A SERMON Preached before the King and Queen, IN Their MAJESTY'S Chapel at St. James', on the Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost, Octob. 25. 1685.  
By the Reverend Father JOHN PERSALL, Of the Society of JESUS, Professor of Divinity.  
Published by His Majesty's Command.  
LONDON, Printed by Henry Hills, Printer to the King's most Excellent Majesty, for his Household and Chapel. 1686.   

A SERMON Preached before THEIR MAJESTY'S, On the Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost, Octob. 25. 1685.  
Erat quidam Regulus, cujus filius infirmabatur.  Joannis c. 4. v. 48. 
There was a certain Nobleman, whose son was sick.  
THE Holy Church, in this Days Gospel, invites us all to the Bedside of a Rich, Noble, Young, but Dying Prince, who lies groaning at Deaths-door, and notwithstanding his Plenty of other things, is become a Beggar for a little Breath, which all the Power of the World is not able to afford him. I wish, that the Followers of Sensuality, who make Pleasure their God, live as if they were never to die, imagine Time to stand, and laugh at Discourses of another World, as Fables only for the Entertainment and Pastime of this: I wish (I say) they would turn their Thoughts hither a little while, and behold the dismal Theatre, whereon every one of them must one day infallibly act the same Part, which now this Noble Youth represents before them; trembling betwixt two great Eternity's, of Happiness above, and Misery below, and uncertain which of the two is to be their Lot. Now, tho' we go no further, certainly the Pangs of a dying Prince, and Death triumphing over Wealth, Nobility, and Youth, is an Emblem, clear enough, of the Vanity and Uncertainty of Worldly Happiness, and might well deserve to be the Subject of our present Consideration. 
Serm. 44. de Verbis Domini.  But because I hear the Great St. Augustin (speaking of our Saviour's restoring the Widow's Son to Life) advise us, That it was our LORD's Intention, that, by what he acted visibly towards the Body, we should understand his invisible Operations on the Soul, applying all his exterior and Corporal Performances, to an interior and Spiritual Sense: Dominus noster JESUS CHRISTUS ea, quae faciebat corporalitèr, spiritualitèr volebat intelligi. It shall therefore be my present Endeavour, First, by the Sickness of this Youth, to lay before your Eyes the Sickness of a Soul in Sin; and, Secondly, from the Circumstances of his Cure, we'll gather the Means for the Curing of our Souls. But because I am too conscious of my own Weakness, to hope for any Fruit from my Words, unless the Holy Ghost vouchsafe to put them in my Mouth, and speak them again to the Hearts of my Hearers, I must have recourse to the Blessed Virgin, whose powerful Intercession is an Aquaeduct or Channel (as the devout St. Bernard assures us) through which Celestial Gifts are conveyed unto us. Wherefore let us humbly invoke the same, saluting her with the Angel, Ave Maria, etc. Erat quidam Regulus, etc.  
IT being then my intent by the visible Sickness of the Body to discover the invisible Sickness of the Soul, let us enter a little into the Chamber of this Dying Prince, which probably you will find adorned with the richest Tapestry, beautified with choice Cabinets, and set out with other Movables of the highest Price: The Curtains, Balance, and Canopy of the Bed, all proportionable to the Nobility and Greatness of their Master; but approach a little towards that stately Bed, draw open those Royal Curtains, and see what lies within: A gasping Life, an half-living Death, a breathing Carcase! His sinking Eyes already seek their Grave: his pale and wan Countenance puts us in mind of his Winding-sheet: the feeble and unactive Condition of his Body declares, that he is Death's Close Prisoner: the Panting of his Heart is a sad warning, that the fatal Stroke is ready to be given, which must break asunder the Gordian Tie betwixt Soul and Body. And is this He, on whom so much Gallantry does attend? Is it to him, those Hang, Cabinets, and Embroidered Curtains do belong? This certainly is the Fable inverted, and not a Pearl on a Dunghill, but a Dunghill in the midst of Pearls.  
