours of the season that a bloody design is hatched against him to avoid which he must fly by Night into Egypt through Cold and other dangers attended only by his apprehensive Mother and her faithful Coadjutour St. Joseph amidst these discomfortable reflections surely our Holy Penitent failed not to remember the homages done to him by the Angels and Kings that he might see he still intermixed the Splendour of his Divinity with the Ecclipses wrought and cast on his Humanity From thence he carryes on his thoughts to Christ's Sacred Passion where he lanches himself into an Ocean of misery not a drop trickles down of his bloody sweat but it makes him sink he distinctly ponders every blow lanced at him every scorn and every Calumny He numbers his weary steps whilst he is haled from one Tribunal to another he foresees the shameful flight of his Apostles and how he is abandoned in distresse by his nearest and dearest Friends Thus he sifts every particular passage of that Sacred Tragedy and were it not he is sustained by the consideration of its immense Fruit to wit the redemption of the perished World he would have shewed by his compassionating Death too much was revealed unto him to be at once the Subject both of his knowledge and life Now that this expression of our Penitent doth quadrate with these mysteries you must observe that the second person of the blessed Trinity is styled the Wisdom of the Father because produced by an act of his understanding and though his Incarnation were certain as decreed from all eternity and foretold by many Prophets yet it was uncertain as to the precise time and secret as to the manner of his coming and particular occurrences of his life it is true both were couched in some prophecy or other but so obscurely that the most learned could not dive into them until he came himself to unread them by his
painful accomplishment and fulfilling of them Again by the uncertain things of his wisdom imparted to him he insinuates a further knowledge as to this that it is not known to any in this life whether they are worthy of love or hatred Almighty God by a special providence no doubt having kept this shut up from us that whilst we lye under an awefull fear it might abate our pride and presumption Now the Clouds of this uncertainty were dispersed as to him assurance being given that his sin was removed and the Anathema annexed to it taken off and what greater evidence that he is re-admitted into favour than the entrusting secrets to him than his exemption from the Common Lawes set down by Providence for the conduct and guidance of Mankind These Reflections make him cherish with unspeakable satisfaction his priviledged notions nor do they carry him to vanity but to bless the source from whence they flow since gratitude exacts that tribute from him to whom thou hast laid open the uncertain and hidden things of thy wisdom The Application Here we may observe in what awe and terrour our Holy Penitent remained after his transgression that though the Seal was set to his pardon yet he thought this gave him no right to his former prerogative whose restitution he dares not ask he only presumed to repeat them to his dear Creatour that he might read therein his ingratitude who enriched with supernatural gifts reserved for his choice favourites and by means of which endowments he might have proved a saving Star to guide others to Heaven yet he hath not made use of them but to inure the Author of them and there wrought his Ruine where he might have erected to himself Trophies of glory Next he made this Repetition that he might ruminate upon the sad consequences of sin which so alters a Man that God himself knowes him not This is manifest in the Gospel where God said to the foolish Virgins and to those who had wrought miracles in his name Nescio vos I know you not Again Adam after his sin seemed to be lost to God who made enquiry after him Adam where art thou which imports I placed thee in prosperity and content but find thee now in wretchedness and misery So our Holy Penitent minds his dear God of the blessings he had once showred down upon him and being so signal as few besides since the Worlds Creation could boast of the like he hopes being now again admitted to his presence he may not only be revived in his memory but restored to his former endearments to which he disposes himself by this bashful expression thou hast O Lord made me happpy by the Communication of the secret and hidden things of thy wisdom CHAP. XV. Asperges me Hyssopo mundabor Thou shalt sprinkle me with Hysop and I shall be cleansed OUr Holy Penitent replenished with a Prophetick Spirit seems how to breath nothing but Divine Truths nothing which issues not from such inspired lights Behold wherefore he speaks at present in person of the Church and forespeaks the Oeconomy God will practise in the guidance of her Thou wilt sprinkle me sayes he with Hysop that is pressures will fall upon me from all sides for it is proper to Hysop to be of a small growth to take root in Stony and Rocky places and its vertue is Soveraign against tumours and swellings First then Christ beset his Church with Hysop when he planted her in himself the fruitful Womb of all her productions hear his Lesson Learn of me that am meek and humble of heart from such a stock what can be expected but lowly shrubs Hysop like he instructs his Apostles to bear the innocence of Lambs amidst ravenous VVolves the simplicity of Doves amidst wilely Serpents he bids them overcome Tyrants by sufferings opprobries and contumelies by a patient silence the glory of great ones by humility and the wealth of the World by Poverty With these arms the wisdom power and greatness of the World have been laid prostrate and the humble Cross of Christ erected in Triumph Maugre the malice of Hell and Idolators After Nero Decius Seperus Maximian Diocletian had raged and breathed from their Nostrils death and destruction to the harmless little ones of Christ affrighting them with fire VVheels Gridirons Gibbets Lyons Vipers and innumerable other tortures what was the event Julian the last and greatest persecutour confesses he hath lost the day and that the Contemptible Nazarean I remained Victorious St. Paul gives but a touch yet a dexterous one and represents to the life the posture wherein God hath founded his Church God sayes he seems to have marked our us Apostles unto Death for we are made a spectacle to God Angels and Men we suffer hunger and thirst we are reviled and buffeted we are tossed up and down hurried from one Tribunal to another we are laden with maledictions and in requital distribute blessings we are plyed with persecution but sustain we have blasphemies thrown at us yet we pray and petition in behalf of the Authors in fine we are looked upon as the soum of Mankind and become as the mockery of the World Behold the Epitome of a life Apostolical and the maximes to which the Primitive Christians conformed themselves by which you may judge how pat the allusion of Hysop is applyed to the Church for what is more abject and despicable than the institute of Christianity nay it was the usual argument of Infidels towards any person of eminency embracing Christian Religion to reproach them with the baseness and contemptibility of it The Rocky foundation also which gives life to the Hysops Root is no less suitable if you reflect upon the promises made to St. Paul when first he listed himself under Christs banner Ananias was to be the bearer of his letters Pattents the substance of them was that he should see what sufferings he must wade through for his Name and how punctual God was in the accomplishment of his word his own Epistles sufficiently declare that from the time of his conversion he had constant supplyes of tribulations from his unwearied preaching of the Gospel unto the Snares and malice of false accusations from thence to Prisons then to Chains Opprobries and lastly to a publick Death in the Capital City of the World Now that he alone was not doomed to these sad Catastropheys he tells us into what confusion poor Christians were universally in all places cast some lurking in Dennes others flying into desarts some groaning under want others exposed to scorn and contempt of whom the World sayes he was not worthy then he enumerates a multiplicity of horrid tortures which ushered their ignominious deaths And these outrages were not confined to any one Province or City but executed throughout the whole habitable World and to that height as one day was witness of a hundred thousand who were Sacrificed by the rage of Tyrants nay they fancied their work so compleatly finished
and become an Object pleasing to the all-pure-Eye of his Creatour Wherefore with Reason he inserts this clause sprinkle me with Hysop and I shall be cleansed The Application In imitation of our Holy Penitent we are to covet the bitter draughts of contradictions in this life denying our Will what sensuality prompts us to that we may have a full swinge of our desires in the vast course of Eternity tribulation is the securest clue to be directed by in ease and pleasure vertue must needs run a great risque Fire in its own Sphere conserves it self without any fuel to maintain it so vertue would have done in Paradise where the Goods of the Body concurred with those of the Soul but this Concord was dissolved by sin St. Ambrose likewise sayes of Job that he had shewed himself a valiant commander in peace but not a conquerour in War and that his troubles and afflictions purchased unto him the Palms of a compleat Victory For Earthly Crowns are made of Gold but Heavenly Diadems of the Thorns of tribulation Ah then let us aspire after these Amen CHAP. XVI Lavabis me super nivem dealbabor Thou wilt wash me and I shall be whiter than Snow OUr Holy Prophet thus purified and calcined in the Furnace of adversity will not rest there but is ambitious of a further sublimation he beholds himself much refined the dross of many frailties separated from him by temporal chastisements and in this harsh School he hath learnt a profitable Lesson which is not to advance in a spiritual Course is to loose ground wherefore these sprinkling dews of Grace do not satisfie he must be washed o're and all-bathed in