A SERMON Preached before the Queen Dowager, In her Majesty's Chapel AT Somerset-House ON Quinquagesima Sunday February the 6 th'. 1686/7.  
Being also the Anniversary-day of His late Majesty King CHARLES the TWO, of Blessed Memory.  
By Thomas Codrington Preacher in Ordinary to His Majesty.  

Published by her Majesty's Command.   
LONDON, Printed for William Grantham in Cock-pit-Alley in Wilde-street, MDCLXXXVII.   

A SERMON Preached before the Queen Dowager ON Quinquagesima Sunday February 6. 1686.  
Being also the ANNIVERSARY Of His Late MAJESTY.  
Caecus quidam sedebat secus viam, mendicans;— Et clamavit, dicens; Jesus Fili David miserere mei!  
A certain Blind man sat by the way side begging;— And he called out saying, Jesus Son of David, have Mercy on Me!  Words taken out of the 18 th'. Chap. of S. Luke 35, and 38, verse and Read in the Gospel of this present Sunday in Quinquagesima. 
THis Morning's Gospel (Sacred Majesty) were I Master of my own choice, would lead me readily to a Subject, not unwelcome to Your Royal Ears: Offered to Me upon the occasion of the Anniversary Remembrance of a Doleful, and yet Happy day; Doleful for the Departure of Our late Sovereign from this Life: Yet Happy for the manner of his Preparation for it. If we look upon his Life, then turn our Thoughts upon the manner of his Death: We shall easily discover, both from the one and the other, how particularly my present Text belonged to Him: A certain Blind man begged, and he called on Jesus to have Mercy on him. We may fitly parallel the Blindness of our Beggar in the Gospel, with the Darkness which obscured for a time His Royal Sight; and the Cries of that same Beggar, with the Penitential Tears which Bathed his Deathbed; and those Ferverous Ejaculations, which Reached so effectually the Ears of Christ: That now with Joy before his Altars, we Celebrate the Anniversary Remembrance of that Miraculous Effect of his Infinite Mercy and Goodness. How gladly should I enlarge myself upon this Theme, and lose myself in the Ocean of a long Discourse; were I not checked in my forewardness by a Compliance I owe to the Ceremonies of the Church, which admits not of Funeral Rights and Solemnities on days (like this) particularly Devoted to Her Service. I must therefore forcibly let this Subject fall, and take up another (though none so proper) to Entertain Your Royal Presence with. And thus I begin,  
THe connexion of those Sacred and Divinely inspired Writings the Holy Gospels, (although peradventure it appears not so clearly in the Letter) yet may easily be traced by the diligent Observer in the Mystery. This may particularly be remarked in our present Gospel; the former part whereof (though with little appearance of connexion in the Letter) leads us Mysteriously to a knowledge of those Truths, which may be gathered from the Moral of the Latter; that part, I mean, which I've assumed for my Text. At the opening of this Gospel, our Saviour is said to have call d aside his twelve Disciples, and to have made to them, a part from the rest, a Pathetic Discourse upon his approaching Passion; but the Evangelist who mentioneth this, saith also of those same Disciples, That they understood him not; Et ipsi nihil horum intellexerunt: And they understood not a word of all this.  
Our Holy Mother the Catholic Church, following the Conduct of Her Great Master, Reads to us Christians her Disciples the same Discourse: To Prepare us against this Holy Time of Lent for a Fruitful Communication of his Sufferings. But truly this dismal Lecture of the Passion of Christ is Read to us at a Season, in which the Hearts of some loose Livers are so little prepared to receive the intended Advantages thereby: (This being the Merry time of Shrovetide, a Season Dedicated to Sports and Riots; so to forestall the rugged time of Penance with Excesses too too Criminal, and Pastimes at the best but dangerous enough:) Their Hearts, I say; at this loose Season are generally so little prepared for a Lesson of Suffering and Mortification; (as that is of the Passion of Jesus Christ;) that of too too many bearing the Name of Christians, with much more reason may be verified, what was also said of his Disciples: Ipsi nihil horum intellexerunt: They did not understand a word of all this; that is, of all those weighty Maxims of our Religion, which this Morning's Gospel did open to them.  
This argues a strange Blindness in the Hearts of Sinners: For the Cure of which, as this mentioned Passage hath led me to the choice of my present Text: So I shall endeavour to draw from it those Instructions which the Moral of it may supply me with, both for a right knowledge of this Spiritual Malady, and of the proper Means to Cure it by. Following therefore the method of my Text, I shall consider 
in my First Part, 
The Blindness of Sinners, as figured to us in the Blindness of that poor Beggar. Caecus quidam sedebat secus viam mendicans.  In my Second. 