These were the visible Effects and Consequences of this Prince's Corporal Sickness: Let us now try, how far they will lead us towards the Discovery of the invisible Effects of a Spiritual Disease. If you view the Chamber or Bed, wherein a dying Soul lies gasping, what for the most part more glorious? It is one perhaps of these trimm'd-up Beauties of the World, which seem to outshine the Sun's brightest Beams. Gold, Silver, Pearls, and whatsoever the blind World calls Precious, is all too little to set them out. But turn hither the Eyes of your Understanding, draw open those gay Curtains by a serious Consideration, and look on that Soul, which lies within them. O quale Monstrum! What a Monster! Had we Eyes of Angels, it would appear far more hideous to us, than the expiring Carcase, which we just now beheld. The Poison of his Disease had dried and withered up his Body, consumed all his Spirits, and the Soul being now ready to departed, all the Train of Beauteous Features had already taken their leave. But the Poison of Sin is yet far ranker, and its Effects upon a poor infected Soul far more deplorable. It consumes to nothing all her Substance, all the Stock of Grace whereby she flourished. The Sun of Justice, her only Life, is ready to withdraw his Divine Rays, and consequently all the Flowers of Virtue must needs dry up and whither; so that she, who before had Beauty enough to enamour the very Fountain of Beauty, is now become the Source of a Poison, rank enough to infect the whole World. She is a mere Sink of Loathsomeness and Corruption. What is she else, but a putrifying Carcase, feeding the Worms of a bad Conscience, and engendering innumerable venomous Infects, I mean, the cursed Brood of vicious Habits? She breathes forth such a Stench, that were our Corporeal Senses capable of being wrought on by Spiritual Objects, it would not be possible for us, to live within the Sphere of its Activity. For the truth of all this, I appeal to those Saints, to whom Almighty God has given a more peculiar Light, for the discovering the Horror and Ugliness of Sin. St. Chrysostom calls Sin the only Evil, asserting, That we ought to abhor nothing but Sin, no not even Hell itself. And the Reason hereof will appear clearly, if we consider the Nature of an Humane Soul. She is created to the perfect Image of her Creator, and participates in an high Degree of his Divine Essence, Divinae Particula Aurae: Hence she has in her a strong and forcible Appetite of being united to her God, and consequently cannot be at rest, whilst she is separated from him; but in this Night of Sin, the Fogs, arising from a corrupted Will, do so obscure the Understanding, that, tho' the Soul perceives an unquiet Appetite within herself of some great Good, yet what that Good is, or where to find it, she knows not, and falls on that which comes next, Sensual Pleasures, Riches, Honours, mistaking the Rivulets for the Fountains, but still ends with a Restlessness and Dissatisfaction. So Solomon, after he had glutted himself with all the Pleasures so great a Knowledge could invent, and so great a Power could procure, Quicquid desideraverunt oculi mei, non negavi eyes, quin omni voluptate fruerentur; he experienced in all Vanitatem, a certain Emptitiness, Afflictionem spiritus, an Affliction of Mind; because Nothing is good, or according to the innate Appetite of the Soul, but GOD; on the other side, nothing is ill, or contrary to this innate Appetite, but Sin. And hence it was, that those Paul's, Anthony's, Hilaries, who lived on raw Herbs, lay on the hard Ground, spent their Days in Prayer and Mortification, and were deprived of all the Delights of Sense, never complained of Misery, because having God, and being united to him, they seemed to want nothing; whereas Solomon, tho' abounding with Riches, being without God, seemed to have nothing. So true it is, that there is nothing satisfactory to the Rational Soul, but God; and nothing hurtful or grievous to it, but Sin. The Holy Archbishop of Canterbury, St. Anselm, protests, That he would rather leap into the eternal Flames of Hell purus a peccato, free from Sin, than peccati labe pollutus coelorum regna tenere, defiled with Sin to possess Heaven. St. Augustine has many things to the same purpose; but none more emphatically describes this Plague than St. Peter Chrysologus. 