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
of all other things and he who doth not do this is as one without sence and judgment seeing he judgeth so ill of things which with such an excess are disproportionable in value Plato said true that the effect of true Wisdom is to be Wise for one's own good Solomon affirmed Pro. 9. 12. as much before him Si sapiens fueris tibimetipsi eris true Wisdom consists in being Wise to ones self The Devil hath more knowledg than all the Learned men on Earth but not one grain of true Wisdom being miserable for Eternity and so infinitely distant from essential Wisdom which is God himself For this reason Sinners unmindful of their Salvation of what spirit and knowledg soever they be are stiled in sacred Scripture Fools and Insensible Creatures so great is the concern for the Salvation of our Souls that it is stiled by the Apostle and commended by him to the Thessalonians 1 Thes 4. as properly and particularly our affair ut vestrum negotium agatis that you may do your work as though we had but only this to attend to for other things about which we employ our labour and care deserve not this name they are affairs in which the success oftentimes doth not correspond with our designs affairs which pass away with little profit and often contrary to the grand affair of our Salvation This great affair of our Salvation would make us admire that manner of speech so frequent amongst us when seeing any one busied amongst the intrigues of Courts in the commerce of Merchandize in the negotiation of treaties and alliances and the like we use ordinarily to say that he is a man of great businesse and affairs it is an improper speech to give this name to imployments which are but petite amusements in which one for the most part loses his time and often Heaven We do not give the name of affairs to the employments of Children as when they build their little houses of dirt when they ride upon a stick and contend with such earnestness to carry away the glory and to be Kings in their sports these puerilities and pastimes deserve not the name of affairs being in themselves so little and so momentary In like manner the enterprises of men to build houses to purchase honours to amass riches and the like being not much more greater and durable than those of Children deserve not the name of affairs All men in the world have but one affair about which they ought continually to imploy themselves which is their Salvation and if they mind this then one may say they are wise and able men and busied about a grand affair This Tertullian well considered when he said In me unicum negotium I have but one business in the world to attend unto which is the Salvation of my Soul I abandon what the world calls affairs I decline the intrigues of the Court the School of Philosophy the company of Friends to be vacant to this one affair which I treat of with my self and concerning which I am interessed Our Blessed Saviour confirms all this in calling the young man in the Gospel to follow him for when he required leave first to go bury his Father our Blessed Saviour replyed Dimitte mortuous sepelire mortuos let the dead bury the dead as if he should have said as St. Peter Chrysogolus observes to bury the body of your Father is not the most important affair you have to do it is to follow me and to look after your Salvation which ought to be the first in execution as it is in worth and merit Terrenus pater post ponendus est patri coelesti as that Holy Father concludes The care of a Temporal Father is to come after that of our Heavenly The third Consideration and Motive We may discern the importance of our Salvation by the many crafts and endeavours the Devil useth to hinder it which are so many and so great that he hath his name given him from them being called the Tempter and as Tertullian speaks Eversio hominis operatio ejus his only work is the ruine of man The Prophet Hab. saith that cibus ejus electus his food is very choice he desires to devour the Elect he loves these delicate morsels he labours not but to resist the Salvation of men and to procure their Damnation this is his joy and triumph And in the estate of misery in which he is plunged if he be capable of any satisfaction it is the Damnation of man for which reason he is stiled by our Blessed Saviour in the Gospel Inimicus hominis the Enemy of man for being not able to revenge himself on God he turns his fury against his Servants and thinks he commits a great outrage against him if he can reverse the design he hath for the Salvation of man and deface Gods Image in our Soul He is the Enemy of man because he knows man is to possess the place he left vacant by his revolt He is the Enemy of man because by this he thinks to find some solace in his misery having Companions with him in his sufferings and subjects upon which to exercise his fury he useth all artifices employs all his power he is Prodigal in promises to compass this and to be an Usurper of Souls He speaks as the King of Sodom did to Abraham Da mihi animas caetera tolle tibi Give me the Souls and take all the rest The pleasures of the Flesh are not for me I misprise Riches I leave Honours to the Ambitious but for Souls I continually thirst and can never