preserving of which against them we must practise Mortification by this means to subdue and regulate them that we be not carried headlong by their violence to our utter ruine In the first place it is necessary to reform the three Spiritual Powers of the Soul which are the Intellect Will and Memory which are the principles and origine of humane Acts from which they proceed and depend if they be done knowingly and voluntarily if these be infected and corrupted as ordinarily they are no good can be expected to proceed from them Concerning the Intellect we ought to esteem the purgation of it as St. Augustine informs us St. Aug. lib. 1. de doctrin Christ Quasi ambulationem navigationem As a walking and navigation to our Heavenly Country For it is the guide of the will which in it self is a blind power and being troubled and disordered causeth an irregularity in all the other faculties In the Intellect one may discover many faults to be reformed as ignorance of things one is obliged to know Inconsideration and imprudence in executing Errour by which one apprehends what 's false for a truth obstinacy to defend and persevere in a mistake after good information and instruction to which one ought to Acquiess Temerity to judg of the intentions actions and designs of another Carnal and sensual Prudence and Craft to circumvent others and contrive by ill expedients worldly affaires Curiosity to know things which it were more profitable to us to be ignorant of The Intellect vitiated by these and the like faults ought diligently to be mortified and reformed or els it will be the cause of many deformed humane Acts This reformation may be made by divers means the chief is a diligent practise of Vertue which produceth true intelligence as the Prophet David affirms Psal 128. Mandatis tuis intellexi I got understanding by observing thy Commands The custome of doing well and experience in Devotion is the best Mistress by which one apprehends and profits most Another means is reading Spiritual Books with an intention to obtain Purity of Mind interposing Affective Prayers A third means may be conferrence with Illuminated Persons from whom they may receave good instructions of Salvation and directions for their conduct in all Doubts Temptations ocurring Difficulties As for the Memory it ought to be reformed about the variety of Images and Representations of terrene and vain objects by which it is often soiled and in pusuit of which it importunes the Will to evil desires and actions one must labour in this Reformation by exercising himself in the frequent meditation of Divine things which if a man exercise constantly he will in time deface and race out the Phantasies and imaginations of vain Objects so that after a faithful labour in this the Soul will find it self as it were absorpt in God and will entertain and delight it self in nothing so much and so often as in God The Will purchaseth it self proper satisfactions and interests by the motive of self-Love with which it is dangerously impoysoned and which is the Mother and Nurse of all Sin and Vices it perverts the rectitude of intentions Rebells against the commands of God and Superiours it is the Enemy of perfection the Murderer of an interiour and Spiritual Life This Mortification and Reformation must be affected by a Dolorous Contrition for Sin by Acts of Abnegation by a total Submission and Conformity to the divine Will In fine the practise of all moral Vertues with purity of intention embellisheth it as Stars do the Firmament Next the sensual Appetite which is the inferiour portion of the Soul inclin'd to the commodities of the body is to be mortified with its Passions which in the estate of corrupt Nature ordinarily are culpable they are not to be condemned in Beasts because they are not governed by Reason but it is far otherwise in Man endued with a rational Spirit able to discern between good and evill and to unite himself to God his Soveraign good whom he ought to prefer above all Created things and by his superiour Reason imploy and order all the powers and faculties of his Body to attain this Good But we see the contrary arrive to man by means of his passions which turn him from the true love of God replenish him with impetuous Solitudes for the purchasing of terrene things and with fears and anxieties for the loss of them They fill him with impure phantasies Imaginations and Delights precipitate him into many Errours and Irregularities employ him more for the corruptible Body which is meat for Worms then for his immortal Soul the Divine Particle in him causeing continually Rebellions in the interiour Appetite against the Superiour preventing Reason and Judgment and tyrannizing over the Spirit so that they are the source and origine of Sins which ruine our Salvation and further a Soul towards her Damnation and as Lactantius speaks Lactan. lib. 6. Institut c. 5. Omnia fere quae improbe fiunt ab his affectibus oriuntur Almost all evils committed proceed from these passions and affections If one would repress the impetuosity of choller all clamours and contentions would be appeased not any one would endamage an other if one would moderate the desire of having there would be no Theeves by land no Pyrates on Sea no Arms taken up to invade others Dominions if one would mortify the concupiscence of the flesh every Age and Sex would be Holy no person would do or suffer what is infamous in this kind all these and the like discords come from the passions not mortified and regulated according to reason Passions thus ordered are good and