'Tis the nature of Sin, says he, to breathe forth a certain venomous Vapour in the Soul, which so dims the two Lights of Faith and Reason, that it leaves her wholly in Darkness: So that being led by Passion, she throws herself from one Precipice to another, till she comes at length to the very Brink of Hell, and yet sees not all this while, whither she has fallen, or how near she is to her eternal Ruin. Besides this, her Fever afflicts her with an insatiable Thirst of all those things which increase her Disease; and, on the contrary side, Fontibus dulcissimis amara salsedo, it so spoils and vitiates her Taste, that those Fountains of Graces and Spiritual Comforts, the Sacraments, Sermons, Spiritual Books, and the like, which to a Soul in Health are most savoury and delicious, to her are as bitter as Gall. To this purpose St. Chrysologus. By which sufficiently appears the deplorable Condition of a Soul in Sin, had we a Sense or Understanding capable of conceiving it. But as the Sickness of the Body is never the less dangerous, because the Patient perceives not the Malignity of his Disease: So the Condition of a Sick Soul is never the less miserable, because in this Lethargy of Flesh and Blood, she discerns not her own Misery. And now, if nothing else will serve the turn, let at least the Danger of an Everlasting Death move us to look after a Cure, and that as earnestly and efficaciously, as the thing deserves. When a wise and skilful Physician tells his Patient, that he is in Danger of Death, it makes him presently seek a Remedy, attend to the Physician's Prescriptions, and put all diligently in execution. But what is the Death of the Body, compared with the Death of the Soul? That is only Temporal; This, Eternal: That implies a Separation of the Body from a Rational Soul; This, the Separation of the Soul from the Fountain of all Happiness, Almighty God: That leaves the Body, bereaved indeed of Sense, yet without Pain; This buries the Soul in Hell, there to suffer, and for ever, such Torments, that all the Pains and Torments of this Life are nothing to them. When I sometimes consider with myself, that it may be, it is not impossible, that I should one day groan under the heavy Burden of Eternal Damnation, tho' I go no farther, reflecting only on a mere Possibility of so great a Misery, it makes my whole Body tremble: My Hair stands an end, my Heart pants, and my Bones are almost disjointed with Fear. But forasmuch as concerns a Probability thereof, and such a Probability too, that the contrary is improbable, who is there that is not dead already, or quite void of Sense, who can live with such a Thought, under such an Apprehension? And yet certain it is, that those who follow their sensual Inclinations, and scarce ever seriously think of their Souls, are in a Probability, and in a very great Probability of being damned. Damned! Oh what a Deluge of Misery is included in that little word, Damned! Let these Considerations, Beloved Christians, sink into our Souls; Let a just Horror of Sin seize upon our Hearts: And so disposed, let us pass to the Second Part, and learn to cure our Souls, by weighing the Circumstances, and considering the Particulars of this young Prince's miraculous Cure.  
The Father of our Sick Youth no sooner heard of our Saviour's coming that way, but he presently went unto him. The first thing then, we are to do, is to have recourse to the Physician. Abiit ad eum, says the Text, He departed unto him; the word Abiit here signifying not only a Going to, but a Going from. Many are willing enough to go to the Heavenly Physician, on condition that they may not go from the World. They will (I say) go to him, but not follow his Advice, in parting with their Riches, Honour, Pleasure, the Source and Origine of their peccant Humour, and consequently the Cause of their Distemper.  
The second thing is to Present him with our Petitions: Et rogabat eum: And he asked him. Some come to him, but, like the proud Pharisee, ask him nothing, justifying themselves, and scorning to acknowledge their Wants, or any need they have of a Physician. Quid rogaverit Deum, quaere in verbis ejus, & nihil invenies: Examine a little (says St. Augustine) the Pharisee's words, and see what he asked of God, and you shall find, that he asked nothing. This is not the way: But, on the contrary, we must with Humility own our Misery and Sickness, if ever we expect a Cure. We must rogare, beg with an humble Confidence, ut descendat, that he will come down to us; at least, that he will be pleased to cast down an Eye of Mercy upon our sad and helpless Condition; and then we ought not to doubt of a Remedy from that Hand, which is so far from repelling us when we ask, that its Omnipotent Bounty is always beckoning to us, and encouraging us to ask.  