The means which sinners are to use, like that same Beggar, for the Recovery of their Sight. Et clamavit dicens, Jesus Fili David Miserere mei!    
These are the Considerations I shall insist upon; having first implored the Divine assistance to favour us with a Ray of Heavenly Light, to dispose our Understandings for the Reception of these Truths; by the Intercession of the Blessed Mother of God in the Angelical Salutation, Ave Maria, etc.  

First Part.  
CAEcus quidam sedebat secus viam mendicans; A certain Blind man sat by the way side begging. The Blindness, Christians, of this poor Beggar, represents to us (according to the common gloss of Holy Fathers) the Spiritual Blindness occasioned in the Soul by Mortal Sin. Ambulabunt ut caeci, quia Domino peccaverunt; saith the Prophet Sophonias, They shall walk like Blind men, because they have sinned to the Lord: 
1. 17.  And the Book of Wisdom, Excaecavit illos Malitia eorum; The Malice of Sinners hath made them Blind. 
2. 21.  This Spiritual Blindness than is the effect of sin, as it is properly its Punishment too; it being the want of a right Understanding on the part of a sinner, to consider throughly the deplorable Condition he is in. 
Eccl. 4. 5.  Peccavi (saith the sinner) & quid mihi accidit triste? I have sinned, and what hath happened to me amiss? I Eat, I Drink, I Sleep as I did before; my Meats are as Relishing to my palate; and my Slumbers on my Downy-Pillow as Undisturbed. I enjoy a perfect Health, and Solace myself with the satisfactions of a Voluptuous Life. Quid mihi accidit triste? What hath happened to me amiss? What hath happened to Thee amiss? Poor Wretch! Didst thou but rightly understand the Damages (perhaps irreparable,) which thou sufferest by Mortal Sin, thou soon wouldst change thy Note; and Bath thyself in Tears, at the sight of thy Unhappiness, who now art Drowned in Jollities, because thou seest it not!  
This Blindness therefore being the effect of Sin: the chief causes of it are as many, as there are in number Capital Vices; which, like Fruitful Mothers, give a Birth and Beginning to all the rest. Let us then run over in our Thoughts the different Natures and Properties of those Radical Sins; we shall easily discover, in Discoursing on their Effects, how every single Species of that number brings with it its respective Blindness to the Soul. First, Then of Pride this Truth is manifest; that Sin consisting properly in an Inordinate Desire of some Excellency deserving the Honour and Esteem of others: Appetitus inordinatus excellentiae, cui debetur Honour & reverentia, saith S. Thomas. Hence 'tis that the Proud and Haughty Man either arrogates to Himself what he deserves not; or bears Himself Confidently above others, as justly deserving that Tribute of Honour, which he Ambitiously covets to be paid to Himself alone. And these are equally the Effects of Blindness; for were not the Eye of his Understanding extremely defective, he would both discover his own unworthiness, and at the same time the real Merits also of his Neighbour.  
Covetousness also Blindeth the Possessors of Wealth; according to that of Moses in Deuteronomy, Munera excaecant Oculos Judicum; Bribes do hoodwink the Eyes of Judges. 
16. 19  Gluttony and Luxuty have their parts also in the Spiritual Darkness of the Soul. Drunkenness (saith St. Basil) Is the very Origen of all Impiety; the occasion of forsaking God; it being an obscuring of the Intellective Faculty, by the means of which we arrive to the knowledge of him. 
Isa. c. 5. v. 22.  Blindness also was the punishment of the Luxurious Sodomites; a Figure of that Interiour Blindness which struck their Souls, Percusserunt eos caecitate. 
