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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A10876	The Christian mans guide Wherein are contayned two treatises. The one shewing vs the perfection of our ordinary workes. The other the purity of intention we ought to haue in all our actions. Both composed in Spanish by the R.F. Alfonsus Rodriguez of the Society of Iesus. Translated into English.; Ejercicio de perfección y virtudes cristianas. Part 1. Treatise 2-3. English	Rodríguez, Alfonso, 1526-1616.; Matthew, Tobie, Sir, 1577-1655.	1630 (1630)	STC 21142; ESTC S112045	75,603	296

THE CHRISTIAN MANS GVIDE WHEREIN Are contayned two Treatises THE ONE Shewing vs the perfection of our ordinary Workes THE OTHER The purity of Intention we ought to haue in all our Actions Both composed in Spanish by the R. F. ALFONSVS RODRIGVEZ of the Society of IESVS Translated into English Permissu Superiorum M.DC.XXX THE PREFACE TO THE READER GENTLE Reader I present thee here with two excell●nt Treatises writt●● by the R. F. Alfonsus Rodriguez of the Society of Iesus that is to say his second and third Treatise of his first part of Christian Perfection The one teacheth vs how by performing our Ordinary Actiōs with due diligēce we may become perfect in a short tyme. The other how we ought to haue our Intention Right and Pure in al our Actiōs how necessary and profitable this care is Both Treatises will sufficiently commend themselues if they be read with attention and an earnest desire to profit in the way of vertue My mind was to haue added hereunto the first Treatise of the same Authour but because it is not yet ready I differre it till a longer day and in the meane tyme I present this to thy vse and benefit A TABLE OF THE CHAPTERS CONTAINED In these two Treatises Of our ordinary Actions Chap. 1. HOw all our spirituall profit and perfection consists in the well doing of our workes pag. 1. Chap. 2. How it ought greatly to incourage vs to the attaining of perfection that God hath constituted it in the performance of easy things pag. 10. Chap. 3. VVherein the goodnes perfection of our workes consists and some meanes to performe them well pag. 15. Chap. 4. Of an other meanes to do our Actions well which is so to performe them as if we had nothing els besides to do pag. 25. Chap. 5. An other means to do our Actions well which is so to performe each one as if it were the last thing we were to doe pag. 31. Chap. 6. Of an other meanes to do our Actions well which is to take care only for the present pag. 44. Chap. 7. Of another means which is to accustome our selues to do our Actions well pag. 51. Chap. 8. Of how great importance it is that Religious men do not grow remisse slacke in the way of vertue pag. 59. Chap. 9. How much it imports Nouices to bestow the tyme of their Nouiciate well and to accustome themselues then to do their Actions well pag. 66. Of the right and pure Intention Chap. 1. THat we ought principally to shune all vaine glory in our Actions pag. 75. Chap. 2. VVherein the hurt and mischiefe of vaine Glory doth consist pag. 81. Chap. 3. Of the hurt domage which vaine Glory brings a long with it pag. 85. Chap. 4. That the tentation of vaine Glory doth not only assault those who are new beginners but also such who make progresse in Vertue pag. 93. Chap. 5. Of the particular care which they ought to haue of vaine glory who are to imploy themselues to assist and helpe their Neighbour pag. 99. Chap. 6. Of certaine other remedyes agaynst Vayne Glory pag. 105. Chap. 7. Of the good end and intention which we ought to haue in all our Actions pag. 117. Chap. 8. How we may doe our actions with great rectitude and purity of Intention pag. 121. Chap. 9. How we are not so much to lay the fault of those distractions spirituall hinderances which we find in our selues sometimes on our exterior occupations as on our not performing them as we ought pag. 125. Chap. 10. How good and profitable it is to doe our Actions in the foresayd manner pag. 131. Chap. 11. A more expresse declaration of the vprightnes and purity of intention with which we are to do our Actions pag. 139. Chap. 12. Of some signes by which we may know whether we doe our actions purely for the loue of God or seeke our selues in them pag. 150. Chap. 13. How we are to increase go forwards in vprightnes and purity of intention pag. 158. Chap. 14. Three degrees of perfection by which we may ascend and arriue vnto great purity of intention and to a high and perfect loue of God pag. 171. A TREATISE OF THE PERFECTION of our ordinary Actions How all our spirituall profit and perfections consists in the well doing of our workes CHAP. 1. IVSTE quod iustum est persequeris Deuter. 