streams of Martyrdom this will give him a tincture outvying the purity of Snow this will consummate all his labours and set on him the last and highest stroke of perfection Thou wilt wash me and I shall be whiter than Snow It is pleasant to read Seneca and other Philosophers in this point of Sacrificing life for a publick interest or on the score of friendship they alwayes place this action amongst the most Heroick whereof Man is capable in this life The Romans had several solemnities to eternize the memory of such as lost their lives in the service of the Republick The Graecians employed all their Eloquence in setting out the Glory of those who dyed for their Country believing that Souls separated from the Body upon such a score were depurated and free from the mixture of any inordinate desires or affections and consequently are disposed to receive the highest beatitude that a created substance can attain unto Xamolxis of Greece for his Wisdom was by the Egyptians ranked amongst the gods whose memory to the Graecians was so Sacred that yearly they sent one of their most learned Doctours to be Sacrificed before his Shrine and at his departure towards Egypt the other Collegiate Philosophers were all oppressed with grief each one repining he was not worthy to be chosen for so glorious a design The reason why this Opinion grew so prevalent amongst them was that love and respect is best expressed by an act of homage and Sacrifice now by the oblation of life we at once give up all our interests of honour pleasure or what ever we can pretend to in this World and witness in that action we more value the cause for which we suffer than our own Being and in a manner do declare the person for whom we dye to have a perfect Dominion over us and destroying our selves would insinuate that we are nothing at least willing to become nothing so we may but pay to the Object of our loves the tribute of glory and greatness The generous Heart of our Petitioner had trampled under his Feet the Enemies of God's people he had purchased many Laurels by his active fortitude and passing from thence to the passive part he had manifested by his patience and perseverance he wanted not this more noble branch of fortitude and that he might crown all his victories he now contracts all the circumstances of a compleat magnanimity in this Petition that he might give up his life and make a publick satisfaction for the injury done by his Exorbitancies to his dear Creatour Thou wilt wash me and I shall be whiter than Snow He knew well this supereminent degree of fortitude which gives a check to Audacity nor permits its Salleys beyond the limits of a just moderation and which charms likewise the retiring spirits of fear and makes them return to their first stations there to stand upon the defensive is a vertue too sublime for Man if considered within the verge of his natural force and abilities For martyrdom implyes a profession of the true Faith which none without a divine Aid can perform It being necessary to an Act of Salvation that it be accompanied with thâ— power and means of Grace wherefore he places the Energy of this Action in the Author of Grace and cryes O God if you will wash me that is if you will shower down the dew of your Grace I will dispose my Soul for the reception and so manage the gift as every reproach every stroke of the Executioner every drop of Blood drawn from my Veins shall have its effect of expiation to cleanse my stains to purify my Soul and give it a whiteness which will surpass that of Snow Again though the Psalms of this victory be never so precious yet unless a storm of Tyranny convey them to him he can only languish in desire For the infliction of Death must come from anothers hand his part in this combat must be only to accept and suffer 'T is true the Holy Ghost proclaims that violence must bear away the wreath of this immortality but it is understood a violence not so much active as passive We must stoop to oppression become a play-game and mockery of the World we must tune forth the praises of our Creatour more by expiring than speaking and from these black mixtures of cruelty will result as from the Phoenix ashes a production far beyond what we could even hope for in recompence You shall wash me and I shall be whiter than Snow We must not doubt but the Soul of our Petitioner ambitious of perfection had all the internal affections which move to this end as charity obedience religion faith hope and an heroick fortitude The first to wit charity raises him to acts of love by which God is more prizable to him than his own life or any other thing imaginable Next this amorous contemplation was accompanied with a perfect submission to the decrees of Heaven whilst Semei threw stones and curses at him he kept close to this principle forbidding any punishment to the Actour lest sayes he God may have ordained it for his tryal or chastisement of his Sins and what he Wills is just and ought to be the Rule of our obedience without any dispute or haesitation The third ingredient to this dye of
all their VVorldly interests and engagements to follow him what transports do the sweet whispers of his Divine Spirit occasion unto his dear Servants what internal consolations what tranquility of mind St. Austin terms them certain previous relishes or Antipasts of Heaven which far transcend all the contentment and satisfactions of this world In a word that Seraphim of love St. Austin gives us the perfect Character of a spiritual joy by his own experience Saying O Lord sometimes thou dost lead me into unknown delights which were they compleated in me I know not what they would be but certain I am it would not be this life that is such a Dilatation of Spirits he found to attend those spiritual comforts that he saw were they accomplished a ruine of his mortal Being must needs ensue This is the joy and gladness our Holy Petitioner expects and that he was not deceived in his expectation scarce a Psalm of his that proclaims not the sweetness and superabundant satisfactions issuing from the love fear and service of God and therefore when he had petitioned for persecution adversity and the Crown of Martyrdom he might justly solace himself with the sequel and fruits of sufferings which are joy and gladness To my hearing thou wilt give joy and gladness The Application Ah who would not then protest against the vain joyes of this world to tast the sweetness of spiritual entertainments St. Gregory puts this difference 'twixt Corporal and Spiritual delights that the former whilest in expectation are coveted with much vehemency but when once enjoyed they presently become nauseous and distastful the other we pursue but coldly and with little heat of desire yet when once we have a relish of them we still languish after the encrease This made St. Francis that blessed despiser of the World to make a Covenant with his senses never to fasten with the least Contentment on any sensual object and truly he was so exact in the performance as he went up and down like the meer shadow of a Man that had nothing humane in him but his shape his better part ever dwelling in the Mansion of the Blessed These are joyes that will not be held by Repentance may we then still languish after them Amen CHAP. XVIII Et exultabunt Ossa humiliata And humbled Bones shall rejoyce THis encouragement which our Petitioner allowes himself corresponds with the second part of the former verse where he was willing to Sacrifice his life For he doth not only cheer himself in reflecting upon the reward which repentance will bring to his Soul but likewise upon the future condition of his Earthly mould which he beholds as matter of great consolation and therefore upon the same score he prosecutes the Subject of his hope saying that his humbled Bones shall rejoyce Amongst all the comforts Christian Religion affords there is none hath so much influence upon Man as the expectation of a future resurrection the motive of this consolation springs from the belief we have of God's Omnipotency For as we believe he hath created us of nothing so we must acknowledge his power to restore us and raise our ashes to a better and more happy condition Nay if we observe the course of Holy Scripture we shall find the expiration of Saints hath a particular expression given it For they are not said to dye but to fall into a sleep as if their Bodies after separation retained a certain vertue which had resemblance with their glorifyed Souls In the Fourth Book of Kings Chap. 13. We read that a Carkass being thrown into the Sepulchre of Elizeus was by a touch of his Bones restored to life St. Hierom relates how Constantine the Great conveyed with much Solemnity the relicks of St Andrew and St. Luke unto Constantinople Areadius likewise the Emperour translated the relicks of Samuel the Prophet from Judaea into Thrasia where they were received with great veneration and joy of the people All which shews our Forefathers looked upon the remainder of Saints Bodies not as liveless fragments but as the Fountains of life and health as certain pieces God would make instrumental to miracles and to works above the power of nature Therefore the Bones of Holy Persons endued with such vertue may justly be qualifyed with joy and consequently it is not improper to say That humbled Bones shall rejoyce Again St. John Damascene hath a fine conception saying those who imitate the vertues of Saints may be more truly said their relicks or impressions than the lump and mass of Earth they leave behind He who hath the zeal and ardours of a St. Paul in the Conversion of Souls may be stiled his lively Image Who can claim the fortitude of a St. Stephen in accepting the stroke of Death for Justice sake will infallibly bear the stamp of that Protomartyr Who can perform the humble and spiritual life of a St. Francis will prove a better pattern of him than his own Body which at this day remains entire at Assisium as a Testimony of that Glory his Soul enjoyes in Heaven so that when we cast our selves into the mould of their vertues we become their animated statues and make them rejoyce in our imitation as the Angels do at a sinners Conversion it is not unlikely our Holy Prophet alluded to such living relicks vvhen he