Instruction concerning penance and holy communion the second part fo the instruction of youth, containing the means how we may return to God by penance, and remain in his grace by the good and frequent use of the sacraments. By Charles Gobinet, Doctor of Divinity, of the house and Society of Sorbon, principal of the college of Plessis-Sorbon.

ARTICLE. V. Of the particular Motives of the love of God drawn from the Blessed Sacrament.

IT should seem that love should not be able to advance further then that of our Lord hath done, and that the highest pitch to which it could possibly arrive were to dye for us, according to those words of our Lord. Jo. 15.13. Greater love then this no man hath, that he give up his Life for his Friend. But the same wisdom which taught this truth, hath given this distinction to our hand, no pure man hath greater love, human love reacheth no further; but the love of God made man is an

exception to this generall rule: the divine love knows no bounds; it passeth beyond the bounds of death; and as it is ingenious, inventive, and omnipotent, it finds out innumerable ways to make its grandure and its excess appear.

The Charity of Jesus Christ was not content to lay down his life for us men and our Salvati∣on; to reconcile us to God by his death, even then when we were his enemies, according to the remark of St. Paul, Rom. 5.10. or as St. Bernard in the place above-cited notes, to love us first, tantus & tantum & gratis, tantillos & tales, He being so great, to love so much, & gratis, such, and so con∣temptible Persons; That is, with such an excess of love, and such an abasement of his greatness to love to an extremity even such pitifull & wretch∣ed creatures, replenished with Sins, & all sorts of miseries, and all this gratis, that is without any interest of his side, but meerly upon the conside∣ration of our good.

This divine love hath found out means how he may always be with us, and never depart from those, whom he hath loved so far as to dy for them; he hath found out an invention to remain with us, and yet be absent from us: and having withdrawn from us his visible presence, he hath nevertheless found out a way how still we may en∣joy him. He hath given us his flesh for meat, and his blood for drink; he hath shut them up under the figure of Bread & Wine, that we might more commodiously receive them: and by means of this divine invention he enters into and takes possession of us, he Sanctifies our Soul and Body; he enlivens us with his grace; he cures our inte∣riour maladies; he strengthens our weakness; in

a word, He dwells in us, and we in him, as he him self affirms Jo. 6.57.

O Skillfull and ingenious love! O admirable in∣vention, proper to God alone! Here we may af∣firm with truth, what the Prophet Isay, said, ch. 45.15. vere tu es Deus absconditus Deus Israel.

In this Sacrament of the Eucharist God is truly hidden, because he hath herein invented a way to conceal the grandure of his Majesty, that so we might more easily approach unto him. and it is in this holy Sacrament that we may say with Da∣vid, Ps. 30.20. O my God! how great without number are the effects of thy goodness, which thou reservest for the benefit of those, who hear thee, and hast made them appear in the sight of the whole world towards all those, who place their hopes in thee.

What return can we make to God for so extra∣ordinary and so incomprehensible a good? For if we do not know how sufficiently to acknowledg the benefit of our creation, much less are we able to make any retutn for that of our redemption; how then can we testify our gratitude for this third effect, and the utmost excess of the divine goodness, wherein he not only gives himself for us, but bestows himself upon us; that we may truly enjoy & take possession of him? Quid Deo retribuam pro se? nam etsi millies me de∣dero, quid sum ego ad Dominum meum? What shall I return to God, saith St. Bernard in the place a∣bove-cited, Art. 4. in exchange for himself? al∣tho' I should give my self to him a thousand times, what am I, when put in ballance with my God?

True it is, Theotime, we cannot return to God any thing worthy of him in acknowledgment of the rich present, which he hath made us of him∣self:

Yet at least we may afford him our love and affection, as far as we are able, saying with St. Bernard, ibid. I will love thee, O my God, my helper, for the offering thou hast made me of thy self, and that to the utmost of my power. It is true it can never equal thy deserts: Yet it shall not be inferiour to the power, with which thy holy grace shall enable me.

Me Deus immenso postquam dilexit amore, Quis modus, at{que} mei finis Amoris erit?