Gen. 19 11.  And 'tis observable in the Parable of the Beggar and Dives: An example both of Gluttony and Lust, That, Elevans Oculos suos in tormentis vidit Lazarum; Lifting up his Eyes, whilst he was in Torments, he saw poor Lazarus: And then indeed he knew him, whom whilst he lived in Pleasures, he saw not; such is the Darkness the Souls of Voluptuous Livers are buried in, In Tormentis vidit Lazarum. Anger obscures the Eye of the Intellect, falling down upon it like a Fiery Cloud, and interposing itself between the Sun of Truth and it; Super cecidit Ignis, & non viderunt solemn. And how many in their Passion, have fallen foully upon their Dearest Friends; who, when their Eyes are opened to the Rays of Reason, are ready to Expiate so horrid an Ingratitude, with the very Sacrifice of their own Blood! Envy also Blinds our Sight, that we cannot distinguish rightly the True Object of our Sadness, whilst we are dejected at another's Good, Invidia (saith the mentioned S. Thomas) est tristitia de alterius bono. But Sloth above all the rest of her Vicious Company, declares herself the most Malicious in inflicting this Wretched Punishment on the Souls of sinners. For whence proceeds this Coldness in the Spirit of Christianity? Whence this Drowsiness in the Service of God Almighty? This neglect in complying with the Obligations of our Religion? But from a Slothful Ignorance, and unacquaintance with them. We understand not the Ties of our Christian Duty; but the fault is fixed at our doors, that we put not ourselves in the occasions of being acquainted with them. We are destitute of those comfortable Lights that quicken Devotion, because we are easily tire d with the practice of it; we receive not the Promised Helps of Grace in our Temptations, because we endure not long and perseverant Prayer: That properly may be verified the saying of S. Peter, in regard of such; Gaecisunt, & manu tentantes: They are Blind indeed, like those who search about them with their Hands; 
2 Pet. 1. 9  As Conscious to themselves, sufficiently of their own Unhappiness, though ignorant of the true occasion why they suffer it.  
These are the different Causes of the Blindness of a Soul in sin. Now if we will consider this Intellectual Defect in its own Nature, we shall find it distinguished into two kinds; into the Blindness of such as see not with their Eyes shut (and that's no wonder,) and the Blindness of such, as see not with their Eyes open (which certainly is the strangest Blindness of all.) Apertis Oculis nihil videbat, saith the Scripture of the Persecutor Saul, when he was struck from Heaven with a sudden privation of Sight; and in this he was the Figure of those poor Wretches, who have indeed their Eyes Open, but see nothing; Apertis oculis nihil vident. 
Act. 9 8.  Now if you ask me, who those Blind Men are with their Eyes Open; with Sorrow I must answer you, They are Christians; The Gentile, Jew, or what other Misbeliever there is, are all Blind, Having (saith the Apostle) their Intellect Obscured and Sealed up in Darkness of Infidelity. They are Blind indeed, and Blindly follow the Passions of this World; because the Eye of their Understanding is not opened by the Light of Faith to behold the Advantages Promised to us Christians in the World to come. This is the Misery of poor Infidels and Misbelievers, whom the Gospel hath not illuminated with the Rays of Truth. And these are properly those blind Men, who see not indeed, because their Eyes are Shut. But we Christians, who have the Eye of our Understanding clear and open by the Light of Faith; we, who are assured that there is a God, a Heaven, a Hell, Eternity, a Punishment for Sin in the next Life, and a Reward for Virtue: We, I say, whose Eyesight Faith hath cleared to behold all this; and yet to live, as if we saw it not! As if these Truths were so many Raveries of a man in a Dream! What a dismal Blindness is this with the Eyes Open! To believe like Christianè, and yet to live like Pagans! Christianè credere, Gentiliter viventes! Saith Petrus Damianus upon the like occasion.  
That the Pagan gives up the Bridle to Concupiscence, his excuse is tolerable; because he knows no better: But intolerable in a Christian, who hath Learned the Lesson of the Apostle: That Livers according to the Flesh shall die: Si secundum carnem vixeritis, moriemini. 
Rom. 8. 13.  That the Jew hath Crucify'd his own Redeemer, this he hath to say, that he knew him not; But what can the sinful Christian reply, who firmly believing in him as truly such, yet Crucify him again by every Mortal sin: Rursum Crucifigentes sibimet ipsis Filium Dei, & ostentui habentes, saith St. Paul of sinners: Crucifying again to themselves the Son of God, and exposing him to shame and scorn! 
Heb. 6. 6.  That the Misbeliever neglects the means our Saviour hath left us in his Church for our Salvation, it is, because he understands not the value of them; but how unpardonable is it in the Christian and Catholic; who believing the Sacraments, to derive their Virtue from the Merits and Sufferings of a dying God, yet profanes them so easily by so many imperfect Confessions and unworthy Communions! Oh sinful Christians! Your Eyes then are opened, but to render you more Admired, and less Compassionated for your Blindness. Your Eyes are opened by Faith to behold the horror of a gaping Hell for sinners: And yet you behold not the eminent danger you yourselves are in, in following them. Your Eyes are opened to discover the dreadful Consequences of Mortal Sin: And yet you discover not the desperate risk you every moment expose yourselves unto, continuing in it. Your Eyes are opened to consider Speculatively, that the Life of a Christian is a Life of Penance: And yet practically you consider not how little your easy and voluptuous way of living accords with it. Are not We then, properly, We, (Sinful Christians) those Unhappy ones, in whom is discovered that extravagant sort of Blindness: That their Eyes indeed are open, but they see nothing; Apertis oculis nihil vident?  