about lawful Objects Thus they are Souldiers which Second the endeavours of their cheif the Spirit they are Ornaments of vertuous actions Ardours of the heart without which it would languish But the most part of men by the corruption from original sin follow their naturall inclinations and passions by which they are hurryed into many disorders and damages irreparably therefore a strict mortification of these is necessary to a good and well ordered life and to conserve the interiour state of the soul entire without the regulating of these a man is so far from tending to perfection that at last he will find himself to become uncivil barbarous brutish wholly governed by humours and phantasies without repose in his Soul continually agitated by disquiets caused by his sensual affections to which he hath resigned the dominion and empire of his affairs not capable to govern them with any order For which the Antients compared such a man unto an uncultivated field over-run with weeds thorns bryars as such a one ordinarily is with sins and vices These passions and affections may often be hindred from riseing and breaking forth by a prudent foresight and prevention of the occasions of them for oftentimes when they seem to be mortified in us they lurk Secretly in the heart as fire under ashes which will break forth with
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
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. Seek first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and all other things else shall be added unto you Mat. 6. ver 33. BRVGES By Luke Kerchove 1673. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE HENRY Earl of Norwich and Earl Marshal of England Baron HOWARD of Castlerising c. My Lord I purpose not in this my Preliminary Epistle to publish unto the World the large Catalogue of your Charitable Works and your other Christian Virtues Et laudent eam in porta opera ejus These without Flattery commend better than I am able My design is to express here some small Testimony of my many great Obligations for those large favours I have and still do receive from your Bountiful and Generous Heart This I presume I can no way better perform than by endeavouring to promote the eternal Well-fare of your Soul that grand Duty you ought most to mind in this World as being the only end of your Beeing therein For I am not of Cicero's opininion That we are born partly for our Country partly for our Parents partly for our Friends but rather That we are All born for our selves not but that we have many high Obligations besides which in Conscience we are to discharge but that the End of all is The good of our own Souls in order to eternal Salvation which I conceive to be the meaning of that of the Apostle Whither you Eat or Drink or whatsoever else ye do let All be done to the Glory of God Wherefore if you desire Riches what greater can you have than the Treasures of Heaven of which none can deprive you without your own consent If you Aspire to Honours what higher can there be than to be a Servant a Friend a Child of a most Glorious God Nimis honorati sunt amicitui Deus And if you affect Pleasures there are none so True so Permanent so Satisfying as the joys of an upright Conscience to drink of the indeficient Torrents of Pleasure and to be inebriated with the fulness of Gods House The greatest Plenty this World can afford to and earthly Heart is extream Poverty according to St. Augustine if it be without God and what-ever Pleasures or Honours may be enjoyed in this Life will still end in Misery and Confusion if they advance not the good of the Soul in order to its endless blessed Life with God in Heaven Vbi salutis damnum ibi luerum nulium saith Eucherius there is no gain to be valued if therewith our Salvation be endammaged for if this miscarries all is lost for an Eternity My Lord Heavens Providence hath placed you in a very eminent Condition amongst Men as well by your Noble Extraction as by the propitious influences of a Gracious Princes Favours That your High Rank of Nobility should powerfully bend your vast Soul to the performance of such Heroick Actions of Virtue as may befit a person of your Illâ—strous Rise and Endowmenâ— God hath â—â—â—ed you by his grace to be a â—â—mber of the Holy Catholick Church this eminent Prerogative amongst True Believers should oblidge you to glorifie God in that saving Profession that as our Blessed Saviour adviseth your Light may so shine before Men that they seeing your good Works may be moved thereby to give glory to your Heavenly Father in the same Profession with you God hath moreover blessed you with a hopeful Issue advance them by a Vertuous Education and your own fore-running good Examples for the holy lives of Christian Parents are over the most powerful Attractives whereby Children are induced to compose theirs to the Love of God and the Rules of Morality Thus doing you will purchase to your self and Posterity the blessings of this Liâ—◠〈◊〉 the next that which is aymed a◠〈◊〉 small Treatise and shall ever be thâ—â—â—rnest Petition of your dying Friend 〈…〉 Right Honorable Your Honours most devoted Servant Laurence Eason A GUIDE TO SALVATION FIRST PART The Importance of Mans Salvation manifested by divers Motives and Considerations IT is an observation of St. Bonaventure that there are two things which God doth allow which are the Creation and Conservation of the world there is one which is the work of Man alone and that is Sin to the production of which God doth not formally concur as the Psalmist affirms of him Psal 44 