16.10 sayth our Lord vnto his people Do that wel iustly which is good and iust Our profit perfection consists not in the simple doing of the thinges but in the well doing them like as it is nothing to be a Religious man but to be a good one indeed is that to which we must all aspire S. Hierome writing to Paulinus sayth Non Hierosalymis fuisse sed Hierosolymis bene vixisse laudādum est Paulinus had a great opinion of S. Hierome because he resided in those holy places where our Sauiour had wroght the mysteries of our redemption and S. Hierome that he might pay no esteemation to the place which was not due vnto the person sayd Not to liue in Hierusalem but to liue well in Hierusalem is worthy to be praysed which Apophthegma is ordinarily brought to admonish Religious that it is not inough for them to liue only in Religion seeing as it is not the habit which makes a Religious man so is it not the place but a good and holy life In such manner as the difficulty consists not in being Religious but in being a good Religious nor in doing the exercises of Religion but in doing them well according as we ought When that which was sayd of our Sauiour in the Ghospell Bene omnia fecit He hath done all thinges well Marc. 7.37 doth come to be verifyed in vs then we may truely be sayd to be Religious men It is most certain that all our good and ill consists in the well or ill doing of our workes for such as our workes are such shall we likewise be they speake and declare what ech one is the Tree is knowne by its fruit S. Augustine sayes That man is the tree and his workes the fruit he bears and consequently by the fruit of the workes we doe arriue to knowledge of the man And therefore our Sauiour speaking of the Hypocrits false Prophets sayd Matth. 7.16 A fructibus eorum cognoscetis eos And on the contrary speaking of himselfe The works which I do in the name of my Father Ioan. 10.15 do beare witnesse of me and if you will not belieue me belieue my workes which witnesse what I am Neither do the workes in this life only declare what each one is but also what in the other life is to become of them for such shall we be for euer in the other life as our workes haue been in this seeing our Sauiour will reward each one according to their works as the holy Scripture testifyes so often in both the

before God there is no reconing made of the yeares of our life but of the goodnes of it neither of the lōg time which we haue bin in Religion but of that which we haue spent well in Religion of which the Holy Scripture affords vs a remarkable example It is said in the first book of Kings that Saul raigned two yeares ouer Israel 1. Reg. 13.2 Saul was a child of one yeare ould when he began to raigne and raigned two yeares ouer Israel where as it is certayne that he was King forty yeares for so Saint Paul sayes in the Actes of the Apostles Act. 13.21 Afterwards they demaunded a King God gaue vnto them Saul the sonne of Cis a man of the Tribe of Beniamin for fourty yeares How comes it then that in the Chronicles of the Kings he is sayd to haue raigned but two yeares the reason is because in the Annales and records of God Almighty there is no reckoning made but of only those yeares which we haue liued well and so he is said only to haue raigned two yeares because only in those he gouerned as a good righteous Prince we read in the Euangell Matt. 20.8 that those who came to worke in the vinyard at the eleuēth hower were for one howers worke preferred to those who had laboured al the day since in that one hower they had done as much of true labour as those who had wrought frō morning vnto night Let vs then cast vp our accounts according to this reckoning and see by our good workes how long we haue bin in Religion This is excellently declared by Eusebius Emissenus Eusech ho. 9. ad Mō who from a Senator was afterwards Bishop of Lions We vse to count saith he Our yeares and the space of time which we do liue be not deceaued who soeuer thou art with the number of those dayes which you haue passed ouer since in body you haue left the world make account that you haue only liued that day in the which you haue denyed your owne will in which you haue resisted your ill affections