But as those Wretches are miserable indeed, whose Eyes are either quite Sealed up, through the want of Faith: (such are Infidels and Misbelievers;) or opened by Faith, but to see nothing: (such are Believing Christians, yet insensible of their Misery;) so again thrice Happy and Fortunate are those sinners, whose Eyes indeed are opened, to see: (Such are Mercifully Illuminated with the Rays of Divine Grace, to look in time with an Eye of True Repentance into the sorrowful condition of their sinful Lives.) The passage in Genesis of Adam's prevarication (take it according to the Mystery) seems to acquaint us with this Truth. For properly may be said of every Repenting Sinner, what Moses said of our first Parents upon their Fall: Aperti sunt Oculi amborum; The Eyes of both were opened, and something than they saw. 
Gen. 3 7  (Oh how better was their condition than of those Blind Wretches who see nothing.) But let us inquire into the same Text, what it was poor Eve and Adam then discovered, when their Eyes were opened; They discovered that they were Naked, Cognoverunt se esse nudos.  
This Nakedness of our first Parents, represents to us the Nakedness of a Soul despoiled of Grace. And such is the Misfortune of every Sinner, who travelling, like the Pilgrim from Jerusalem to Jericho, through the troubled and dangerous ways of Sin, falls into the Hands of Thevees, the Devils, who rifle him of this Sacred Ornament of his Soul.  
This dangerous way was that poor David walked in, when he fell into his sin; and the Barbarous usage of the Thiefs Infesting it, (I mean the Devils,) is passionately expressed by him, who had experienced the sad effects of their fury and rage. Ad nihilum redactus sum (cried poor David, when he was robbed of Grace) Ad nihilum redactus sum; O my God I am brought to nothing! I am Plundered! I am Bankrupt, I am Robbed of Grace, the precious covering of my Soul, and nothing now remains to me but my own Nakedness: Where is now the sweet Harmony of my Soul: The ready Obedience of my Inferior Powers to their Superior; Of my Passions to the Rule of Reason? Now nothing but Disorder and Rebellion reigns within me. Where's the Collection of all my good Works, my Meritorious Actions? All become the spoils of sin! All lost! In the state I am at present, lost! Oh my Treasure of Grace! Oh my Inheritance to Glory! Ad nihilum redactus sum: I am rifled, I am ruined, I am reduced to nothing. Et nescivi; and that which proved the most fatal loss of all, I lost the very Sense of my Misfortunes; Ad nihilum redactus sum, & nescivi. Thus complained David then a sinner, when his Eyes were opened to behold his Misery.  
This same road also did Adam take before him, and lighted into the Hands of the same Robbers upon the way, the Devils, as he Descended from Jerusalem to Jericho; from the state of Innocence to the state of Sin. And after him all we sinners march on blindly in the same tract, and light into the same Disasters upon the way. For (as S. Austin makes the Reflection) Omnes nos Adam sumus; We are all Figured in this Adam; We are all adam's too. 
Aug. in Ps. 125.  We ought then to turn our Thoughts upon ourselves, and consider that it is not only his Misfortune which deserves our Tears, but much more our own; so that our First Adam may properly speak to us in the Phrase of our Second, Jesus Christ: Nolite flere super me, sed super vosmet ipsos fleet; Shed not, my Children, your Tears on me, but on yourselves. 
Luk 23. 28.  And certainly, Christians, there is just reason so to do, if we consider seriously how Adam's Misery accords with ours; not only in what we suffer by Original sin: But also in what we suffer by our Actual, those sins which after Baptism we ourselves commit; for in these as well as that, Omnes nos Adam sumus; We are all adam's too; That is, we all like Adam, are rifled of our Robe of Grace and Justice; although we are not all, like Adam, Fortunate in Discovering our own Nakedness; Cognoverunt se esse nudos.  