in these words He loves Justice and detesteth Iniquity and therefore is far from being the Author and cause of it There is yet a third thing which God and Man work together which is our Salvation for the obtaining of which to his Grace we must joyn our endeavour according to that common saying of St. Augustine Qui fecit te sine te non salvabit te sine te He who made thee without thee will not save thee without thee this is the work of Grace and our Will together as the Apostle affirms of himself Non ego sed gratia Deimecum not I alone but the grace of God with me and therefore we are stiled by him Coadjutors and fellow-Labourers with God in this work Hence is that of St. Augustine St. Aug. lib. Hypog c. 3. Nec gratia sine libero arbitrio facit hominem habere vitam beatam nec liberum arbitrium sine gratia Grace without our free will cannot make us blessed nor our free will without grace though it be true what the Prophet said of the Son of God operatus est salutem in medio terrae he wrought Salvation in the mid'st of the Earth Yet it is as true that he requires that we should deny our selves and assist him in carrying his Cross the instrument of our Redemption and so fulfil as the Apostle speaks of himself In our flesh those things which are wanting of the Passion of Christ that is we should apply his merits and benefit of his Passion and render them efficatious to us by our cooperation Wherefore it highly concerns us seriously to consider this grand affair of our Salvation that we become not deficient in our endeavours concerning it CHAP. I. Containing divers Considerations and Motives concerning the Importance of this Affair The first Consideration and Motive THe important Consequence of this first appears in that it seems to be the greatest of Gods works and the end of all the rest This our blessed Saviour insinuated in his Answer to the people when they thus demanded of him in St. John John 8. 9. what shall we do ut operemur opera Dei to perform the works of God he replyes Hoc est opus Dei this is the work of God that you believe in him whom he sent As if he should have said unto them you demand what are the works of God in the Plural number I answer you in the Singular number that there is but One for which he doth all the rest and that is the Salvation of man Hence Tertullian
on Earth to labour in this work By this we may easily apprehend how we ought to employ the things of this world and expose our life too if it be necessary for our Salvation our great affair in this world But this which concerns us so much is so slightly passed over that we may justly complain with those Prophets Jerem. Daniel Osee Desolatione desolata est omnis terra quia non est qui recogitet corde The whole Earth is become desolate because there is not any one who seriously considers in his heart We may find many who think of their Salvation but it is only superficially not with the heart and so their thoughts are cold and barren cold because they produce not an ardent desire to execute what they think they are barren because they produce not holy motions and actions The Devil and Reprobate have the like the thought of their Beautitude lost is continually present to them they know the excellency of it by suffering the privation thereof but this is not with the heart with a consideration which is affective ardent effective When we Will a thing efficatiously it doth not only busie our thoughts but employs our hands and industry to labour our tongues frequently to speak of it the heart the hand the tongue are joyned in this work the heart to meditate the hand to execute the tongue to publish it Ex abundantia cordis os loquitur Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh The second Manner or Condition requisite in this work From the Zeal and serious consideration of our Salvation ordinarily proceeds an exquisite diligence for the procuring of it which is the second Condition necessarily required in this work Our B. Saviour hath given us an admirable example in this kind the sacred Scripture Heb. 10. saith of him that entring into the world by the mistery of his Incarnation he said unto his Heavenly Father You Will not the Sacrifices of the Law therefore I offer up the body you have given me for a Victime to honour your Majesty to satisfie your Justice to appease your Anger He did not delay his sufferings to the end of this life but the first moment he entered into the world as Man he presented himself as a Victime And when he was then adored by the Angels at the command of his Heavenly Father even then he would honour him as his Servant and Victime In the whole course of his life he travelled in this affair with such diligence as the Psalmist resembles him to a Gyant exulting to run his course with an incredible vigour in all the wayes wherein he might work our Salvation His Espouse admiring this in her Canticles Cant. 2. compares this course of his to the swiftness of a Roe and Hart. The Angels descended and ascended in Jacobs Ladder without repose in the exercise which they continue indefatigably for the Salvation of men Job by his own example shewed us with what fervour and diligence we should proceed in this affair Job 29. Causam quam ignorabam diligentissime investigabam If I did not understand the rights between parties to accord them I used most exquisite diligence to understand it I did not defer till to morrow what I could do to day but apply'd my self without delay to all the good works I could perform for the advance of my Salvation Tobias did often rise from the Table