The third thing which we ought to do, is of very great moment, and that, for want whereof, many have been eternally lost; and it is, not only to Go, nor only to Ask, but to do Both in time. 'Tis a dangerous thing to delay the Cure of our Souls. Alas! how many are there who at this instant fruitlessly deplore in eternal Torments, that ever they put off so important a Concern? We must then in this imitate the Father of our Sick Youth, who was careful in the beginning. Incipiebat mori; His Son began to die; and he was solicitous that our Saviour might come, before he had quite given up the Ghost. Descend, priusquàm moriatur Filius meus: Come down (says he) before my Son dies. I am not ignorant, that divers Interpreters, and some Holy Fathers also, accuse these Words of want of Faith, as if an Omnipotence could not as easily have restored him Dead to Life, as Sick to Health; yet they must all grant, that 'tis an excellent Prayer for a dying Soul, Domine, descend, priusquàm moriatur Anima mea; Lord, vouchsafe to come, before my Soul dies.  
Consider all the Cures, which our Saviour wrought, and you will still find the appearance of most Difficulty, where the Disease had made the greatest Progress. Lazarus was dead, and now four days in his Grave, and how much is to be done to raise him? First, Our Saviour must come in Person, tho' his Disciples dissuade him from exposing himself to so much danger. The Jews, said they, did but just now endeavour to stone thee, and wilt thou again venture thyself amongst them? He goes notwithstanding this, and being come to the Monument, First commands the Grave-stone to be removed, Then he afflicts himself, turbavit semetipsum, and even weeps, lacrimatus est JESUS: Then he prays to his Eternal Father; and at last voce magnâ clamavit, he cries out with a loud voice, Lazare, veni foras; Lazarus, come forth. What was all this for? Would not a Lazarus vivit, Lazarus lives, have done the Business, tho' our Blessed Saviour had been as far distant from Lazarus, as he was now from our Sick Prince? It were a Blasphemy to affirm the contrary. But Lazarus, Dear Christians, was the Type of an inveterate and hardened Sinner; and our Blessed Saviour on this occasion was not so careful to let us see the Uncontrollableness of his Omnipotence, as he was to show us, how much it goes to his Heart, that a Sinner should delay his Conversion, till he becomes buried in ill Habits, and is kept under Ground by the weighty Grave-stone of his own Obstinacy; and withal, how difficult it is, that such an one should be again restored to the Life of Grace.  
The Widow's Son was not yet buried, but only carried out to Burial: Efferebatur filius unicus Matris suae. And consequently our Saviour raises him with a far less appearance of difficulty: He comes, but neither afflicts himself, nor weeps; he only touches the Bier, and commands the dead Youth to rise; Adolescens, tibi dico, Surge: and his Commands were presently obeyed; for the dead Youth arose, Resedit, qui erat mortuus.  
The Daughter of the Prince of the Synagogue was but newly dead, neither buried, nor carried out to Burial. Our Saviour comes, and without speaking to her, took her by the Hand, and raised her; Tenuit manum ejus, & surrexit Puella.  
But our young Prince was not so much as dead, but only incipiebat mori, he began to die, and so deserved the easiest Cure of all; for our Saviour neither comes in Person, nor commands his Disease; but only tells his Father, Filius tuus vivit, Thy Son is well, and at that very hour reliquit eum Febris, his Fever left him. By all which our Saviour would teach us, how willing he is to hear a Sinners Petition, when it is presented to him in time; and how unwillingly he hearkens to those, who put off all to the last Point. Daily Experience teaches us this Lesson, there scarce being a Country which does not afford us most terrible Histories of those, who, delaying from time to time the Amendment of their Lives, have felt the heavy Hand of God's Judgement, being taken at unawares out of this Life, and in a moment they least suspected, swallowed up, and buried in Hell: Momento descendunt in Infernum.  