said humbled bones shall rejoyce Since good Men are here for the most part crushed in the Worlds esteem that values nothing but what is great in vanity Yet amidst these Clouds of oppression and scorns thrown at them they find within themselves a satisfaction in performing their duty to God for the fruit of the spirit sayes St. Paul is joy peace and a thousand other contentments which attend a state of innocence so that it is an ingenious Expression of our Penitent that humbled bones shall rejoyce I have many times wondered why Almighty God should give unto the Ashes of Saints what he had denyed them whilst they were alive and made not use of any limb or vital motion but for his sake that is many miracles have been wrought by touching the mouldred dust of Saints who living were never favoured with the power of any Miracle but as the lives of Saints are admirable so the proceedings of Almighty God with them seem very mysterious yet I have proposed some reasons of this to my sell First Almighty God will shew by this how dear his Servants are unto him and if he give so much vertue to their Ashes what may we expect he doth to their Immortal Souls Next it argues how grateful a thing humility is in the sight of God that those who have Crucifyed their flesh and daily Sacrificed their Bodies for his name should have the very Ashes of that Mortified Body cure Diseases restore sight to the blind and raise the dead to life Thirdly Almighty God will manifest the difference between a pampered Body and one mangled by acts of pennance the one by all manner of
delicacies sought to preserve a beauty and make it proof against time Yet once grown old or cut off by Death it is cast into oblivion the other kept in Chains and threatned daily with ruine yet at the last proves matter of veneration even unto those who before perhaps contemned it You see then how to live in the Memory of Men what Art is to be used to raise a stately structure of our selves the materials of this must be acts of Charity towards our Neighbour and acts of severity towards our selves the Cement must be Patience Constancy Resignation to God's holy will and the like with these Saints have purchased glory to themselves before God and veneration amongst Men that even Kings have crouched with bended knees before their Ashes who whilst here poor Pilgrims upon Earth were looked upon as Idiots and made as it were the mockery of the World so that humbled bones at last shall Triumph and erect their Trophies where they had been made the spoils of Death St. Gregory Nazianzen affirms the Ashes of St. Cyprian were so powerful as no Disease wanted there its remedy and this Testimony he received from those very persons who had been the Subject of his miraculous Cures St. Ambrose relates of one Severus who being blind by touching only the Casket wherein were enchased the relicks of the Holy Martyrs St. Gervasius and Protasius he recovered his sight St. Austin recounts many miracles wrought by the relicks of St. Stephen and adds The benefits obtained at his shrine were so great and numerous as whole Volumes might be filled with the relation In fine there is not a Doctour of the Church whose writings speak not the wonders Heaven hath owned even in their time upon the score of supplications made in the presence and honour of Saints Bodies Nor did this religious Worship of relicks spring up originally with the Ghospel for St. Epiphanius brings evidence how the Sepulchers of Esay Ezekiel and Jeremy were had in great veneration among the Jews and this from the extraordinary succours God conserred on distressed People at the Tombs of those Holy Prophets We find likewise Exodus 13. that before Moses conducted the Israelites out of Egypt he ordained the Bones of Joseph to be taken up and born away with Ceremony into the Land of promise Now why all this But to verify our Holy Prophets assertion that humbled bones shall rejoyce that Death may cause a separation twixt Soul and Body and so seem to Triumph over this mortal clay of ours cannot be denyed Yet if our members have served in purity as St. Paul terms it and merited in life to be the Temple of the Holy Ghost such as these though exanimated may still retain a vertue by which they give life and joy to other Beings Whence justly our Petitioner fore-declares and humbled bones shall rejoyce Truly it is but rational to conceive there should be a Providence to preserve from common corruption those Bodies who had been instrumental to many acts of vertue and made a daily victime by pennance For since mortality is the effect of sin there ought at least be something that hath the resemblance of immortality to attend that Body which hath much contributed to the Souls happiness Besides we believe our Bodies shall one day be glorified and vested with immortal dotes it is fit then such who have here led a life as it were Angelical without any contamination of sensual pleasures should anticipate in some kind their future glorifyed condition and how can this better appear than by imprinting a Sovereign vertue in their extinguished Ashes since it is decreed a compleat glorification cannot unless particularly dispensed with be conferred till the universal Resurrection This admirable operation given to their Earthly and liveless substance as it is a Testimony of their Souls felicity so is it no less to us a pledge the most dear we could have by which we are assured of their watchful and compassionate care over us In fine how powerfully are we wrought into the imitation of their lives when at their shrines we behold both Death and Nature vanquished and the prodigious effects of humbled prostrate Limbs lowdly declare how precious the Death of Saints is in the sight of God Thus our Holy Petitioner hath laid open unto us First the Jubileys of mind which fill a Soul united unto God by love and repentance Next to compleat the Harmony he tells us our very bones shall not want their portion of joy that if they here be made bare disjoynted or broken Almighty God never fails to sweeten those rigours by internal whispers and consolations which carry them on to perseverance in their pressures and debasements and when Saints have once payed this debt to nature then he gives to the one part the immediate fruition of his Glory and to the other he often communicates such Soveraign vertues that they are as it were certain previous dispositions to immortality 'T is true the relick of a Saint appears but a lump of Earth liveless inanimate and so is not capable of joy yet God making it the instrument of miraculous effects is thereby glorifyed and what ever relates to his honour is matter of exultation Again St. Paul saith that every Creature groans that is feels throwes and longing desires after their Maker If then these resentments be allowed to every Being much more ought we grant it to the Sacred pledge of a Saints Body in which the Omnipotency and other Divine attributes of God do so gloriously shine and humbled bones shall rejoyce The Application Let us then so manage our senses in this life enslaving them to the Lawes of reason that after the short course of their servitude here we may arrive to that joy mentioned by our Holy Petitioner Amen CHAP. XIX Averte faciem tuam à peccatis meis Turn away thy Face from my sins WHen I cast my Eye upon this clause of the Petition I cannot but reflect on that passage of Esay where he sayes it is a bitter thing to have once abandoned God for after a sin is committed though it be secret unseen and none reprehend us for it yet we fear every shadow suspect every look and syllable nor can we ever think our selves secure and out of danger St. Austin sayes as iniquity is alwayes accompanied with a neglect of God and consequently is a kind of Pride by which we value our own satisfaction beyond his honour so sin by a just punishment throwes us down below our selves it first induces us to actions unworthy our reason and after that engagement what Tyranny like to this usurper For having shaken off the fear of God who alone ought to be the Object of that passion we sink into the fear of every thing capable to be the Term of Sense if a sound it is a loud promulgation of our Crime if a Shadow it is some Ambuscado to surprize us if the World be civil they are acts of
indevotion and an indiscreet Zeal Fortitude between rashness and cowardise so of the rest Wherefore the art is so to steer your course as to keep at an equal distance from them both yet alwayes mindful that if one be more dangerous than the other you are most to decline that as if I would embrace the vertue of hope which is beset with presumption and despair and my complexion cold and melancholly drawes me on the extremity of despair this certainly most threatens my ruine and therefore I am to look upon every spark of that with more apprehension than a fire which issues from presumption Our Holy Penitent knew that whilest he sailed in the Ocean of this World he must needs be flanked with two dangerous Rocks that is two opposite vices to any vertue he would embrace so that if he keep not a steady hand to the helm by the least diversion he is cast upon a shelf which will destroy him Wherefore it behoves him to fit himself with a right spirit a Spirit of vertue which leaning upon the Principles of reason might preserve him in that degree of honour wherein he is ranked amidst created Beings For as knowledge makes one knowing so vertue gives us the title of good and as the good of any thing consists in the just measure and proportion unto it he concludes this right spirit of vertue to be a purchase worthy his ambition since doubtless nothing to Man as Man is more sutable and agreeing than such actions as are produced conformable to a reasonable nature he anticipates his Son's Declaration and thinks nothing profitable pleasant or great which is not made so by vertue This right spirit will shower down spiritual comforts settle him in peace with God Angels and Men shelter him under the wings of God's Providence which never fails to cherish those who live according to the rules of vertue and after a life attempered with the Harmony of delightful actions it changes into sweeâ—…ss the grim face of Death making it a secure passage unto eternal