left his refection quitted the Company of his Friends to bury the dead and to exercise works of mercy towards the poor and needy Abraham stood in the common ways to find and invite Pilgrims to his house where his Wife and Domesticks were busied in preparing a refection for them St. Paul Acts 5. protested to the faithful that he used all possible diligence in his Apostolical function That which the examples of the Saints inform us the Wise man Councelled in his Proverbs Diligenter exerce agrum tuum diligently cultivate thy field We must not imagine that he speaks here of good Husbandry but under the symbol of a field he insinuates that we should labour with diligence to extirpate vices to acquire vertues to increase in grace which God bestows upon us to work out our Salvation by Besides the Examples and Instructions of the Saints for our diligence in this affair reason perswades also this truth we see that a man applyes himself with diligence to affairs of importance and to things of consequence which have an indeterminate and uncertain time of which he knows not the length or shortness Our Salvation hath these two circumstances the thing is most pretious and of the greatest concern the time to compass it is altogether uncertain Death after which we cannot work often steals upon us as a Thief in the Night when we think our selves most secure of life and therefore it concerns us to attend to our Salvation with all diligence lest we be surprised unexpectedly as the foolish Virgins were and the rich Glutton in the Gospel If we have a Suit in Law for the gaining of a possession for the reparation of an injury or the like we apply all our endeavours we regard not the rigour of the seasons nor the suffering of our bodies nor length of ways we move every stone that might obstruct or further our designs but for our Salvation which is the greatest concern we have in the world we think much to spend an hour at a Sermon where we may be instructed in this and the means to obtain it to spend half an hour in a day to hear Mass or to Pray where we may receive grace to carry on this affair with fervour we are loath to give an Alms to a poor body to merit the divine succours such is our blindness and stupidity When we suffer any maladies in our bodies as St. Chrysostom Hom. 22. ad pop affirms we presently send for Physitians we think no cost much for the cure of them Animam vero vitiis laborantem negligimus But we suffer our Souls to corrupt and putrifie in sin To procure a remedy and to purchase an immortal life for them we are extream negligent This unreasonable preferring of the Body before the Soul the immortal and divine part of us ought to cover us with Confusion in this world where we would appear judicious wise in the mean time we shew our selves to be unreasonable and senceless It was a complaint of St. Bernard Aspicio genus humanum I behold mankind walking from the rising of the Sun to the going down of it through the spatious Mart and Market of the world where some hunt after Riches others gape for Honours many pursue Pleasures most spend their time in Vanities and Impertinencies few mind the eternal good of their Souls for which they came into the World Seneca discovered this truth si volueris attendere if thou wilt consider thou maist discern that a great part of mens lives pass away in doing Ill the greatest part in
a violence upon occasions presented if there be not a strong and vigilant guard set over them for which reason St. Gregory Nazianzen ascribes the destruction of Saul to one spark of his former passions stirred and blowed up by occasions In this we should imitate a cunning Pylot who shuns a tempest when he sees he cannot easily resist it Again one may Suppress these passions by combating generously against them not once or twice but as often as these assault us for this reiteration of resistance will moderate and debilitate their violence and forces according to that advice of St Augustine that we must frustrate by this means their attempts that they may not presume any more to rise having so often assaulted us in vain One may mortify and moderate passions and affections by yeilding something to them and by making use of them against themselves which is done by giving them supernaturall and right objects This course our Blessed Saviour took St. Paul was of a cholerrick-hot humour but our Saviour Jesus converted it he turned this fire into a flame of Apostolical Zeal he did not Suppress this passion but changed its object so that by the same arms with which he persecuted his Name he preached his Gospel St. Mary Magdalen's passion was Love he did not destroy it but converted it presenting himself to be the object of it this is an easy cure an admirable triumph to use passions themselves for an instrument whereby to gain a conquest over them St. Augustine teacheth us this Art councelling us to overcome fear by fear the fear of the evills of the world by fear of offending God of incurring hell and losing Heaven St. Isidore affirms the same explicating those words of the Psalmist Irascimini et nolite peccare be angry but Sin not overcome saith he choller by choller it self give somthing to this passion but to the end to delude it turn thy choller against thy brother to a hatred against your self and your passion this was the advice of St. Basil saying Turn thy anger against the devil the destroyer of Souls but have mercy upon thy Brother offending thee Some hold that the greatest expedient to mortify these passions is to Chastice the body by fasting and rigorous