This Happy Discovery of our own Nakedness being the first Disposition to a True Conversion: We ought (as we are sinners) to make it our first request to God Almighty in the words of our Beggar in the Gospel, Domine, ut videam; Lord that I may see. Our Saviour asked him what he desired of him; He humbly answered, it was, To see, Domine, ut videam. Let us then, Dear Sinners, with this good Beggar, demand of God the recovery of our Sight; that so we may arrive to a right understanding of our Nakedness and Misery; Domine, ut videam! Lord, that I may see, how poor and naked a Wretch I am without thy Grace, and what a Treasure I have lost, in losing Thee! Cure then my Heart of its Insensibility, and suffer me no longer to remain Cold and Indifferent, sinning on unconcernedly without the least remorse of Conscience, or without the least reflexive Thought of what I have done: Quid feci? Domine, ut videam! Lord, that I may see; How Bountiful thou hast been to me in the Offers of thy Grace: And how ungrateful I have been in neglecting or abusing them! How often thou hast called upon me, and I have answered not! How easily I follow the Maxims of the World, rather than those of thy School: The base Sentiments of Flesh and Blood, rather than the Lessons of thy Gospel! Domine, ut videam! Lord, that I may see the manifold malice of my SIN! How much I have despised Thee in quality of my Lawgiver, prevaricating against Thy Divine Commands! How much I have despised Thee in quality of my Lord, refusing Obedience to Thy Sovereign Will! How much I have despised Thee in quality of my Last End, neglecting the Beatitude thou hast Courteously Promised me! How much I have despised Thee in quality of my Creator, abusing the Bountiful Effects of Thy Creation to Affront the Bestower of them: My Memory, my Understanding, and my freewill! How much I have despised Thee in quality of my Redeemer, setting no value upon the inestimable worth of Thy Dearest Blood, and bitter Death thou hast endured for me! How much I have despised Thee in quality of my Judge, expressing myself so little concerned at the future Terrors of thy Tribunal! At the Severity of thy final Sentence, and the Dreadful Effects thereof! How much I have despised thee in quality of my Friend, setting little by thy Grace, by which I correspond with that Title! And finally how much I have despised thee in quality of my Father, forfeiting my Inheritance to thy Kingdom, and the unparallelled Dignity of being called thy Son. All this I did, when I offended Thee; and yet without the least concern for what I had done: Quid feci? But now unseal the Eyes of my senseless Heart, and I will publish the wonders of thy Mercy! Revela oculos meos, & enarrabo mirabilia!  
This Lesson Christians, may thoroughly acquaint us, of what Instruction the Passage of our Beggar in the Gospel is to us; what a Truth is cleared to us by his Blindness▪ and how his Wants may teach us how to Pray. What ought to be the subject of a Sinners Supplications, he hath already showed us in what he asked for, Lord that I may see! Now, as he hath taught us, what we are to Pray for; So he also teacheth us how we are to Pray. This shall be cleared to you in my Second Part; favour me accordingly with your Attention.   

Second Part.  
ET clamavit, dicens; Jesus Fili Dei miserere mei! And he called out, saying, Jesus Son of David, have mercy on me! I have represented to you a Blind Man Begging for the Recovery of his Sight; now I shall acquaint you with the Efficacious Means, of which he served himself in his Address, that so his humble Suit might reach our Saviour's Ear, and be Considered by him as he passed by. Clamavit, faith the Gospel, He cried out; He called on our Saviour with a loud Voice. Now what's the Christian meaning of Calling on God Almighty with a loud Voice? It is to Accompany our Prayer with our Works; that so our Actions, as well as Words, may speak the real Sentiments of our Hearts: And our Lives remain not Mute and Dumb, whilst our Tongues do cry for Mercy. Ne forte simus strepentes vocibus & muti moribus; faith S. Austin, Sermon 18. de verbis Domini. Who is then this Beggar (continues the Holy Doctor in the same place; whose Thoughts I shall follow in the sequel of this Discourse, Who is then this Beggar, that calls on Christ with a loud voice, to be Cured of his Interiour Blindness? Quis est, qui clamat ad Christum, ut pellatur interior caecitas, transeunte Christo, He answereth himself, Clamat ad Christum, qui spernit saeculi voluptates; Clamat ad Christum, qui dispergit, & dat pauperibus; Clamat ad Christum, qui dicit non lingua sed vitâ mihi mundus Crucifixus est, & ego mundo. That Sinner truly calls aloud on Christ, who retaineth no longer an Affection for the World; that Sinner truly calleth aloud on Christ, who Distributeth his Charities to the Poor and Necessitous; that Sinner finally calleth aloud on Christ, who Witnesseth not by his bare Discourses only, but by the manner of his Life, That the World is truly Crucified to Him, and He to the World.  
