Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A84588
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A guide to salvation, bequeathed to a person of honour, by his dying-friend the R.F. Br. Laurence Eason, Ord. S. Franc. S. Th. L.
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Eason, Laurence.
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1673
(1673)
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Wing E99aA; ESTC R230984
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39,971
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127
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Idleness and nothing the Image of Death and pomp of Vices the whole in minding and doing another thing than which they came for We read of a Phylosopher who busied himself thirty years in observing the Oeconomie of Bees of a Graver who spent his whole life in Carving and Pollishing one Statue of Isocrates who studied ten years to compose an Oration which he was to pronounce at the Olympick Exercises of many Phylosophers who Travelled divers Countries with many dangers and inconveniences to acquire humane knowledg and experience shall not these rise up in judgment and condemn us if we think any time tedious to imploy in the affair of our Salvation The third and last Condition necessary for this work If we desire efficatiously to be saved we must labour with perseverance according to the example of our B. Saviour on the Cross who would not descend from thence to put an end to his sufferings and to the incredulity of the people who desired it but as he says himself he would there finish and consummate the work his Father had recommended to him which was the Salvation of men for his glory The Wise-man said that omnia tempus habent there is a time for all things a time to Sow and a time to Reap and the like and out of these Seasons they are not to be done But the affair of our Salvation hath no certain time assigned for it but the whole course of our life from the first moment that we have the use of reason to the last is to be employed in it Reason perswades us this truth and gives us to understand of what importance the assiduity of this work is because our Salvation depends on the last action of our life if that be good meritorious and agreeable to God it will save us if bad sure enough we shall be damned for as the Tree falls so it shall lie But here our death is uncertain and every moment of our life may be the last and the fatal stroke may surprise us when we think least of it have we not reason then to travel incessantly in the affair of our Salvation to secure it as much as possibly we can for unless we persevere unto the end in it we cannot be saved And the breaking off this work and declining out of the right way though it be but for a time may be the cause of our not persevering to the end and consequently of our eternal perdition Many examples in this kind Sacred and Ecclesiastical History afford us and happy are we if we become so wise by them as at all times to be vigilant about this affair The Manner of Life to obtain Salvation SECOND PART CHAP. I. Of the divers Lives of Christians ST Augustine speaking of the Antient Patriarks and Prophets sayes Re non nomine Christiani they were not Christians in Name but in effect and action But we may affirm the contrary of many in our times who stile themselves Christians they are not such really and in effect but only by Baptisme and Name To discover fully this truth unto you I shall shew you the divers lives of Christians and what is the true one necessarily required to obtain Salvation For we be such as the lives are we lead good if they be such bad if they be bad To have life saith St. Thomas is to have in one the principle and cause of Motion when a Woman with Child perceives the fruit she bears in her begin to move she sayes I know well my Infant is alive when one is on his Death-bed if we see he hath not any more motion neither in hands eyes lips or pulse we say he hath no life in him From hence we give by a Metaphor the name of Life to a running water to a flame ascending in the Air not that they have properly life in them but because they move being not in their Center but tending to it We find in the world four sorts of Lives according to four divers principles which give motion to all the actions of living Creatures The Vegetative Life which is that of Plants which is imployed to nourish and increase The Sensitive Life that of Beasts and Animals which conduct themselves by sence The Rational Life which is guided only by Natural Reason The true Christian Life which is governed by Faith If we look amongst Christians and Catholicks with the true eye of the Spirit we may discover many fair Plants good Beasts and honest Men as the world stiles them but few true Christians Of the Vegetative Life of Christians We may begin this with the saying of the blind Man in St. Mark when Christ had open his eyes he said Video homines sicut arbores ambulantes I see men walking as Trees Many persons who are in esteem in the world have no other Life but that of Plants no other principle of their actions than that of Trees Behold a Merchant who with care and diligence Travelleth by Sea and Land coucheth late riseth early what is the principle of this Motion why doth he all this to purchase a House a Farm a Possession or the like to establish himself on Earth as a Tree which spreads its Roots on every side to encrease and fix it self deeper and firmer in the Earth and so of a petty Mercer at the first in time become a rich Merchant as a Plant which of a petty Shrub at the first grows up into a great Tree in time See here again Parents of no great extraction and of small revenue at the first but so vigilant and active in managing their affairs that they come to be a great Family and Marry their Children to persons of honour and quality One may say here behold an excellent and fruitful Tree which produceth so many fair graffs to propagate withal what is this but the life of a Plant and in the mean time have no more spirit in them than a Plant nay in some respect far worse See a Tree placed by a Wall it doth not extend its branches on that side where the Wall casteth its shadow but which is warmed and heated most by the comfortable and cherishing beams of the Sun You breed up and dispose of your Children which are your branches Quorum filii sicut novellae plantationes Psal 144. Whose Children as young Plants amongst the Grandeurs of the world which are but shadows of true greatness and less regarded and visited by the Sun of Justice and gratious influence of Heaven and not on the side of Humility and Vertue which God most willingly respects for which many of them thrive so ill The like Errour we may discover in multitudes whose aime and endeavour here is only to advance themselves and their Families in worldly wealth and greatness to extend and dilate themselves and their Posterity on Earth do not Trees do the like and can we esteem better of the life of such than of that of Plants which naturally covet a deeper root