It is true, we have a good God, a merciful God, a patiented God, who expects day after day the Conversion of a Sinner; but we must know, that a certain Period is pitched upon, and decreed from all Eternity, that will wholly stop the Current of Mercy, and open a way to Justice: for though, as long as any Sinner lives in this Life with the use of Reason, Almighty God never denies him his sufficient Grace; yet after such a determinate Period, he either takes him out of this Life, or permits him to fall into such Blindness and Hardness of Heart, that he never will recover, tho' he always may: Sic enim (says St. Augustine) excaecat, sic obdurat Deus, deserendo, & non adjuvando, quod occulto judicio facere potest, iniquo non potest: God does so blind and so harden a Sinner, by forsaking him, and withdrawing his Help from him, as that his Judgement indeed is secret and hidden, but never unjust. For, Ho eorum voluntatem meruisse Respondeo: I answer (says the same Saint) to those who complain hereof, That this is what they themselves (viz. by their own perverse Will) have deserved. Poor Samuel, with Eyes and Heart lifted up to Heaven, prayed for Saul; but it was too late: Why do you ask me for him, (says Almighty God) when abjeci eum, I have cast him off? Remember the two first Chapters of the Prophet Amos, where our Lord speaks thus to seven different Countries, viz. Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, Moab, and at last even to his Elect People Juda and Israel: Super tribus Sceleribus; for three heinous Crimes, Patience: but super quatuor non convertam, to the fourth no Mercy. Who knows, but this very Moment may be the last Period and Admonition, the last Grace which Almighty God hath decreed for some one or more of us here present, in such manner, that, if it be neglected, we shall perish irrecoverably for all Eternity? Super quatuor non convertam. No, the Period is come, Mittam ignem, and nothing now remains, excepting only the dreadful Torments of an unquenchable Fire.  
O let us then, every one of us, enter into our own Souls, and make an exact Scrutiny into their present State and Condition. Let us examine whether Terrene and Sensual Pleasures have not cast them into the Pestilent Fever of a violent Passion, so that incipiunt mori, they begin to die, to die (I say) to God and Heaven. If so, let us forthwith have recourse to the Physician; Abeamus ad eum; let us go from all other Entertainments and Concerns unto him: Rogemus, let us throw ourselves at the Sacred Feet of our Crucified Lord, acknowledge our Misery, and beg his Assistance: Domine, descend, priusquàm moriatur Anima mea; O Lord, vouchsafe to come down to me, before my Soul be dead. O my Lord, my God, who didst esteem Sin to be so great an Evil, that thou thoughtst it worth thy Labour to come down from Heaven to Earth, to agonize and die upon a Cross, that thou mightst free us from it; For what didst thou open Five Divine Fountains of thy Sacred Blood, save only to cleanse us from so foul a Stain? Ah! show us now, that non est abbreviata Manus Domini, that thy Mercy hath as great a reach as ever. Pardon us what is past, assuage the violence of our present Passion with one drop of thy most precious Blood, and preserve us from all Sin for the future. Descend, look down into our Souls, and behold, how we all endeavour to cancel our Offences by an Act of perfect Contrition, being sorry from the bottom of our Hearts for having ever displeased so good a God, and this merely for the Love of thy infinitely amiable Person: And for the same Motive we purpose to suffer whatever can be suffered, rather than hereafter to offend thee in the least. Methinks, Beloved Christians, methinks I am sensible, that the Bowels of Divine Mercy are already moved towards us; and I doubt not, but every Soul, that is seriously converted, feels a Pledge of Almighty God's Mercy, by perceiving within herself a more perfect Union with him, who is her Life, and by hearing from him after a peculiar manner, Anima tua vivit, Thy Soul lives, thy Soul is recovered from her Distemper. Which Happiness, through the Intercession of the Virgin Mother, God of his infinite Mercy grant us all. Amen.  
FINIS.   