Beatitude He is resolved to put in execution the practice both of intellectual and moral vertues and that they may prove meritorious he begs they may be infused into him that when he considers the infinity of God's Being and the immensity of his perfections he may forthwith pay him the just tribute of glory respect and submission all worship praise and possible endeavours of Piety That his omnipotency may never pass his thoughts without an entire obedience to his will that his inexhausted and unerring wisdom may draw him to acts of faith and firm assent to his divine word That the fidelity of his never failing promises may fix a reliance and assured hope in him That his unwearied goodness may ravish him into a charity and love never to be extinguished That his incomparable greatness may work him into the annihilation of himself before him and give him a true feeling of his own vileness That a terrour of his judgments may throw him into a course of rigid pennance for his misdeeds and his unspeakable favours be met with all the Testimonies of gratitude which a poor Creature can give He knowes that had he a Million of hearts lodg'd within his own person yet could they never reach that love his goodness merits and should he stoop even unto Hell nay lower were it possible it would still be short of that submission due to his greatness Wherefore though he be hopeless to pay what he owes he will shew at least he hath a will to be just nor doth he blush at his impotency since it springs from the excellency of his Creditour from whom likewise he expects to be enabled towards the discharge of his arrears and he conceives no treasure can be more effectual than that of a right spirit and therefore he incessantly repeats renew in my bowels a right spirit The Application God will be adored in spirit and truth wherefore man is to serve and honour him by a certain knowledge sutable to his intellectual nature now in the essence of God are contained wonders not to be comprehended by the natural force of our understanding Whence we are with our Holy Penitent to Petition for a right spirit that is the excellent light of faith by which we are raised to a more eminent knowledge of the Divinity than all the activity and vigour of our reason could ever reach In this knowledge consists eternal life in the ignorance of this eternal death For with what Face shall he one day ask Heaven of the adorable Trinity who hath never known that mystery Or claim a share in the fruit of our redemption who hath been ignorant of Jesus Christ Let us then beg for this heavenly wisdom by which we are taken off from the low affection to Creatures to fix our Eyes upon the greatness of our Creatour the wonders of his works and amidst a Million of ravishing objects which this right spirit presents to our meditation let us insist with a particular gust on this that our Souls are created for eternal bliss Amen CHAP. XXIII Ne projicias me à facie tua Cast me not away from thy face OUr Holy Penitent seems here to question the success of his precedent petition by which he had sued for a right understanding this argues how unsetled the mind of a sinner is that no sooner he had aimed at this irradiation but immediately he is struck with a terrour of his demerits and fancies his doom is to be eternally banished from the Face of God wherefore he cryes cast me not away from thy Face St. Hierom conceives this clause levels only at the communication of his Divinity in order to the Hypostatick union which he apprehends in punishment of his sin might be concealed from him and therefore he sayes cast me not away from thy face that is deprive me not of the knowledge of thy divine nature as it relates to Man in the great Sacrament of the incarnation It is this mystery he fears to be ravished off which brings along with it a fulness of time and wherein all the groans and labours of many longing Souls will cease and be at rest But the more vogued opinion layes this expression upon his anxiety touching his eternal reprobation He knew he was unworthy of eternal life through the forfeiture of grace he had made and whether being now a Vessel of dishonour the divine Artist will not leave him eternally in this reproachful mould is the just motive of his fear He remembers a passage in Exodus where our Lord threatens to obdurate the heart of Pharaoh and it is no less affrighting what St. Paul declares that God is merciful on whom he will have mercy and in the Fourth Chapter to the Corinthians God hath cast an obcaecation on the Minds of unbelievers Yet our Petitioner is too good a Divine as entertaining these reflections to make God the efficient cause of Man's obdurateness he knowes that
God is only permissive and accidentally concurring unto final impenitency that is in not imparting his grace dissolving Hearts unto such as will not receive it for since they obstinately cleave unto sin he is not obliged to violence the liberty of Man's free-will which he hath in his Creation decreed unto him Nor prodigally throw away his precious grace upon those who contemn it Wherefore the penal substraction of his grace springs not from the slow current of mercy to a sinner For it is alwayes ready to flow where the Channel is cut out and prepared to receive it but from the malice of Man by which he is totally averted from God opposite and refractory to his holy inspirations When therefore he begs not to be sequestred from his face far be it from his thoughts to impeach God as Author of obdurateness it would only speak he is cause of the punishment not the fault That if by the prevarication of our first Parent we were reduced to such a condition as God might justly leave us to our selves much more by actual sin do we deserve it and in this dereliction we can never rise nor frame a supernatural act without which it is not possible to attain unto Salvation So that if God will use his own right and divert his face that is the effects of his goodness and mercy from him he gives himself for lost and so justly lost as not to have the least matter of complaint against his Judge Nay on the contrary he joyns issue with the Prophet Esay saying Lord if all the Nations thou hast made should perish who can blame thee If God hath drawn some out of the gulf of perdition to issue forth the Marks of his goodness even in the height and fury of their malice this is no warrant to our Petitioner that for his sake he will break the ordinary rule of his providence he rather apprehends he may be made an Example of his Justice and be abandoned to his corrupt inclinations wherefore he petitions that he would daign to cast a benign Eye upon him nor throw him away from his blessed face Another dismal thought occurs which eggs him on to this demand and it ought certainly to be very dreadful to a sinner that is there is a certain period set to every Man's transgressions which is called the measure of his iniquities and if this be once compleated such a Cloud of obstinacy and perseverance in evil involves him as he never will be cheered with the Sun-shine of God's mercy This proceeding hath been evident in the downfall of several Nations and Cities whose excess of wickedness hath drawn upon them the exterminating hand of God Our Holy Penitent first places before his Eyes the universal deluge where it is declared that the World had accomplished their malice and by it so prepared the divine Justice as there wanted nothing but his avenging Rod to fall heavy upon them Again as to the Land of promise designed to the Seed of Abraham God told him he could not yet perform it and his patience awaited the space of four hundred years untill the Amorites and Canaanites had summed up their iniquities after which they were made a prey to the Children of Israel In sequel of this our Holy Penitent concludes that though these examples in a vast multitude were remarkable and terrifying yet God's judgements hold the same method in the concern of every particular Soul Besides his fears encrease when he considers that God's patience is spun out longer with some than others and whether his last sin might not be the upshot and close of all God's special favours to him he knowes not Wherefore in this suspence and just subject of apprehension he petitions not to be thrown away from his face Our Holy Penitent finds notwithstanding some glimmerings of comfort when he revolves in hes Mind the marks of this helpless desolation First he remembers when the Sodomites were consumed in the flames of his anger the Harbinger of their destruction was their notorious and publick commission of their crimes and this joyned with such impudence as to vaunt and boast of their impieties Our sad Penitent found himself not guilty of this for what contrivances had he nol framed to conceal his sin and when reproved by Nathan presently with shame and confusion he owned his miscarriage The next presage of Reprobation is obstinacy which was laid before him in the person of Pharaoh whose hardned heart not all the importunities of Moses nor the prodigious wonders he wrought could in the least mollify nor work him to the dismission of God's people When therefore you behold a person so bent upon his wicked wayes as no remonstrance entreaty promise nor threat can prevail you have reason to believe as St. Paul sayes they are given up to a reprobate sense which insensibly and unawares will bring them to endless ruine Our Petitioner cannot likewise accuse himself of this prelude to perdition this present Psalm which he composed immediately after the Prophet from the part of God had denounced unto him his ingratitude sufficiently evinces he was not deaf to the workings of God's inspirations nor impenetrable against the power of exciting grace Another cause of God's dereliction is an habitual application to a certain sin to which one is so fastned as his ordinary grace hath no effect to draw him from it and God is pleased not to gratify him with any thing extraordinary in punishment of his transgressions having so often abused his mercy This habitual malice was evident in the Jews who from age to age had persecuted the Prophets sent to mind them of their duties insomuch as St. Stephen laid it to their charge and defied them to name any one who had escaped their fury and this they continued untill at last they laid their hands on the Saint of Saints Christ Jesus after which Sacrilegious act arrived at the utmost pitch of their demerits they were given up to the Tyranny of the Romans who totally subverted their City and Nation Our Penitent had reason to hope his deviation was an effect of frailty rather than malice having not continued any space without repentance when once his sin was represented to him by the Minister of God's word yet knowing the web of Man's Salvation to be wrapt up in the secret of the Divine Providence that though he had revealed to many of his Servants the glad tidings of their predestination yet never had he to any communicated the doom of reprobation lest it might cast them into despair therefore he thinks it the wisest course to sail between hope and fear and in all events to implore that he may not be excluded from his sight Some again weighing the subsequent verse where our Penitent petitions God not to take away from him his holy spirit are of Opinion that this demand imports not a dread of reprobation for he seems to thinks himself in the possession of grace but argues