be satisfied He was so bold as to attempt against our Blessed Saviour himself and to perswade him to adore him he promised to give him Honours Riches Pleasures all the Kingdoms of the Earth to do it haec omnia tibi dabo All these will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me See here the esteem he makes of one Soul from which Salvianus takes an occasion to condemn the stupidity of men who truly consider not the price of their Souls Quis furor viles habere animas quas diabolus putat esse pretiosas What madness to have a vile esteem of our Souls which in the opinion of the Devil are judged so pretious To sell that for a little money for a momentary pleasure for a blast of Honour which the proper Enemy of it valued above the whole world seeing he presented that to purchase it This extream folly moved the said Salvianus thus to exclaim Novum genus emptionis venditionis A strange kind of buying and selling the Devil gives nothing and takes all man receives nothing and parts with all When a Merchant contracts for any Ware he receives the price agreed upon for it and the buyer receives the Merchandize But here is the contrary See the foolish traffick of Sinners the Devil sells them the pleasures of the sences he promiseth them Honours which are but smoak Riches which
a Theif a Violence an Injustice may deprive them of and in selling these he gives them nothing because these are not at his disposal he being not Lord of them and for these he receives from us all the pretious things which concerns our Salvation What a deplorable blindness is this of Sinners to esteem so little of their Souls I earnestly desire that every one of them would follow that Counsel of the Wise man Eccles 10. 31. Serva animam tuam da illi honorem secundum meritum suum Save thy Soul and give it that honour which is due unto it according to its worth and dignity And he adds Quis honorificabit Who shall honour him who dishonours his Soul and who can defend or excuse him against the justice of God who offends against his own Soul The last Consideration and Motive We may clearly discern the worth of our Soul and the esteem and care we ought to have of the Salvation of it by what Christ did do and suffer for this end The Salvation of our Soul avails as much as it cost but it cost the Blood the Merits the Life of Christ which are infinite from which we must necessarily conclude that it is of an infinite value I advance in this further for ordinarily we value a thing more than the price we paid to make it ours if we be not deceived in it but the Son of God who hath an infinite Wisdome and so cannot be deceived in the esteem and valuing of things gave his Life and Merits to purchase the Salvation of our Souls may we not then say that in some manner he esteemed them more than the price he gave for them I can declare unto you a clearer manifestation of this Having redeemed our Souls with his pretious Blood and Merrits he esteemed this infinite price so little as he esteemed them given him gratis by his Heavenly Father Quos dedisti mihi John 10 whom thou hast given me Again to know what esteem the Son of God had of our Souls after having purchased them with so great a price he calls the Angels â—o Feast and Congratulate not only man but himself as St. Thomas observes Opusc c. 63. and to speak with him as if man were the God of God and that the felicity of the Soveraign Majesty depended on the Salvation of man as if he could not be happy if man were miserable Having shewed the price of thy Salvation the great esteem the Son of God had of it that as St. Chrysostom speaks Nihil indignum se putat quod nobis proficiat ad salutem He thought not any thing unworthy of him which might conduce to our Salvation If thou comest now to neglect this by this Crime thou committest two grand outrages One against the Son of God the Other against thy self for the first St. Augustine observes St. Aug. Sermo 37. de temp qui dat pro modica delectatione He who gives to the Devil for a short pleasure or transitory satisfaction that for which Christ gave no less than himself Stultum reputat Christum mercatorem By that very action condemns Christ as a foolish and ignorant Merchant Who hath not light to discover nor wisdome to esteem the true value of Souls seeing he did give an infinite price for the Salvation of them which thou esteemest as a thing of nothing What an affront is this offered to Christ it is no less as the Apostle affirms than to trample his sacred Blood under our feet of which he complained by the Psalmist Sicut aqua effusus sum I am poured out as water as a thing of no esteem trampled under the feet of all Ah Sinner this outrage against the Son of God will fall heavy upon thy self when thou comest to lose thy soul and to sell it to the Devil for a transitory pleasure Hast thou any thing so pretious wherewith to purchase it again as the price that was given for it and is so contemned by thee St. Chrysologus assures thee no. Quando eam tanti emptam perdideris quomodo poteris eam deinceps emere When thou losest that which was bought with so great a price how can'st thou purchase it again O Christians after we have seen the esteem that God makes of our Salvation the price he hath given for it the labours