These difficult ways of Calling on God Almighty, although so earnestly recommended to us by that great Teacher of his Church, yet are but rarely practised by Sinners, because they are as rarely understood. Let us therefore examine, how such acceptable Works of Penance do speak aloud for the doers of them, and make themselves be understood as far as Heaven. Our first Call then on God Almighty for the recovery of our Sight, is (with S. Austin) a rejecting of the sinful satisfactions of this Life. Clamat ad Christum qui spernit saeculi voluptates. This Heroic Action, (and Heroic it is indeed, to gain a victory over Flesh and Blood) this Heroic Action of true Christian Courage speaks strongly in the Favour of a Sinner to Jesus Christ; it pleads his Cause at the seat of, Mercy. It is an assurance on the part of the Sinner of the sincerity of his Conversion: How sensible he is of the condition of his Soul: How unfeignedly desirous to be Heald of his Infirmity: And how vigorously on his part he contributes to the Cure, by removing those Obstacles that may prevent or hinder it: Those Obstacles are our Passions for the World. How strong a Call then, and how forcible in the Ears of Jesus Christ is a Christian like renouncing of those Worldly Enjoyments, our Passions for which hath proved the occasion of our Blindness! Clamat ad Christum qui spernit saeculi voluptates.  
We call (with S. Austin) in another Voice that reacheth also the Ears of Jesus Christ, as often as our Charitable Assistances do reach the Necessities of the Poor; Clamat ad Christum, qui dispergit & dat pauperibus. In the Book of Proverbs we read a Threatening Sentence, able to I'll the Hearts of Uncharitable Men; Qui obturat aurem suam ad clamorem pauperis, & ipse 
21. 13.  clamabit, & non exaudietur; Who stoppeth his Ears to the cry of the Poor, he also shall cry, and shall not be heard. From whence we may draw this Rational Conclusion, that the opening of our Ears to the Cries of the Poor, is the opening of the Ears of Christ to us. And such a Call undoubtedly is both loud and piercing; since we employ as many Tongues, as there are Mouths we fill, to speak for us. Clamat ad Christum, qui dispergit, & dat pauperibus▪ A third call also (with S. Austin) is of a Sinner whose Life is truly Crucified to the World, and the World to it. And can there be a Voice more Charming, more Inviting the Mercies of Jesus Christ, than to behold a Sinner suing to him in that same Posture, as He himself did sue for the World's Redemption to his Father upon a Gross.  
But perhaps (Devout Christians) you are desirous of a clearer Notion of so Celebrated an Expression, and yet peradventure so little understood: (I mean, A Crucifixion of a Christian to the World, and of the World to him:) Ice therefore give it to you in an easy and familiar Thought. To be Crucified to the World, and the World to us; is to have our Judgements and Practices directly contrary, the ones to the others. In the Judgement and Practice of the World it is a Cross, to live in the World without Enjoying it; but in the Judgement and practice of a Christian, those very Enjoyments are a Cross, because they hinder us in the way of Virtue. The World sets a value upon his Gifts, his Wealth, his Honours, his Delights; S. Paul on the contrary esteems them as dirt, as they are put in Balance with Jesus Christ: Haec omnia arbitror ut stercora, ut Christum lucri faciam. 
Phil. 3. 8.  Oh how truly was the Apostle Crucified to the World, and the World to him! When two are fastened upon the same Cross, they necessarily must turn their backs, the one to th' other▪ This aught to be the practice of a Christian, in his Reciprocal Crucifixion with the World. The World turns his back on you, turn yours also upon the World. The World Laughs at you, because you live up to a practice different from his▪ Laugh at him also, or rather Pity him, because (through Blindness) he understands no better. The World loves you not, because you are no longer in the number of his Followers: Then love not you the World, and so will little love be lost between you. Whose Life corresponds with this Lesson of indifferency, may confidently call on Jesus Christ, with a Mundus mihi crucifixus est, & ego mundo.  
Such Christianlike performances are, according to the reflection of the Great S. Austin, so many loud and sounding Voices, with which our Lives do call on God, and not barely our Mouths only. But as the Virtuous Actions of the Devout Christian sound harsh and gratingly in the Ears of Worldings: So he is frequently checked by them, and desired to hold his Peace. The same also happened to our Beggar in the Gospel, who was rebuked for his clamour by those who in the company of our Saviour went before him, and by them commanded to be silent. Et qui praeibant, increpabant eum ut taceret: And those who went before, rebuked him, that he should hold his Peace. This very particular of our Gospel, is also a figure of what too frequently passeth in the Church. Those Rebukers of the Clamorous Beggar, are Lazy and Scandalous Christians, who make it their endeavour to impede the Virtuous purposes of the good: Bonos Christianos mali & tepidi prohibent.  