rather a fear to have stopt the sacred stream of God's extraordinary favours towards him For he was so well versed in the wayes of perfection as he knew the foundation of a life of Sanctity consists in the good management of divine inspirations and that the greatest Saints have from thence derived their happy success in a spiritual life We see no King nor Common-wealth if they find any person unfaithful in a slight Office that will entrust to him a more weighty charge and why should we think that God will be less prudent in the Government of Souls St. Prosper sayes that God imparts his graces in order and by degrees First distilling into them some little dropps of his grace and then a greater quantity in case those first be carefully improved it being a good earnest that he who acquits himself with fidelity in ordinary things will in matters of greater perfection come off with no less honour Whereas on the contrary the first step to the misfortune of a sinner is made by the neglect of God's early inspirations in the beginning For there is not any Pagan misbeliever or Christian whom he stirs not up to the common practice of vertue as obsequiousness to our Parents the avoiding Theft Luxury and the like and if they comply with these he fails not to enflame them with desires and gives them abilities to arrive at more sublime perfection Wherefore our Penitent fears he may have demerited in this Nature and begs not to be excluded from his face that is not to be deprived of those endearments wherewith he is wont to overwhelm such Souls as correspond with his inspirations and if hitherto he hath played the Coy one and scorned his dalliances for the future he will change his humour and cherish every the least motion of his dear Creatour He will aim at a perfect resemblance of his beloved in imitation of his wisdom he will discern good from evil and distinguish 'twixt the less and greater good alwayes embracing that which is best In order to his purity as much as is consistent with frail nature supported by grace he hopes to preserve himself from all stain and imperfection That some sparks of his charity may shine in him he will love that which God loves and love nothing but what he loves and upon the same motives whereon his love is grounded In a word he will unite all his faculties with God in as strict an alliance as this present condition of mortality will bear provided he be not exiled from his Face nor the flood-gates of gracious communications shut up in punishment of his past offences Whilst the person offended admits the offendour to his presence it argues there is not an utter breach between them wherefore till a sentence of banishment be passed he still retains some hope his aim then in this petition is to put a barr to this extremity of rigour He confesses it is a bitter thing to leave God but yet a far greater to be left by him and a main appearance of this is when he leaves us to the desires of our own heart like a Physitian who permits his patient in a desperate condition to eat and drink what he please He knowes the anger of God is great when he is not angry with a sinner and that it is a stroke of his goodness when his temporal chastisement immediately followes the offence so that if he please to afflict him and like a Jealous God issue forth his indignation upon the place for every misdemeanour He is ready to embrace with open arms what ever affliction he shall send and is willing to expose his breast to the direst shafts of his fury so it may but divert this great subject of his fears as to bee ternally cast out from his presence Neprojicias me c. The Application We behold by this clause how all along in this petition our Penitent hath been terrifyed with the ugly shape of sin and now he begins to apprehend the effects of sin which is Death For Death and sin considered apart are very frightful but once joyned together that is to dye in sin there is nothing more dreadful and this dismal stroke he fears when he sayes cast me not away from thy face St. John Damascene observes two derelictions of God the one seeming when he permits the just to fall into sin that by experiment of their frailty they might rise more humble and more watchfully attend to their Salvation This happened to our Penitent St. Peter and divers others The other is absolute and a final cashier for ever and this happens when after all remedies applyed a Soul remains stupid and incurable even to the last by his obstinate perseverance in wickedness so that God foreseeing this obdurateness withholds his special grace and so lets him end in his impenitency we are here therefore to joyn with our Petitioner and beg we may not come to this period or consummation of our iniquities but timely lay hold on the shield of his mercy Amen CHAP. XXIV Et spiritum Sanctum tuum nè auferas à me And take not from me thy holy Spirit THe workings of God's Holy Spirit in our Souls are great secrets and if to our selves unknown no wonder that to others they lye hid and though he be in us after a quite different manner than he is said to be ubiquitary by his essence presence and power yet his approach or recess is so insensible as the best persons during this life are left in suspence ignorant whether they be in a condition of love or hatred with their Creatour Of this blessed Job seemed to complain saying Chap. 19. If he come I shall not see him and when he retires I am in the same Cloud Notwithstanding God is pleased sometimes though rarely to dispense with his ordinary proceeding as to give such marks of his grace and friendship to a Soul that it is apparent even to the Eye of the Body Of this we have an example in the Feast of Pentecost when the Holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles in form of fiery tongues so replenishing their Minds with knowledge and enflaming their Hearts with charity as the whole World was in a short time laid prostrate to the power of their doctrine and miracles In this clause of the petition we have likewise reason to pass the same Opinion of our Holy Penitent that he had been gratified with the like visible communication of this divine gift The past transactions 'twixt God and his once happy Soul were fresh in his memory and how he had designed to reveal unto him many secrets of his Providence Nay had given him so many proofs of inhabiting grace as one must be strangely stupid not to acknowledge it Now here he seems to cheer himself with a confidence that after his petition for a clean heart and right understanding he is again in the enjoyment of his blessed presence by grace and charity wherefore he begs
mediums consequent to our eternal Election For God first designs our Beatitude and after this the means to arrive unto it as to have true faith to observe the Commandements to avoid sin to practice works of mercy to have a sincere repentance a perfect charity towards God and our Neighbour to bear adversity with patience and finally to persevere in grace these actions he knowes are the proper instruments to cause joy within him in order to this he resolves upon the punctual accomplishment of his commands and this vigorously like a Giant both with firm footing and with large and nimble paces nor will he discharge this Obligation in a cold manner simply to pay what he owes but with a serious application of his Mind offering them up to God and directing them to his glory with a most holy and pious zeal Next he resolves alwayes to do that which is most acceptable to God knowing that we cannot give him too much honour and that our fidelity engages us not to omit any occasion of doing good Lastly he will be assiduous in framing interiour and exteriour acts of vertues especially such as more immediately lead unto him he will conspire with heart and affection to all the services to all the acts of love praise and glorification that the most perfect Creatures ever have or shall give unto him His next design in pursuance of this joy is to have an Eye to himself whom he beholds like a plat of ground which must be cultivated and emboweld ere it be fruitful He undertakes this melioration with the tools of fortitude temperance and other vertues nor is he set on work by the comeliness of vertue or turpitude of vice his final end is the object of all his motion it is meerly to please God and glorify him in his Salvation He knowes the condition of this life is alwayes beset with dangers and hazzards alas his own experience had too freshly taught him this Truth and that we are in the midst of sworn mortal Enemies wherefore he is resolved to bear a strict band and purchase victory by a perfect abnegation of himself of his senses both interiour and exteriour of his memory understanding and will knowing it is a Nice and Ticklish Combat to overcome by Love His third contrivance to joy is not to fail in what he owes to his Neighbour He considers Man issuing from the hands of God and in a capacity if faithful to his Graces to return unto the same fountain Wherefore he fears to hate that person whom God may have designed to love for eternity