and sufferings that his only Beloved Son did undergo to procure it for us the crafts and endeavours the Devil useth to deprive us of it what remains but to conclude that this is the only thing in which you should be employed the grand affair which deserves the application of your Spirits the affections of your wills the force of your bodies when you have effected this you have done all if you miscarry in this all is lost though you should gain the whole world by it CHAP. II. Containing the Manner how we must behave our selves in procuring our Salvation HE who desires any thing efficaciously labours to obtain it seriously diligently and with perseverance which are the three Conditions to be observed in this work of our Salvation The first Manner or Condition We must labour in it seriously according to the example of our Blessed Saviour who out of zeal to convert the Samaritan Woman travelled half a day in the heats of the Sun with great weariness and thirst to be at the place whither she was to come to meet with an opportune occasion for her Conversion To make of another Sinner a Penitent he went to a banquet and expected there her coming and he travelled up and down and frequented the company of sinners to effect this great business which was the end of his coming into the world St. Paul had the perfect knowledg and practice of this truth and therefore travelled seriously with the whole application of his Spirit for the Salvation of his Brethren Hear how he speaks unto them 2 Corinth 12. Ego autem libentissime impendam superimpendar pro animabus vestris I will gladly spend and be spent for your Souls sake There is not any thing which I will not do to advance your Salvation which is so dear and pretious to me that I am ready to give my self to procure it Upon which is that of St. Ambrose Non solum sua pro eis impendere paratum se dicit sed etiam seipsum pro salute animarum He is not only content to give those things which are his but also to expose and give himself for the salvation of their Souls This Zeal of his he more fully expressed in that to the Romans Cap. 9. Optabam ego ipse Anathemaesse a Christo pro fratribus meis I did desire to be separated from Christ for the Salvation of my Brethren His own interests drew him to be with Christ as his Cupio dissolvi I desire to be dissolved sufficiently testifies but for the Salvation of his Brethren he was content for a time to be separated from the glory of Christ and to remain here
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
writing to Trajan sayes that he had no Crime to object against Christians but their Superstition If he had known the Truth he would have said then their Devotion we have the same Faith the same Ceremonies the same Mysteries which the Primitive Christians had but their interiour dispositions their substantial devotions their solid virtues are so ecclipsed in our time that scarce any thing of them appears amongst us so that we seem in respect of them to be Christians only in Name When St. Hierome was called before Christ his Judg in a Vision and the Judg asking him who he was he replyed I am a Christian the Judg said unto him thou lyest Ciceronianus es non Christianus Thou art a Ciceronian not Christian thou takest more delight in reading the works of Cicero than books of Piety Devotion and the Judg commanded an Angel to scourge him severely for it the marks of which remained for a long time in his body as he writes of himself to Eustochium Are they then to be esteemed true Christians who spend most of their time in reading frivolous Romances idle Play-books and such fopperies Voluptuous Man if God should demand of thee what art thou as sure enough he will one day if thou sayest unto him thou art a Christian he will give you the lye and say you are not a Christian but an Epicurian you observe the precepts of Epicurus not of Jesus Christ you have made a God of your belly and your chiefest pleasure hath been to satisfie your bruitish passions Vindicative person if God should demand of thee who art thou darest thou say thou art a Christian God will confound thee presently in saying thou art not a Disciple of Jesus Christ but rather of Cicero or Demosthenes to repel injury with injustice to curse them who curse you to take Revenge for words spoken amiss are the maxims of Cicero or of Demosthenes or other Pagans not of Jesus Christ who taught and practised the quite contrary as to forget Injuries to pray for our Persecutors or render good for evil What will your Vain Dame answer at the hour of Death which may happen sooner than she expects when God will demand of her what she is will she have the boldness to answer she is a Christian no sure she knows too well in her Conscience that she is a Worldling that she lived according to the Laws and Mode of the World that she hath a heart plunged in vanities and that she feared more to displease a person of the world than to offend God that she thought it not tedious to spend every day three or four hours to adorn and compose her self to appear grateful I know not to whom and thought much even on a day of Communion to spend one hour to prepare her self to appear agreeable unto God In fine many persons amongst us who make profession of the true