austerities for which reason many of the Saints treated their bodies very rudely that by this means they being debilitated their Souls might be more vigorous in their functions and the flesh less rebellious refractory to the decrees of reason From hence proceed the austere Vows of religious crucifying our carnal affections thereby to chastise the insolencies of the sensuall appetite and to render the body a slave to the spirit However not to condemn corporall mortifications if used with discretion according to the Custom of all antiquity and not takeing Christ down from the Cross In my judgment the best and most efficatious means is not to tame the spirit by the body but to subject the body by the spirit for the flesh is not the only and principal criminal to be thus handled wherefore it is more expedient to mortify these passions by the Superiour part of reason and the spirit which considering what is profitable and what hurtful to its salvation from generous resolutions of pursuing the former and declining the latter and so sweetly draws the sensitive appetite after it and forceth it to desist from following its vitious inclinations For example a man reflecting upon the motions of the sensitive appetite and perceiving it engaged in the desire of things superfluous and troubled about them disapprooving such a conduct flyes to interiour repressions considering that we were created for paradice not inordinatly to desire and pursue temporalls but covet and seek eternalls and that it is to little purpose to disquiet ones self for the transitory affairs of this world but that rather we ought to possess our souls in peace and patience After such considerations and interiour repressions the soul with a great resolution frames desires of spiritualls and forceth it self to remain in peace and silence by which it attracts after it the sensitive appetite and rationally orders the passions of it at least as long as it remains in that condition O my Soul thou hast a difficulty to Suffer a disgrace thy passions spur thee forward to reveng consider with thy self that it is far more reasonable for a Christian to imitate the clemency of his Saviour and benignity of the same God By the like considerations according to the diversity of passions a man will become more vigilant over them and more powerfull to suppress and mortify them This methode is more sweet and humane more generall and easie for a good regimen of life and is also a moderate chastisement for the body I will conclude this first means with that of the Apostle Rom ch 8. If you live according to the flesh you shall dye but if by Spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh you shall live CHAP. II. Of Interiour and Affective Prayer BY speaking here of Interiour and Mental Prayer I intend not to exclude Vocal if it be performed with the attention of the mind and the affection of the heart for if these be wanting to it I esteem it not worthy the name of Prayer The necessity of Prayer to sustain this spiritual life of ours appears by this That in Sacred Writ there is not any precept so often repeated nor so seriously recommended to us as this Non impediaris orare semper Eccles 18. 22. Be not hindred from Praying alwayes It is the Councel of the Wise Man no business howsoever profitable or necessary should hinder thee from the assiduity in this exercise The Prophet David in many places of his Psalms commends to us not any thing more than the study of Prayer and praising God our B. Saviour often and carefully puts us in mind of this Oporter semper orare Luc. 18. Ye ought alwayes to Pray there is a necessity of it not some time not often but you must alwayes Pray And again Vigilate semper orantes Luc. 21. Watch alwayes Praying He did not only teach us the necessity of Prayer by words but also by his own example he often ascended Mountains and retyred into desert places to be more vacant to Prayer and as St. Luke testifies he often spent whole nights in Prayer not for his own necessities but for our instruction St. Paul seriously commends and commands this 1 Thes 1. Be instant in Prayer pray without intermission And again 1 Tim. 2. Volo vos orare c. I will that you pray in every place But some may scruple here how this precept of alwayes praying can be observed and practised some expound it that we ought to be always employed in some good to the honour of God every good work as they say being a kind of Prayer But this cannot be the true sence of it because Christ maketh a difference between prayer and good works and maketh Alms Prayer
their Souls Salvation The prayers of others are accompanied with such distractions imaginations and negligence that we must conclude with St. James cap. 6. petitis et non accipitis ye pray and receave not because you ask not as you ought Of all prayers all things equally considered the morning prayers are most profitable and the earlyer the better It is a reprehension of St. Chrysostome St. Chrisost deorando Deo qua fronte with what face do'st thou behold the riseing Sun unless thou first adore God who sends thee that gratefull light Hence in the primitive times the Christians resorted to the Churches early in the morning before day-light as Tertullian and Eusebius relate conformable to which is that exhortation of St. Athanasius St. Athana do virg Oriens sol videat let the rising Sun behold a prayer-book in thy hand St. Basill informs us it was the custome of Christians in his time to prevent the rising Sun in their prayers The Gentiles and Pagans by the light of reason did thus adore their Gods Vergil Li. 11. Aen. relates of Aeneas that first of all he did pay his vows to God we read in Exodus c. 7. that God thus commanded Moses vade Go to Pharaoh early in the morning behold he goes then forth unto the waters to perform some kind of adoration to them as Abulensis and others affirm upon that place this Pagan understood that morning adoration was most proper for God Elias Reg. 3. 