and as he loves God not as a particular but universal good so he will cherish love and honour all Souls as being in a possibility of enjoying him This is the foundation our Holy Penitent layes for the superstructure of his joy remitting the rest to the disposal of that all comprehending Architect whose lines are drawn severally according to the rule of his providence For when a Soul whom he hath gratified with endearments of spiritual relishes and ineffable delights happens to forfeit by some default the subtraction of his grace sometimes upon her repentance he not only admits her again to his favour but also to her wonted ravishments nay to that degree as even she seems to have gained by her loss Sometimes again he is pleased barely to Seal his pardon without any further communication of those Enthusiastick throwes she used to feel in her amorous transports Now I find our Penitent in this his petition is desirous to regain all and this appears in divers others of his Psalms where he suffers strange convulsions in his desires to be united unto God and now born up with a restless longing he sighs forth restore me the joy of thy Salvation St. Gregory puts this distinction 'twixt corporal and spiritual pleasures that the former not had push us on to vehement desires for the acquisition but when enjoyed they presently cloy and beget a nauceousness the other give very little insentives when absent yet being once possessed they are still coveted because still creating new delights and though to be kept in desire and hope be a kind of torment in Earthly enjoyments yet it is not so when they relate to Heavenly treasures the reason is God hath deputed Earth for our hopes and Heaven for our bliss If here we are mindful of Celestial glory and make it the subject of our thoughts and desires every the least glimmering hope of that blessed state will produce ineffable joy within us There is nothing sayes St Basil which ought so much to ravish Man as to reflect that he is designed to so noble an end as to enjoy God's immense perfections for all eternity Whence he inferrs the sole way to anticipate our happiness is to think continually on him to consider that our Souls shall be translated and as it were dissolved into his divine essence Wherefore he exhorts us to the imitation of Painters who aiming at the performance of a rare piece have their Eyes alwayes fixt upon the Original But if we pervert this order and make the Earth our Heaven enjoy that we should but use what must be the issue for after a long enquest passing from one delight to another our thirst is never satisfied Whence the pleasures of this life are resembled to brackish waters which still the more you drink the more you encrease your thirst nay they have this additional circumstance of woe that their drowth shall never be quenched in this life nor in the next not in this for Christ our Lord positively declared it to the Samaritan that those who swill themselves with the puddle of Earthly pleasures shall be alwayes thirsty and panting after new refreshments Not in the next life for the whole extent of Hell could not afford the unfortunate rich man one drop of water a little to allay the vehemency of his enraging heat I remember Philo the Jew treating of Earthly delights calls them furta Coeli the plunder of Heaven So that who enjoyes them steals them from thence now as a thief retains what he hath got by rapine with a continual fear and jealousy which still moderates and allayes the contentment of his acquests so doubtless there is nothing transitory can give a true satisfaction to the owner Our Holy Penitent was very sensible of this Truth and grown weary of the World's prosperity confesses in another Psalm that his Soul could find no comfort but in the meditation of everlasting joy as in this the whole scope of his petition is that as Abraham was ready at God's command to sacrifice Isaac his sole joy and contentment in this life so he is ready to renounce his lovely Absalom or any thing most dear to him in this World that by this dispropriation he may make a passage to that lasting joy which attends his Salvation Wherefore he will never cease to implore restore unto me the joy of thy Salvation The Application Our
in his Throne drawing from thence the eternal Son of God O who can be so wicked to behold the lines of this merciful proceeding drawn forth and not presently joyn issue with our holy preacher to abandon the pernicious wayes of sin and become a Disciple in the Rudiments of vertue To behold a Redeemer living in the Hearts of Men before he came to live upon Earth to see all the Sanctity of the World addressed to him to speak of nothing but him and all conspire to his glory If before he came he had so many tongues and voices to set him forth and that the Law and service of God had no other aim than to engrave the Messias in the Hearts of Men what expressions ought to enflame our zeal after his birth life cross and triumphant glory These are the wayes our Graduate will distill into the Minds of the wicked and certainly he did it with an excess of fervour and delight helped on by the consideration that out of his seed the Saviour of Israel was to be born And it is clear he kept close to this Theam even to the last making it his Testament and the subject of his expiring words to his Son Solomon That he should be sure to walk in the wayes of the Lord that in the exact observance of his judgments and Commandment written in the Law of Moses were fastned the succession of his Crown saying This done thou shalt not want one of thy posterity to sit upon the throne of Israel These are the wayes if happily taken will preserve the wicked from ruine give them eternal life secure them from Hell and open a passage to all the delights of Heaven as St. John sayes To the end that all who believe in the should possess eternal bliss Wherefore our Penitent egged on by so many powerful motives to the discharge of his task will never fail in what he hath promised to teach the wicked the wayes of God The Application Our Penitent instructs us here by his example that there is no employment so acceptable unto God as to disperse in our Neighbour the clouds of Ignorance and imbue him with principles of wisdome His Son Solomon was perhaps taught by this clause to address so happily his petition And Joel the prophet makes it the great subject of good tydings he foredeclared to the Church Be glad yea Sons of Sion and rejoyce in the Lord your God who hath given you a teacher of righteousness Aristotle being asked why Commonwealths did not assign pensions for Masters that taught and instructed others as they did to other offices of the State made this reply because there could be no reward answerable to their desert if he thought certain notions in natural knowledge to be so valuable what a price would he have set on such as convey the sublime mysteries of heaven unto us Let us then instruct our Neighbour by good example by doing charity to the distressed and by wholesome Documents every one according to his Talent and Ability And in doing this we follow the steps of a great Saint who believed he could in nothing better express his gratitude and zeal for God's honour than in the Reduction of Souls to the way of Salvation Amen CHAP. XXVIII Et impii ad te convertentur And the impious shall be converted to thee BY this clause our Penitent destroyes the Opinion of some in those modern times who assert that Christ died not for all Men but only for the elect for if the impious be not excluded from the participation of his precious Blood surely there is none that are impiety being a crime that directly strikes against the honour of God and is a complaet rebellion against his Divinity Now if our Divine by his preaching was confident to reduce such offendours whom can we imagine shall be excepted nor can they say we are put into a worse condition by the Evangelical Law in which a plenitude of benedictions are showred down upon us and which as far exceeds the Mosaick as a thing real the type and figure that represents it St. John Chap. 1.2 sayes Christ is a propitiation for our sins and not only for ours but for the sins of the whole World First Christ satisfied for Adam's disobedience and original sin witness St. Paul ad Rom. Chap. 2. As death entered by the default of one so life by the justice and obedience of one Again St. John sayes Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the World that is original sin for the Greek version puts it in the Singular Number so Bede Theophilact and St. Thomas understand it The Angelical Doctor adds that the Son of God was incarnate rather for original sin which was an universal evil whose venome infected all Mankind than for the actual and personal sins of the World but as no sin is irremissible to an infinite mercy by consequence after original sin he made satisfaction for all actions and transgressions which were mortal The reason is that mortal sins not only deprive the Soul of the vision of God for all eternity but likewise exposes it to the everlasting torments of Hell the Son of God then whose nature is all goodness considered the misery of these sins and offered up his life and death for their expiation For without sanctifying grace our works are not meritorious nor can they satisfy for any venial sin Wherefore deprived of grace by original sin we could not by our selves no not by the assistance of the blessed Angels satisfy for the least venial sin Because though they be endued with grace yet no pure Creature can merit condign grace Wherefore it was necessary that Jesus Christ should make satisfaction for our least failing as St. Austin sayes excellently well that to save an infinity of VVorlds we ought not to cast one glance of the Eye contrary to the will of God Whence it is clear no Creature can satisfy for the least sin since to do it we must offer up something more valuable than the whole VVorld If then we could not free our selves from the least deviation without the interposition of his merits much less were we in a capacity to relieve our selves from the guilt of Enormous Crimes and if as to these the fruit of his passion was not applyed unto all it must be either from the inefficacy of satisfaction or a defect of commiseration and goodness towards his Creatures It cannot be the first for his merits are infinite by reason of the divine person from whence they proceed for actions belong to the person according to Philosophy It was likewise infinite in regard of his humanity because it was sanctifyed and deifyed by the divinity which was like a certain sanctifying and deifying form unto that sacred humanity now as the greatness of merit is not only measured by the quality of the work but also by many circumstances and especially in consideration of the dignity of the person that