Faith will appear then to be no true Christians but rather Antichrists having lived contrary to the Evangelical Rules and Maxims delivered to us by Christ and faithfully practised by the Primitive Christians his true followers and whom we challenge for our Predecessors in Religion Habentes Igitur Hebr. 12. having such a Cloud of Witnesses put upon us let us lay aside every weight that cloggs us and sin that beset us and let us with Patience run the Race that is set before us looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith It is the admonition of the Apostle such a Cloud of Witnesses who shew to us by their lives how we ought to live to obtain Salvation An antient Monk called Machaire having visited the Cells of other Religious who lived in great perfection returning from thence with great Confusion humbly said vidi Monachos I have seen true Monks and Religious in comparison of whom I am not one I deserve not to carry that name When I consider the lives of the antient Christians I cannot but say vidi Christianos I have seen true Christians in respect of whom we are but such in name and appearance only not in effect in manners and life But as St. Chrysostom adviseth if that we cannot arrive to so high a perfection as the antients did yet at least let us do what we can to imitate and follow them talem nubem such a Cloud If we endeavour to imitate them to our power they will be Clouds which will distill down upon us benigne influences refreshing dews from Heaven otherwise they will be Clouds which at the day of Judgment will cast forth against us Thunder-bolts of Vengeance they will Accuse Confound and Condemn us by the opposition of their former Lives and Vertues Were they not frail as we are composed of the same matter clogged and oppressed with the same flesh as sensible and delicate as we have we not the same God the same Jesus Crucified Have we not the same Sacraments Are we not in the same Church And yet we expect the same Paradice for a little which cost them so dear Is there any reason that without a lawful Fight and Victory we should possess the same Kingdom which they Conquered by so many Combats and possessed by so holy a Violence Curramus ad propositum certamen Let us run to the Fight set before us The Apostle doth not say Ad coronam To the Crown proposed for if there were no Crown to be obtained no Sallary to be received yet it would be highly honourable for us to Combate in the cause of God How many generous Spirits are in the world who hold it glorious to be employed in the occasion of venturing their blood and lives without any other reward than to have the honour of serving their Prince and Country and can we be of so base and servile a Spirit as to be inferiour to them in order to God in whom we move and have our being Let us cast our eyes on Jesus Christ Aspicientes in Authorem fidei He is the Authour of our Faith and ought to be the Idea and Model of our life let us look upon him not only to imitate him but to implore his ayde and succours that as he is the Authour of our Faith he may be also the Finisher of our Hopes as he is the Alpha and first principle he may be also the Omega and last end as he is our liberal Saviour by grace he may be our full recompence by glory This Treatise Containing the Principal means of Preserving and Encreasing this Life of a True Christian THIRD PART CHAP. I. The first Means is the Mortificaon of the Principal Powers and Faculties of the Soul with the Passions of the sensitive Appetite THe greatest Impediment in the affair of our Salvation is interiour which consists in the disorder of the powers and faculties of the Soul and Passions Rebellion of the flesh infidelity of our Sences all which enemies seem to conspire to our Perdition to destroy all Spiritual Life in us For the
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
of entering into the Heart remaining inclosed there from all the World as St. Chrysostom Expounds it In cubitulo orat He prays in his Chamber though it be in the Church Qui Solum Deum attendit who there only attends to God St. Ambrose renders the same sence of our Saviours words Habes ubique cubiculum Thou hast thy Chamber which is thy Heart every where into that thou must Retire and remaine therein inclosed in the time of Prayer the doors of the Sences being shut and all distracted occasions and imaginations Excluded This Chamber hath three Cells into which thou must enter these are the three Powers Memory Intellect and Will enter into the Memory being only mindful of God and what thou art to meditate of into thy Intellect considering God present in thy Soul and contemplating those things only which belong unto him and being very attentive what he speaks there to thy Soul into thy Will produceing there Acts of Affection towards God True Devotion is of the nature of a Turtle which seeketh solitary places that there she may not be interrupted in her amorous Sighes and Languishings which one should principally practise in Domestick and ordinary Prayers not as many do who say their Prayers in dressing themselves or by the fire-side in hast and so their Prayers vanish as Smoak As for Prayers in publick as in Churches where one cannot enjoy the retreat of a place they must retyre