18. granted to the prophets of Baal the morning to sacrifice to him for this reason as Theodoret observes left being confounded by his not hearing them they might excuse themselves by saying that he did not first of all in the Morning receive a Sacrifice from them The Prophet David found the benefit of this Morning Prayer when he said Domine mane Lord in the Morning thou shalt hear my Prayer this may be one Reason why these Prayers are most grateful to God Because the first fruits by all right are due to him so he offends against this who gives them to another Is it not a perversity in Christians to invert this order to be intent and busied about other things St. Chryfost confounds Christians negligent in this by this Example A King comes into a place and men think it honour to prevent others and to be the first in rendring homage to him and think it a neglect to suffer Inferiours to go before them in it But this diligence saith he is wanting in Christians in rendring their Devotions and Service to God they do not care if they be prevented in it even by unreasonable and inanimate Creatures what is this but to prefer and esteem more of an Earthly King than of the King of Heaven but many here saith the Holy Father pretend excuses by reason of necessary employments but if the love of God were fervent and the esteem of him the chiefest above all such frivolous and cold excuses would not prevail who more employed in necessary affairs than King David was and yet in the Morning he did consecrate the first-fruits to God lay thou aside all excuses and cease to palliate Sloath and Tepidity under the Cloak of Necessity which is so displeasing to God that he is as it were streightned and oblidged by it to be sparing in bestowing benefits as he speaks by his Prophet Zachary c. 11. Contracta est anima mea in eis My Soul is streightned in them Another reason why these morning and early prayers are so grateful to God may be this Because it is the proper Office of the Angels and God to render us like unto them would have us joyn with them in praising him in this manner That this is proper to Angels holy Job Job 38. 7 informs us calling the Angels Morning Stars Cum me laudarent when the Morning Stars did praise me together and all the Sons of God exulted for joy SSt Hierome Gregory Bede and others by the Morning Stars understand the Angels which are said to be Morning Stars because from the very beginning as soon as they were Created the first thing they performed was to praise God A last reason of these Morning prayers may be because they are not so subject to distractions being performed before we be ingaged in other things and preventing all affairs they have a gratious influence upon all the good we do the day following to direct it aright to the honour and glory of God And thus every good work may be stiled a Prayer when it is done in vertue of precedent Prayer and so one may pray all the day long by doing some good or other in vertue of his former Prayers I will conclude this with that of Solomon Eccles 39. The just man will give his heart to resort early to our Lord that made him and will pray before the most high I have been somthing tedious about this Interiour and Spiritual Prayer because of the great necessity of it to regulate and preserve a spiritual life and because it is so much neglected in these times The last Means to Preserve and Encrease a Christian Life in us is a Devout Frequenting of the Sacred Eucharist This appears clearly by the Words of our Blessed Saviour in St. John C. 6. Qui manducat me ipse vivet propter me he who eats me shall live by me for which Reason the Antient Affrican Christians called this Mistery Life as St. Augustin relates of them S. Aug. de pec merit lib. 1. c. 24. because he gives himself here to every one in particular to render him Partaker of his Divine Life For this reason Paschacius compares this Sacrament to the Tree of Life planted in Paradice to preserve and prolong the Life of Man And to signifie thus much it is instituted under the forms of Bread and Wine to inform us that it produceth the same effects in order to a Spiritual Life as these Elements do about the Corporal Life of Man for which it is stiled by St. Cyprian St. Cypr. Ser. de laps de coena dom Ep. 54. a Celestial Viand the aliment of Immortality a Divine Nourishment So the grace of the Eucharist is properly nourishing Grace because this Sacrament is instituted and ordained to augment fortifie and conserve the Spiritual Life of the Soul It is an observation of St. Cyril Cyril Alexand. lib. 4. in Joan. that our Blessed Saviour ordinarily in working of Miracles used the Application of his Sacred Body as when he would cure the infirm or raise the Dead he touched them with his Hands to shew that his Flesh united with the Divinity Vivifica esset had a vivificative Vertue in it That which he did visibly in the world he doth invisibly by Grace in this Sacrament and by the Real Presence of his Body in this Mistery By which Union with him we receive in a most excellent and abundant manner the communication of his Life and Spirit We are incorporate here and made one Body with him to the end