that grand ballancing of all their good and bad deeds and by this means who knowes whether he hath not only disjoyned and torn the Soul from the Body but even from God for all eternity These dismal thoughts prompt him to fly for Sanctuary and it is no where to be found but at the Throne of God's mercy which he implores Free me from blood c. Again he considers with what a severe Eye God looks upon the sin of homicide commanding in Moses Law that blood alone should be the price and satisfaction for blood nay he extends it even to irrational Creatures that if any happen to be the cause of Man's death the Beast what ever it be should lose its life It was to prevent this unnatural violence that he prohibited the eating of blood so to cut off any practice which might diminish the horrour of it Besides the remorse and tortures of conscience which alwayes attend this sin sufficiently evidences that though in other Crimes his patient Justice seems for a while to lye asleep yet this he alwayes revenges upon the place For if the Thunder-bolts of his anger do not immediately fall upon their heads as to the publick view at least he begins the execution from the first moment of the Fact committed disturbing their sleep with frightful Phantomes and filling their awakened hearts with dreads and terrours that their life is even a burden and Irkesome to them of this are extant innumerable examples both in sacred and prophane Histories too long here to recite It is not unworthy our observation that a murdered Body should bleed afresh as it hath been often experimented at the presence of the murderer It is true many give natural reasons of the thing attributing it to the vital spirits not yet extinguished in the remnants of the blood retreated into several Cranies of the Body which by an Antipathy at the approach of their adversary fall into a Commotion and by this disturbance occasions the blood again to flow Others say it may proceed from a simpathy supposing the murderer to have upon his weapon wherewith he gave the wound or in some other part about him certain dropps of blood of the deceased by which Sympathetick vertue it receives motion in order to its reunion But my design not being to insist on Philosophical disputes I will not labour to weaken the force of their Arguments and only assert my Opinion which is that it speaks simply the extraordinary way of God which he holds sometimes in one kind sometimes in another to manifest and publish offendours of this nature Our Holy Penitent may be brought in for an instance unto whom it was declared by God's own command that notwithstanding all his Artifices in contriving Vriah his Death it should be exposed in the view of the whole World that future ages might see he whom he had chosen as the delight of his heart should have no priviledge in this particular and though he would abate something of his wonted rigour in not exacting his life for a satisfaction yet he would bring it near to his door by the rebellion of his Children with the Enmity and Machinations of many Conspiratours against him and that the Law of retaliation was not executed against him perhaps he owes it to this clause of the petition which he seems with more than usual fervour to have preferred repeating O God God of my Salvation We may here reflect how pernicious a thing passion is when once it hath got the Mastery and how soon it gets strength with the aid of dangerous occasions Our Penitent knew well that the Divine precept Non occides thou shalt not kill did not only forbid the taking away of our Neighbours life but likewise all rancour or malice towards him all injury by word or deed which may touch upon his honour or person all disputes contest or impetuosity of Choler these are the seeds of that monstrous fruit homicide as St. John sayes who hates his Brother is a homicide For by nourishing within you a little spark of animosity this from the heart appears in the Eyes which are the glass of the inward temper thence it breaks into words and at last sadly ends in his destruction Behold our Kingly Prophet and now an humble petitioner in his own behalf he is said to have been the meekest of Men and in consideration of his lenity and mildness in Government God spun out his reign to the Term of Forty years which was granted to few or none of the Jewish Kings with what patience did he sustain the reproaches and maledictions of Semei with what an admirable temper the long and restless persecution of Saul how tenderly issued he forth his orders touching Absalom that though he were actually in arms against him and thirsted after nothing but his life and Throne yet he commanded a hair of his Head should not be touched Notwithstanding all this upon a suddain seized with a passion of love both his sweet temperament and all his former habits of vertue proved of little use unto him The Christal of his understanding was blemished with gross vapours arising from brutish pleasures the purling stream of his inclinations which was wont to flow softly without noise and from the source of vertue is now grown into a storm of fury it is so deprived of reason as to imagine his own good and safety to depend upon the ruine of his Neighbour and therefore hastens to take vengeance upon him who never gave him the least shadow of real offence O what a Tyranny is the Rule of passion to make us love what is not amiable and hate what is not odious to push us on to desire what we should abhor and fly from vvhat vve ought most to covet Our holy penitent hath served under this oppression and novv petitions a release Free mee from blood c. Novv the Latins not using the vvord blood in the plural Number though the Greeks do hence it is that some infer and with reason that our Penitent aims at the remission of Adultery likewise because all carnal acts unlawful carry along with them a corruption both of flesh and blood this appears in Deut. Chap. 21. Where it is said that rotteness and worms shall be the inheritance of a luxurious person and as the one that is homicide destroyes the species of Man so adultery subverts those rules which are set down for his education a design which nature intends and drives at as well as Generation The one injures his Neighbour in his person the other in his honour and this not only of himself but casts an infamy upon his posterity It is storied of Vlysses that he met in his Travails with Circes the Enchantress vvho promised to make him immortal in case he vvould be naught with her and though he believed she was able to make good her promise yet he refused her less valuing immortality than fidelity to his Wife Susanna far less esteemed of
they are to wade through in making good their fidelity to God they throw themselves upon the points of Halberts and other instruments of severity without the least whining or flinching at their sharpness they take in as it were with the same relish the Gall of misfortunes and desolations and the Hony of prosperities and comforts No stormy season hinders their Journey and that which disturbs soft and effeminate Spirits is to them matter of joy and repose because they possess what they desire to wit affliction so that all things which pass under the name of Adversity are not so but to the wicked who make ill use of them in prizing the Creature more than the Creatour Hence it is that the general spirit of Saints have carried them on to be ambitious of suffering and to reckon it amongst one of the choice favours of Heaven for they had learnt by experience that if God with one Hand reaches unto them the Cup of his passion it is but by snatches and as it were a sup whilst with the other he gives them large draughts of consolation It is noted in the sacred Text that God laid open the person of Job to all the assaults of Satan but with this reserve that he touch not upon his life and this not in regard that death would have ecclipsed the glory of that great Champion but because he would not be deprived of such a Combatant to whose conflict he and his blessed Angels were intent with much satisfaction and so would not lose the pleasure of seeing this stout skirmish fought out to the last 'twixt him and his Enemy And as the Heathen Emperours took great delight to see a Christian enter into the list with a wild Beast so the King of Heaven is solaced with the sight of one of his Saints when he maintains a Fight against those fierce Beasts of Hell Seneca out of the principles of humane wisdom drew this excellent saying that no object was more worthy in the Eyes of the gods than to behold a stout Man with a settled countenance unmoved to struggle with adverse Fortune and truly the delay our blessed Saviour made in sending succour to his Disciples endangered by a storm at Sea sufficiently hints unto us the pleasure God takes to see the Just row against the stream tugg and wrestle with all the might they can against the stream and afflictions of this World Thus you see how happy our Holy Penitent hath ajusted his Sacrifice to the lines of God's will and that he never spake more emphatically than when he said A Sacrifice to God is a troubled spirit St. Bonaventure sayes that honor is due to God in four several respects and in like manner we ought in as many wayes render it unto him First in consideration of many blessings and this is to be returned by our gratitude and acts of thanksgiving Next we owe him honor in that he hath laid his commands upon us and this we perform by our obedience and submission to his Laws Thirdly his greatness and sovereignity exact it at our hands and this is paid by the vertue of Latria and adoration Lastly honor is due unto him in that he