that we live by him as St. Augustine affirms St. Aug. tract 26 in Joan. This Sacred Eucharist renders us strong in Dangers constant in Labours patient in Afflictions it expels humane Fears and exceedingly confirms the Heart of Man and was lively represented by the Bread which Elias received from the Angel by the vertue of which he walked through the desert to Oreb the Mount of God David shadowed it out in that of the 22. Psalm parasti mensam thou hast prepared a Table before me against all that trouble me and what other Table can he mean but this which Christ hath set before all his faithful What other Table can fortify him against all his Enemies but this wherein is eaten Fortitudo Gentium the Fortitude of the Gentiles hence St. Chrysostome saith that we should depart from this Table Tanquam leones as generous Lyons breathing Flames of Fire and become terrible unto the Devils The reason why this Celestial Food Armeth our Souls against all the assaults of our Enemies may be easily conceived by this for it would little avail a Souldier Armed without if he were destitute of natural Force and Strength of Body to mannage his Weapons if for Hunger his Vital Spirits failed if he were so weak that he could not strike a Blow therefore Meat is necessary to restore his lost Forces and consequently to Arm him within against the Troops of his Enemies So likewise Internally doth this Holy Eucharist fortify us by Spiritual nutrition and vital Sustentation against our ghostly Foes therefore Christ saith Caro mea vere est cibus my Flesh is Meat indeed To signifie this the Councell of Trent Sess 13. c. 2. would have this Sacrament receaved as Spiritual Food to Nourish and strengthen the Soul and as an Antidote to free us from venial Sins and preserve us from Mortals Hence the Affrican Council as St. Cyprian relates though it had determined the Eucharist not to be given to those who had denyed their Faith in Persecution unless it were in case of Necessity or Infirmity yet a new Persecution arising they Decreed it to be Administred to such lest they should fail in the profession of their Faith by Torments Such fortifying Vertue they attributed to it as St. Cyprian Affirms that he is not sufficiently prepared to suffer Martyrdom Qui ab Ecclesia non armatur ad praelium who by this means is not Armed by the Church to Combate against the Enemies of it In this Sacrament we do not not only receave an encrease of Sanctifying grace but in consequence of our communions the Divine providence is as it were obliged to give us actuall graces lights motives inspirations to assist us and further us in good for the future why so because this Sacrament is instituted to conserve and encrease the Spiritual life of the soul And because the means necessary to make this encreas and establish perseverance is the exercise of holy actions and the practise of good works of which succours we have assurance by vertue of this Sacrament if we will worthily cooperate with them and conserve them in our hearts to make them eternally profitable for which reason it is Stiled by our B. Saviour Food qui permanet in vitam aeternam which remains to life eternal Do not think therefore that the Blood of Christ works only in our hearts in time of Communion or whilst it remains in us really under the form of the Sacrament but that it also presents us an eternall fecundity and motive to good works which St. Augustine expresseth by this similitude The command which God gave to the earth in the begining to produce herbs and fruits was not only operative for then but that same impression works for all ensuing Ages in so much that the productions which we see in order of the Nature are but Explications of that first Word Germinet terra Let the Earth bring forth Gen. 1. So the Communion we Receive is a Secret impression and tacite Command which Jesus Christ made to produce the Fruits of good Works in us Germinet terra Let the Earth watered and made Fruitful by my Blood thus bring forth nor do these impressions only work during these pretious Moments of his Reall Presence in us but they extend their Activity through the rest of our Life so that all the actions of a Christian ought to be explications and living interpretations of this Subsistant Word and Life which Jesus Christ leaves in us This is the opinion of St. Bernard saying Siquis vestrum if any one of you finds not in himself such violent motions of Anger Envy Lust the like let him give thanks to the Body and Blood of Christ because the vertue of the Sacrament works in him Is it not now reasonable that you live and work as true Christians after having received in you such a fruitful principle cause and root of good Radicati in ipso Col. 2. rooted thus in him If there be any thing can give us assurance of the efficacy of this Sacrament in us it is the exercise of good works and a vertuous life one knows a tree by the fruit of it and you know if you have effectively received this Sacrament by the works it causeth you to produce in your Lives so you may therefore suspect your Communions when they produce not such Fruits in you Upon which St. Peter Ep. 1. 2. Exhorts us to assure our Vocation by good Works which particularly is understood of the grace of this Mistery Receiving in our hearts the Life of our Saviour being assured of His Presence and of our Obligations to do good works which answers the fecundity of this Cause the power of Succours the efficacity of Motives here which we have in this Mistery is it not strange to see so little fruit produced by this amongst Christians There is nothing so common as the use of the Eucharist Priests say Mass every day a great part of Christians Communicate once a Month many oftner And notwithstanding this where is the Sanctity of Manners which should follow this operative Life received this powerful principle and cause of Grace you may see Dames who make profession often to approach this Holy Mystery and yet they are not by this less violent in their passions or less vain in their Conversations nor are they more devout or more charitable which gives occasion to Hereticks to judg amiss of our Faith and to Libertines to blame the frequent use of this Sacrament from whence then proceeds this prodigious sterility amongst Christians in a Sacrament so fruitful and operative It is not the fault of the vertue of it because we received the self-same which produced the courage of Martyrs and Sanctity of the Church Sure we ought to accuse our selves as defective causes by putting obstacles to the effects of it for we have free liberty to render unprofitable all the causes of good presented unto us The precious Body and Blood of Christ have an