A Catalogue of Books Printed for Henry Hills, Printer to the King's most Excellent Majesty, for his Household and Chapel, 1686. And are to be Sold next door to his House in Blackfriars, at Richard Cheese's.  
REflections upon the Answer to the Papist misrepresented, etc. Directed to the Answerer. Quarto.  
Kalendarium Catholicum for the Year 1686. Octavo.  
Papists Pretesting against Protestant-Popery. In Answer to a Discourse Entitled, A Papist not misrepresented by Protestants. Being a Vindication of the Papist misrepresented and Represented, and the Reflections upon the Answer. Quart.  
Copies of Two Papers Written by the late King Charles H. Together with a Paper Written by the late Duchess of York. Published by his Majesty's Command. Folio.  
The Spirit of Christianity. Published by his Majesty's Command. Twelve.  
The First Sermon Preached before their Majesties in English at Windsor, on the first Sunday of October 1685. By the Reverend Father Dom. Ph. Ellis, Monk of the Holy Order of St. Benedict, and of the English Congregation. Published by his Majesty's Command. Quarto.  
Second Sermond Preached before the King and Queen, and Queen Dowager, at their Majesty's Chapel at St. James', November 1. 1685. By the Reverend Father Dom. Ph. Ellis, Monk of the Holy Order of St. Benedict, and of the English Congregation. Published by his Majesty's Command. Quarto.  
The Third Sermon Preached before the King and Queen, in their Majesty's Chapel at St. James', on the third Sunday in Advent, December 13. 1685. By the Reverend Father Dom. Ph. Ellis, Monk of the Holy Order of St. Benedict, and of the English Congr. Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty. Published by His Majesty's Command. Quarto.  
The Fourth Sermon Preached before the King and Queen, in their Majesty's Chapel at St. Jame's, on Newyears-day, 168⅚. By the Reverend Father Dom. Ph. Ellis, Monk of the Holy Order of St. Benedict, and of the English Congregation, Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty. Quarto.  
Sixth Sermon Preached before the King and Queen, in their Majesty's Chapel at St. James', upon the first Wednesday in Lent, Febr. 24. 1685. By the Reverend Father Dom. Ph. Ellis, Monk of the Holy Order of St. Benedict, and of the English Congregation. Published by his Majesty's Command. Quarto.  
An Exposition of the Doctrine of the Catholic Church in Matters of Controversy. By the Right Reverend James Benign Bossiset, Counsellor to the King, Bishop of Meaux, formerly of Condom, and Preceptor to the Dauphin: First Almoner to the Dauphiness. Done into English with all the former Approbations, and others newly Published in the Ninth and Last Editions of the French. Published by his Majesty's Command. Quarto.  
A Sermon Preached before the King and Queen, in Their Majesty's Chapel at St. James', upon the Annunciation of our Blessed Lady, March 25. 1686. By Jo. Betham Doctor of Sorbon. Published by his Majesty's Command. Quarto.  
An Abstract of the Dovay Catechism, for the Use of Children and Ignorant People. Now Revised, and much Amended. Published with Allowance. Twentyfours.  
A Pastoral Letter from the Lord Bishop of Meaux, to the New Catholics of his Diocese, Exhorting them to keep their Easter, and giving them Necessary Advertisements-against the False Pastoral Letters of their Ministers. With Reflections upon the Pretended Persecution. Published with Allowance. Quarto.  
The Answer of the New Converts of France, to a Pastoral Letter from a Protestant Minister. Done out of French, and Published with Allowance. Quarto.  
The Ceremonies for Healing of them that be Diseased with the King's Evil, used in the time of King Henry VII. Published by His Majesty's Command. Quarto in Latin, Twelve in English.  
A Short Christian Doctrine. Composed by the R. Father Robert Bellarmin, of the Society of Jesus, and Cardinal Published with Allowance. Twelve.  
A Vindication of the Bishop of Condom's Exposition of the Doctrine of the Catholic Church. In Answer to a Book Entitled, An Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England, etc. With a Letter from the said Bishop. Permissis Superiorum. Quarto.