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In fine, the heavenly King having brought the soul
which he loves to the end of this life, he assists
her also in her blessed departure, by which he draws
her to the marriage-bed of eternal glory, which is
the delicious fruit of holy perseverance.
And then, dear Theotimus, this soul, wholly
ravished with the love of her well-beloved, putting
before her eyes the multitude of favours and succours
wherewith she was prevented and helped while she was
yet in her pilgrimage, incessantly kisses this sweet
helping hand, which conducted, drew and supported her
in the way; and confesses, that it is of this divine
Saviour that she holds her felicity, seeing he has
done for her all that the patriarch Jacob wished for
his journey, when he had seen the ladder to heaven. O
Lord, she then says, thou wast with me, and didst
guide me in the way by which I came. Thou didst feed
me with the bread of thy sacraments, thou didst
clothe me with the wedding garment of charity, thou
hast happily conducted me to this mansion of glory,
which is thy house, O my eternal Father. Oh! what
remains, O Lord, save that I should protest that thou
art my God for ever and ever! Amen.
Thou hast held me by my right hand; and by thy
will thou hast conducted me, and with thy glory thou
hast received me.(1) Such then is the order of our
journey to eternal life, for the accomplishment of
which the divine providence ordained from all
eternity the number, distinction and succession of
graces necessary to it, with their dependence on one
another.
He willed, first, with a true will, that even
after the sin of Adam all men should be saved, but
upon terms and by means agreeable to the condition of
their nature, which is endowed with free-will; that
is to say he willed the salvation of all those who
would contribute their consent, to the graces and
favours which he would prepare, offer and distribute
to this end.
Now, amongst these favours, his will was that
vocation should be the first, and that it should be
so accommodated to our liberty that we might at our
pleasure accept or reject it: and such as he saw
would receive it, he would furnish with the sacred
motions of penitence, and to those who would second
these motions he determined to give charity, those
again who were in charity, he purposed to supply with
the helps necessary to persevere, and to such as
should make use of these divine helps he resolved to
impart final perseverance, and the glorious felicity
of his eternal love.
And thus we may give account of the order which is
found in the effects of that Providence which regards
our salvation, descending from the first to the last,
that is from the fruit, which is glory, to the root
of this fair tree, which is Our Saviour's redemption.
For the divine goodness gives glory after merits,
merits after charity, charity after penitence,
penitence after obedience to vocation, obedience to
vocation after vocation itself, vocation after Our
Saviour's redemption, on which rests all this
mystical ladder of the great Jacob, as well at its
heavenly end, since it rests in the bosom of the
eternal Father, in which he receives and glorifies
the elect, as also at its earthly end, since it is
planted upon the bosom and pierced side of Our
Saviour, who for this cause died upon Mount Calvary.
And that this order of the effects of Providence
was thus ordained, with the same dependence which
they have on one another in the eternal will of God,
holy Church, in the preface of one of her solemn
prayers, witnesses in these words: "O eternal and
Almighty God, who art Lord of the living and the
dead, and art merciful to all those who thou
foreknowest will be thine by faith and good works:"
as though she were declaring that glory, which is the
crown and the fruit of God's mercy towards men, has
only been ordained for those, of whom the divine
wisdom has foreseen that in the future, obeying the
vocation, they will attain the living faith which
works by charity.
Finally, all these effects have an absolute
dependence on Our Saviour's redemption, who merited
them for us in rigour of justice by the loving
obedience which he exercised even till death and the
death of the cross, which is the root of all the
graces which we receive; we who are the spiritual
grafts engrafted on his stock. If being engrafted we
remain in him, we shall certainly bear, by the life
of grace which he will communicate unto us, the fruit
of glory prepared for us. But if we prove broken
sprigs and grafts upon this tree, that is, if by
resistance we interrupt the progress and break the
connection of the effects of his clemency, it will
not be strange, if in the end we be wholly cut off,
and be thrown into eternal fires as fruitless
branches.
God has doubtless, prepared heaven for those only who
he foresaw would be his. Let us be his then,
Theotimus, by faith and works, and he will be ours by
glory. Now it is in our power to be his: for though
it be a gift of God to be God's, yet is it a gift
which God denies no one, but offers to all, to give
it to such as freely consent to receive it.
But mark, I pray you, Theotimus, how ardently God
desires we should be his, since to this end he has
made himself entirely ours; bestowing upon us his
death and his life; his life, to exempt us from
eternal death, his death, to possess us of eternal
life. Let us remain therefore in peace and serve God,
to be his in this mortal life, and still more his in
the eternal.
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