and which you haue passed ouer without any transgression or breach of your rule make account that you haue liued that day which hath b●n inlightned with the beāes of purity and holy meditation with such dayes as these make vp if you can your computation of yeares and by those measure the time of your being Religious and feare otherwise least that should be said vnto you which was reproached to the Bishop of the Church of Sardis in the Apocalips Angelo Ecclesiae Sardis scribe Apoc. 3.1 scio opera tua quia nomen habes quod viuas mortuus es esto vigilans non enim inuenio opera tua plena coram Deo meo I know thy workes saith God although they are vnknowne to men Apoc. 5.2 you haue the name to liue and you are dead you beare the name of a Christian the habit of a Religious man but your works fit neither of them for they are not ful before my God but empty empty of God and of your selfe too full for you doe no other then seeke your selfe in them your owne commodity your honour and esteeme Let vs therefore be watchfull and make it all our labour to do full workes and liue full dayes to the end that in a little time we may liue long and merit much in the sight of God Almighty A MORE EXPRESSE DECLARATION of the vprightnes and purity of intention with which we are to do our Actions CHAP. XI THEY giue commonly a good aduise to those who cōuerse with their neighbours touching the manner of their cariage in those functions which they exercise actions which they performe by the which it may be gathered how pure our intention ought to be how free and desingaged our selues and how sincerely we are to seeke God in all occasions And it is the Doctrine of the Holy Fathers and Doctors of the Church S. Hierome S. Gregory S. Chrysostome as we shal see afterwards They say that when we vndertake any action to the end our neighbour from thence may reap any generall or particular profit we are not to reflect vpon the fruit and good successe of it but only to fulfill the wil of God in doing it in such manner that when we heare confessions or when we preach or teach we ought not much to regard whither those you cōuerse with all be conuerted amended or profited but ōly one our parts to do the will of God and please him in doing the b●st we can and for the successe of our actions as whither such an one be conuerted or profits by our sermons or becomes learned by hearing of our lessons that belongs not vnto vs 1. Cor. 3.6 but only vnto God Ego plantaui Apollo rigauit sed Deus incrementum dedit for vs saies the Apostle al that which we can do is but to plant and water like as that Iardiner doth but for to make the plants grow and the trees bring forth fruit belongs not to the Gardiner but to God the fruit of soules which is that they depart from their sinnes that they conuert themselues to God and that they go forward in virtue perfection doth only appertayne to God and the value and perfection of our Actions doth not depend vpon it This then is that purity of intentiō which we are to indeauour to haue in all our Actions that by this meanes we may attayne vnto a great purity in our intentions inioy a delitghful peace of mynd for those who do their Actiōs in this manner are neuer troubled when the successe of their affaires comes by any chaunce to be thwarted or fayles of executiō or produceth not the fruits they hoped for for they proposed not this end vnto themselues neyther haue they placed their cōtentmēt in it but only for to do the will of God performe al to please him vnto their vtmost Power for if when you preach heare confessions or do any other function for to helpe your neighbour you propose vnto your selfe beforehand to make great profit of it let this be your principall end in the performance of thē when any chaunce crosseth your designe in this you become troubled and disquieted And not only loose your peace of mynd but euen sometimes all patience if you proceed not further Our B. Father S. Ignatius declares this with an excellent example or similitude Lib. 5. c. 2 vitae B. P. Ignat. do you know said he how we are to carry our selues in those our functions wherein we imploy our selues vnto the helpe of our neighbour Iust so as the Angell Guardians do with those who are cōmitted vnto their charge by God Almighty who neuer cease with all possible care to counsayle defend and gouerne thē to illuminate excite helpe them in all good but if through misuse of that freewill they haue they obey not to