hath been offended and injuriously treated by sin Now the honor due to him in this point is restored by Penitential acts and by a troubled spirit Because in regard of his displeasure and to make reparation for the contempts thrown upon his Majesty he is ready to humble himself and apply all his endeavour to works of piety so far as even to afflict himself that he might honor the Divine Justice which requires that sin should never go unpunished Wherefore God is delighted in these painful satisfactory acquittances which we often give him written in our sweat and blood And Jesus Christ makes of them a present to his Father with his own from whence the value of ours is derived and there they find acceptance not upon the score of any contentment it is to God that we are tormented either in Soul or Body but meerly in that by them his Justice is honored and exalted and the Palms of our victory more resplendent This anxiety of spirit supported with a patient resignation and strengthened with a fervent prayer purchased to the distressed Anna and to the Jewish Nation that great Prophet Samuel This same disturbance of Spirit carried on by a generous submissive resolution against all the Machinations of Saul put into the Hands of our Penitent the Scepter of Juda in a word it seems to be a principle setled in Heaven that without this Sacrifice of a troubled spirit he will not part with his blessings It may be objected that God knowes the Hearts of Men and what they will do and therefore he need not this external Testimony Next that Christ's merits being of an infinite value ours appear altogether superfluous to which I answer First that his external glory consisting in the visible homages payd to him by his Creatures this would be wanting should he give them no occasion to make it manifest and shew unto the World he hath dependants who value no suffering in proportion to the duty they owe him Besides the satisfaction we shall take in Heaven to have done something to merit our Beatitude will certainly be a great addition to our Contentment As to the other though I confess the merits of Christ all sufficient yet this will not excuse us from offering what we can in satisfaction for the Honor and glory of all our actions belong to God now it being an Act of injustice to defraud any one of his revenue no less is it against equity to deprive God of the glory due unto him Wherefore a life that contributes not to his glory is perverse and wicked Again he that owns a Tree hath likewise right to the fruit it bears if the Land be mine the Crop also is at my disposal the labour and service of a Horse is due to his Master In like manner all that we are all the good we do or shall do is the work of God and a present with which he enriches us that we might be able to give something to him Wherefore as all is his our duty binds us to consecrate all our interiour and exteriour actions to promote his honor and glory And since it is reasonable sin should be punished our Holy Penitent submits to the decree exposes himself to be wracked and tortured by what punishment the Divine Majesty shall think good either in Mind or Body nor can he ever repine whilst he reflects That a Sacrifice to God is a troubled spirit The Application Here we are taught there is no Sacrifice conveyes an odour so pleasing unto Heaven as that of a Soul angustiated upon the score of God's cause The oblation of a Holocaust imports the reduction of it to Ashes that of a troubled spirit is a transmutation into the Holy Ghost who promises to be the intellect to be the Tongue nay
all unto him that suffers for his name It is a Sacrifice of what is most dear unto us that is the Friendship of Men For Christ foretold his Servants that they should be hated of the whole World so that by this immolation we forfeit what is natural and of all things most delightful to us But whilst we are in this consuming task we must remember that the Husbandman expects not the fruit of his labours until the seed he casts into the ground be corrupted and thence a plentiful Generation spring forth So we must continue perishing to the last that so we may rise under a new form never more to be crushed by the Flail or Mill of grinding persecutors but to flourish in eternal quiet as the just recompence of a troubled spirit Amen CHAP. XXXVI Cor contritum humiliatum Deus non despicies A contrite and humble Heart O God thou wilt not despise ST Chrysostom sayes no fond Lover dotes so much upon his Mistress as God doth on a Soul truly Penitent and then making an Apostrophe unto Tears he cryes O happy streams all principalities and powers strike Sail to you The countenance of a Judge affrights you not your accusing adversaries are struck dumb before you It is you alone that finds admittance and are entertained by your Sovereign you only can overcome the invincible and tye up the Omnipotent When I read these words of this great Saint upon the efficacy of Tears I am startled at the slender Character our Petitioner gives in this clause A contrite heart sayes he O God thou wilt not despise An expression which falls much short of a Lovers passion for to have no other return of a present than barely not to have it rejected argues the gift very little prized by the receiver and is in the next door to a contempt But yet the addition our Penitent makes of humble speaks very much and helps out the sentence For it imports that humility teaches him the excellency of God and at the same time his own nothing so that not to find a repulse in the exhibition of any homage rendered to a Being infinitely perfect is an endearing beyond what a poor Creature could any wayes in Justice expect and therefore in these lowly thoughts it seems to him he sets out God's mercy in saying A contrite and humble heart thou wilt not despise Wherefore it is evident our Petitioner relyes upon sure principles and speaks he is well read in Divinity for if satisfactory and penal works be a Sacrifice pleasing to God as is demonstrated in the precedent clause much more a contrite heart must needs be highly acceptable which is a total destruction of all love to sin a detestation and dislike against it which involves a passion of sorrow consequent to this hatred and a firm purpose to avoid all future relapses But the motive of this sorrow must be in that we have offended the Majesty of God who merits all love honor and obedience from us and therefore meerly in that sin is displeasing to him we are to retract and abominate our past misdeeds Our Holy Penitent the more effectually to create within him this lively compunction considers that by sin we deny unto God the just tribute of ohedience as if in a manner we would wrest his Scepter from his Hand and in sequel reduce him to nothing for God cannot be God nor subsist without a soveraign Empire over all things it being an attribute immediately resulting from his Divine and Infinite Majesty Next he weighs how God hates sin even to death witness his Commandements imposed under such heavy penalties on the transgressors The rebellious Angels our first parent Adam the universal Deluge conflagration of Sodom c. are frightful examples After he had run over all these punishments it was easy for him to judge of sin's horrour and how much it is abominated by God nay he yet stooped lower and beheld many eternally doomed to the flames of hell and this perhaps but for one only mortal sin After these dreadful presidents he proceeds further and in his prophetick view contemplates the Son of God innocent undefiled and set at a great distance from any sin to pass through the highest rigours of Justice and this meerly because he had taken upon him our iniquities Hence he concludes if the eternal Father be so severe to the dear production of himself in chastising the prevarications of another he will certainly redouble his stripes on Man for his own proper defaults Conformably to this meditation St. Austin sayes If a Redeemer be so roughly handled upon the score of anothers transgression what may a sinner expect in revenge of his own miscarriage Lastly our Penitent layes down how by sin we are declared Enemies to God enslaved to Satan odious in the sight of Angels and doomed to suffer in Hell without end which infinitely exceeds all the disasters of this life Besides we lose the grace and love of God a treasure above all other imaginable and whose forfeiture we ought more to deplore than all other misfortunes joyned together Wherefore one mortal sin is more to be lamented than all the disgraces and hardships which possibly may befall us in this World Our Petitioner having by these remonstrances alarm'd all the faculties of his Soul and so disposed them for action just like Souldiers commanded to Arms he then instructs them how to redeem all their dammages they have sustained by sin First they must abhorr their past misdeeds that is have such an aversion as heartily to wish they had never been committed and since the birth and essence of sin springs from the will it must be ruined by the same power retracting disowning and as much as in us lyes breaking the force of sin in becoming unvoluntary This done he reads unto them the efficacy of contrition by which our Souls are sanctifyed and all the Characters of sin defaced So that from Children of perdition in an instant we are declared heirs to eternal felicity the reason of this is that contrition comprizes a love of God above all things and the nature of charity is to make an absolute destruction of all vice which other vertues do not as having a repugnance only to the opposite sins So that there is no medium 'twixt charity and sin Man hath the one or the other but cannot enjoy them both together This is confirmed by the Prophet Ezechiel Chap. 53. The impiety of the impious shall not do him harm whensoever he shall be converted For love saith St. Gregory is nothing else but a flame and sin may be compared to rust So that when Christ said Many sins are forgiven her because she loved much it imports her Soul enkindled with a fire of divine love had worn away all the rust of her sins But what need we seek for authorities to strengthen this Doctrine when our Penitent had this happy Truth wrought in himself for no sooner he had cryed peccavi