the so much the more to the retreat of their Heart as the Alcyons which in their little Nests injoy a calm in the midst of Waves a repose in the Sea tranquility in an Element troubled with Winds and Storms which we may do if we shut our Eyes and regard not the objects which inviron us our Ears by not hearkning to the discourses of others our Mouths in talking only with God our Imagination chasing away vain and imperfect Thoughts by which we shall enjoy Peace and Retyrement in the midst of Assemblies Joseph would not manifest himself to his Brethren till all the Aegyptians were out of the place neither will Christ communicate his Comforts and Sweetness to a Soul if Aegyptians be present vain imaginations and distractions which disturbs the Peace of it The second condition Required to the efficacy of Prayer is purity of Mind from the affection of Sin as Women who go to fetch clean Water are careful to carry Pots or Vessels cleansed from other Liquors This God required of his People by the Prophet Isay C. 1. Lavimini mundi estote Wash and be clean remove the evil of your thoughts from my Eyes Luxurious remove thy impurity Vindicative thy Anger and Choller Malitious thy Envy Proud thy Arrogance Covetous thy Avarice Sinner thy Abominations for if thou come thus defyled and polluted before the face of God he will reject your Prayers as he assures you by his Prophet Cum multiplicaveris orationes When you shall multiply your Prayers I will not hear you Manus enim vestrae Sanguine sunt plenae Because your Hands are full of Blood your Hands are defiled with the Blood of your Neighbours by many injustices with your own Blood by Sin which Murders your Souls By the Blood of Christ so unprised by you and thus you presume to present your Prayers to me with bloody Hearts and Hands full of iniquity without having cleansed them by the waters of true Contrition I will turn my Eyes from your defiled Hands my Ears from your impure Prayers my Heart from your polluted Hearts I will not hear you This informs us that we must come to prayer with contrition for our sins with hearts pure from affection to evill As they report of the Viper that when she goes to the fountain to drink she vomits up her poyson that she may not be endangered by it or as the Oyster casteth our the salt water when she will open her shell to receive the celestial dew to conceive pearls or as the place on which manna was to fall was first purged from dust and filth by a precedent blast of wind or as the victims which the antient Jews offered to God were washed in a cistern of water placed at the port of the temple for that use In like manner Wash and be clean before you come to pray if you will have your prayers gratefull to God and beneficiall to your Souls This is the ground of that incouragement in holy Job c. 11. si iniquitatem abstuleris à te if thou wilt remove from thee thy iniquity then thou mayst lift thy face to God boldly without offence The conditions requisite to prayer are comprehended in those few words of our Blessed Saviour to the Samaritan woman Spiritus est Deus God is a spirit and ought to be adored in spirit and truth in Spirit by the interiour affection in truth and verity by the purity of mind and intention in spirit without voluntary distractions in truth without hypocrisie in Spirit fervently and humbly in truth sincerely and cordially O Soul if thou didst but consider the benefit of spirituall prayer how rich and liberall God is towards them who truly invocate him then would'st thou be diligent fervent perseverant to knock at the door of his mercy thou wouldst not permit whole dayes to pass without prayer this would be thy exercise in morning mid-day and night prayer would open the begining conduct the progress conclude the end of all thy enterprises The reason why most people in the world are plunged in a carnal and sensuall life is the defect of Internal and spirituall prayer by the exercise of which they would enter into their hearts to discover the true causes of their distempers and so be excited to apply convenient remedies against them If every one would be solicitous to demand of God all graces necessary for his souls conduct in his vocation and condition it is impossible that God should refuse him or that he should suffer shipwrack of his Salvation because God cannot lye because he is engaged by his word to give his grace and his light to conduct those who demand it of him if their prayers be accompanied with requisite conditions with confusion for their sins a desire of his grace with interiour attention humility perseverance Dabit Spiritum bonum he will give his good spirit to those that demand it and every one who seeks shall find si petiisses if thou hadst asked he would have given thee the water of life But many spend whole days entirely without thinking that there is a God or that they have a soul to save riseing and lying down without once lifting their hearts to heaven Sicut equus et mulus as horses and beasts others come to Church to see and be seen to prattle rather then to pray others for the most part pray for temporalls as honours riches health and conveniences of the body rather then for the grace and light of Gods spirit to enable and direct them in the affairs of