No sooner doth the Sinner begin to enter Seriously upon a change of Life, to deny himself those Hurtful Liberties which before he took, to withdraw himself carefully from the occasions of sin: In a word, to live up to the Obligations of his Baptism and Religion; No sooner can a sinner resolve on this, but presently he is opposed in his Virtuous Designs: Qui diligunt saeculum, contradicunt; The Lovers of the World rebuke him for it. They interpret his Conversion an excess of Folly, his new course of Life some Fit of Melancholy or Indigested Zeal, and a singularity tacitly condemning the Lives of so many others, who bear in the World the Name of Christians as well as he. Et nunquid alii non sunt Christiani? And are not others Christians too? Such and such persons are not so scrupulous; they think it time enough to take up yet. This Gallant for example continues still his customary Disorders, his Riots, his Debauches, his Excesses in Drinking, Swearing, Gaming, and the like; Yet ask him, what he is, he answers you a Christian, and (though we hardly gather it from his Life) perhaps a Catholic too. That Lady still exposes herself to dangerous Liberties, to Scandalous Privacies, which are encouragements to sin; still she sleeps away unconcernedly the better part of her precious hours (every moment of which might gain her an Eternity;) or she Dreams them away waking upon new Garbs and Fashions: As if for that concern alone she thought herself placed in this World; she is still most lavishly Expensive in her Dress, which makes her as narrow Hearted to the Poor; and yet she is a Christian, and a Catholic too. In fine, they still conform to the Maxims of the World: They little concern themselves in the Great Affair of their Salvation, and yet they all pretend to a place in Paradise as well as we. But tell us not, (continues the Holy Doctor,) tell us not, how such and such do Live, but how the Gospel teaches them to Live, Let them not invite us by their ill example, but rather by the Rule of their Religion, the Doctrine and Life of Jesus Christ. Non dicant quomodò isti vivunt tam multi, sic vivamus. Quare non potius, quomodo dicit Evangelium?  
But as the maliciously subtle World, resolved to nipp our Religious Commencements in the very Bud; proposes on the one side the Scandalous Examples of Vicious Livers to invite us: So on the other side, it objects the apparent Difficulties which occur to us in the Exercise of Virtue, to deter and fright us, It makes a change of Life appear a thing impracticable by Flesh and Blood: The Conquering of our Passions, a Combat to be undertaken by more than Man: Mortification the Burying of one's self Alive; In fine, it represents to us Penance with such a ghastly and frightful Visage, that many Sinners have scarcely Courage to look upon it: But this is a Cheat the World puts upon us. The face indeed of Penance is a little rough, but her Conversation is Sweet and Delightful. We may properly apply to this Subject the Words of the Learned Moralist Seneca, which he himself made use of writing to his Friend, To Arm him with Courage against the Fears of Death Tolle (said he, Addressing himself to Death without the show of Fear) Tolle istam pompam, sub qua lates & stultos 
Epist. 24  territas, mors es; quam nuper servus meus, quam ancilla contempsit! Take, take away that frightful show, with which thou appearest to scar Fools; Remove those Sables, cover that Earthly Paleness, dry up those Tears of Relations and Friends! Take, take away the appearances of Horror that disguise thee! Mors es, Thou art no more than Death, that Bugbear nothing, which lately my very Bondslave Encountered with Scorn; Mors es; quam nuper servus meus, quam ancilla contempsit. The same proportionably may we also say of a Life of Penance; Tolle istam pompam sub quâ lates: Take, take away that mask of Terror which disguises thee, to frighten Cowards in Religion! Silence those hard and terrifying Names, of Mortification, Self-denial, Struggling and Combating with Flesh and Blood! Show thyself to us in thy proper Colours! Penitentia es; Thou art but Penance: A Life, this ignorant Ploughman, that tender Girl have passed through with Courage, 
Aug. lib. Conf.  and are Crowned for it, Et tu non poteris quod isti & istae? And cannot you do like these and these? Know you no better things than that vile Peasant? Own you yourself to have a lesser Heart than that poor Girl? And shall these snatch▪ from you the Kingdom of Heaven? Take, (Convert!) take this Thought to heart! You'll find a Life of Penance no such Monster, when such and such have Courage enough to tame it! And their Examples as sharp a Spur to Egg you on in the way of Virtue, as those can be of Vicious Livers to draw you back!  
Then let us not be daunted at the Frightful Arguments of the World; but rather set before us the example of the Beggar in the Gospel, and take▪ his method for our Rule. The multitude indeed rebuked him for his Clamour; but he increased it, instead of being Silent at their check: Increpabant eum ut taceret; ipse verò multò magis clamabat. This remarkable circumstance recommends to us most particularly the virtue of Constancy and Perseverance in the practice of good Works, as the surest means of surmounting those Difficulties, which are often objected to us by Flesh and Blood, to deter us from the Accomplishment and Perfection of them: Perfectio boni operis perseverantia est. Had the Beggar been daunted at the rebuke of the Multitude, his Prayer had not arrived to the Ears of Christ. And if every opposition can make us turn our backs, we may often enter the Lists to Fight, but our Cowardice will not suffer us to be Crowned.  
We must do in our Conversions to God Almighty, as Abraham did in his Sacrifice, when the Birds descended to disturb him in it, Abraham (as we read in the Book of Genesis,) 
15. 11.  had prepared the Flesh of certain Victims clean and neat, to offer them in Holocaust to God Almighty: But whilst he was occupied in this Religious Care, Descenderunt Volucres super cadavera: Certain unclean and hungry Birds of Prey, (drawn thither peradventure by the scent of the Bodies,) came fluttering about him, attempting with their dirty Beaks and Talons upon those Sacred Limbs designed by him for the Holocaust. What did that Holy Patriarch in this Distraction? In this disturbance of his Devotions? Abigebat eas; He drove them unconcernedly away. And as they returned, he drove them away again; pursuing still with greater Fervour that Holy Work, the greater was the Molestation he suffered in it: Till at last they left him, and undisturbedly he finished his Sacrifice. So it is with those Sinners who prepare themselves by a change of Life, to offer up to God Almighty a Grateful Sacrifice of a Contrite Heart. They meet indeed with Unclean Birds, that flutter about them to disturb them too; These are the Temptations of their past Life, which often return in their Devotions, attempting to Pollute the Purity of this new Victim with unclean Thoughts; Luxury slings dirt upon our good Resolutions of living Chaste; Gluttony upon our purposes of quitting our Riotous and Debauched Lives; Sloth upon our Vigilancy in the Service of God, and the great concern for the Salvation of our Souls; and so for the rest: But drive those Birds away. (Parley not with your Temptations) and as they turn upon you, drive them away again. Doubt not, at last they'll leave you, that you may undisturbedly complete your Sacrifice; that is, may perfect the Work of your Conversion, and the Church with Joy may see the Fruits thereof.  
These, Christians, are the weighty Reflections that offer themselves to our most Serious Thoughts upon the Moral Examination of this Text. The Corporal Blindness of that Poor Beggar represents to us the Spiritual Blindness of a Soul in Sin. Which Blindness, (if we form a right Conceit of it) is so deplorable in regard of sinful Christians, who have their understanding opened by the Light of Faith, and yet remain insensible of their Misery; that properly with their Eyes open, they see nothing; Apertis oculis nihil vident. Those indeed amongst us who are desirous to have their Eyesight cleared, to discover their own Nakedness, (such a Discovery being a principal Disposition to a true Conversion;) have also a method given them by our Blind Beggar, how to Address themselves to Jesus Christ for the recovery of their Sight: Domine, ut videam! Lord, that I may see! He called on Christ with a loud voice, Clamavit; and so must we; but (in a ready compliance with S. Austin's Sage Advice,) let not barely our Tongues call on him, but our Lives also. The Beggar heard himself Rebuked by the Multitude, and commanded to hold his Peace, Increpabant eum ut taceret. The same rough usage must we expect from the Temptations of the World and Worldly Livers, whose malicious endeavours are to retard our Progress in the way of Virtue. Let us then no more regard them than the Blind man did the People's check, that so Our Voice may reach the Ears of Christ. Vouchsafe us then, dear Son of David, as thou didst the Blind man in the Gospel, a Gracious Respice, Look up, and see! Clear our Understandings of those Clouds, which Passion and Ignorance have drawn before them! Grant us the Exercise of a lively Faith, to discover those Sacred Truths, which are concealed from the Eye of the World! Purify our Souls from Sin, and render them capable of beholding that Invisible Being, which is only the Object of a clean Heart. That arriving to the right knowledge of Thee in quality of our last End, and chiefest Good, we may Love Thee, Praise Thee, and Enjoy Thee for Ever. Amen.  
FINIS.