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
considering all things in this world said Horum bonorum unus est titulus salus hominis they all carry this Title upon them The Salvation of man When God had Created this sensible world with the Heavens Elements and all Creatures in it he put this Title upon them Salus hominis this was the end of their being to which they were ordered when he Created the Angels he placed this as a Frontisepiece upon them Salus hominis The Salvation of man this is the affair in which they are imployed as the Apostle Heb. 1. informes us Omnes administratores Spiritus All of them are administrating Spirits sent for those who are to receive the inheritance of Salvation They labour incessantly in this affair knowing it is the greatest work of God in which they can be imployed If God became Man if he Preached gave us examples of all Vertues instituted the Sacraments these and the like Marvels have this Inscription upon them Salus hominis having no other end but this If he dyed on the Cross it was for this design he suffered Death to give us Life It was from this consideration that Tertullian said Nihil tam dignum Deo quam salus hominis nothing so worthy or beseeming God as the Salvation of man and St. Thomas gives this Reason of it because the whole Universe with all the Orders Dispositions and Marvels in it do not so clearly and fully manifest his grandeurs as the Salvation of man for here he makes appear his Attributes and Perfections which are his Power Wisdome Love in a most eminent manner which caused the holy Doctor to affirm In rebus creatis nihil potest esse majus quam salus rationalis creaturae In all Created things there is not any greater than mans Salvation God could have Created Heavens more extended and more richly adorned than those which now rowl over our heads an Earth more fruitful than that which now supports us Angels more intelligent than those which now sing his Praises in Heaven but he could not do any thing more Great Noble and Divine than the Salvation of man this is it which after a soveraign manner manifests his Attributes and Perfections This consideration should cause us highly to esteem incessantly to endeavour our Salvation which concerns so much the glory of God which we are obliged to advance to our power And seeing that God on his part so really and seriously desires our Salvation and so highly esteems it that he Created and Ordered all things in this universe for it surely by our neglecting it we frustrate as much as in us lyes all his designes and dissolve and reduce to nothing the Creation of the world with all things in it for all things have their being and conservation for no other end but this what a stupendious ingratitude and contempt of God and his benefits are involved in this neglect who is so blind as not to discern it and therefore most inconsiderate and insensible to be guilty of such a crime The second Consideration and Motive The second is taken from our own proper Interests which is no less than our Salvation the loss of which renders us miserable for all Eternity We will begin this consideration with those remarkable words with which the Wise man concluded his Ecclesiastes Deum time fear God and observe his Commandements hoc est omnis homo for this is every man or as St. Jerome translates it This is the end of every mans Birth and Being from which St. Bernard draws this Consequence Ergo absque hoc nihil est homo then without this man is nothing Popes are not in the world to be Popes nor Kings to be Kings nor Wise men to be Learned and the like but all universally to be saved All the conditions and employments which possess the Spirits of men ought to give place to this and aime at it as their proper object and end without which they are in vain This our Blessed Saviour affirms in those words of St. Matthew cap. 16. quid prodest homini what will it advantage a man to gain the whole world and to suffer detriment in his Soul what will it profit a man to have all the pleasures of the voluptuous all the riches the world can afford him all the honours that men can confer upon him if he were absolute Monarck of the whole world if at last he loseth his Soul If he had all the knowledg of things natural and Divine all the beauty that the body is capable of such health for so long a time as he could desire all the advantages of the world which men so ardently thirst after all these in the judgment of Christ the Divine Wisdome of his Father will be unprofitable if he comes not only to lose but to suffer detriment in his Soul For this reason the Royal Prophet stiles his Soul his Darling or his One Erue a framea Deus animam meam de manu canis unicam meam Deliver my Soul from the power of the Sword and my One from the hand of the Dog He calls his Soul his One not only because as other men he had but one Soul but because it was most dear unto him he loved it and procured the conservation of it with all the care and diligence which one imploys to preserve things the rarity and worth of which renders them pretious and amiable This caused St. Chrysostome Hom. 12. de po to say God hath given us two Eyes two Ears two Hands two Feet that if any Misfortune deprive us of the use of one we may help our selves by the use of the other Animam vero unam dedit nobis but he hath given us but one Soul if we lose this we lose all irrevocably The Prophet David Psal 116. well considered this when he said Anima mea in manibus meis semper my Soul is always in my hands to hold it fast that I might not lose it but exercise it in good works defend it from all Enemies who would ruine it and always consider the condition of it according to that of St. Bernard Non facile obliviscimur We do not easily forget those things which we hold in our hands the care of our Souls should always thus be present to us That Holy Father thus continues his discourse about this subject If thou art so sollicitous as not to neglect small things so vigilant to preserve thy Corn thy Cattel thy Money thy Earthly possessions such inferiour and transitory things art thou not then foolish and unreasonable to neglect the Salvation of thy Soul which is thy true treasure This as St. Gregory speaks is to pervert Reason into extream Folly The excellence of true reason and judgment consists in discerning the price of things and esteeming them according to their worth and consequently to make more acccount incomparably of the Soul than of the Body of things Eternal than Temporal of the affair of his Salvation than
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
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
The glorious name we carry obligeth us to this The name of Christians comes from Christ and by it we profess to be disciples and followers of him and he who belongs to Christ ought to live and walk as he did so the Apostle informs us Platonists and Epicurians were so called because they were disciples of Plato and of the school of Epicurus We say one is a Ciceronian because he imitates Cicero in writing and speaking St. Mathew called those souldiers Herodians who belonged to Herod we are called Christians and if we will be such in effect we must be true disciples of Christ enter into his school study his doctrine obey his commands practice his maxims so his heavenly Father commands Ipsum audite hear and obey him In my Judgment the best reason the rightest intention the holyest disposition we can have in our actions is to practice them because Christ taught them recommended and practiced the like for our example When the disciples of Pythagoras advanced any proposition they alleadged no proof for it nor gave any other reason then ipse dixit he said it ought not the word and the authority of Christ to prevail as much with us Christians sure it ought if we had but such an esteem and respect for him as they had for their Master If you ask a Schollar in paynting or writing having a modell before his eyes why he paints this visage so or frames that letter after such a manner he will answer you because his pattern and example is so If you demand of a Souldier why he goes on this side or that sometimes in the wing sometimes in the reer he will reply because his Ensign makes the like martches So he who is a true Christian a disciple and Souldier of Christ practiseth this or that Vertue not as Philosophers because it is excellent and befeeming a great courage but because Jesus Christ his pattern example and captain taught it commanded it practised it some are oftentimes in care to know what is the will of God what most pleasing to him and what to do most for his honour and glory no man knew better the will of God then Christ who obeyed it and fulfilled it in every thing no man knew so well as he what most conduced to the glory of God seeing as he testifieth of himself he did not seek his own glory but his Fathers in every thing we have then no more to do in this affair then to consider what Jesus Christ did teach command and practice for our example For God hath made him the pattern and example of all the predestinate as the Apostle informs us Rom. 8. in these words Whom he did foresee to be his he did predestinate them conformes fieri imagini filii sui to become conformable to the image of his Sonn God hath called us of his mercy to be Christians we are not such by generation but by regeneration nature by all its power cannot make a good Christian it is a work of grace let not a day pass without praising God for this benefit and let us often demand of him ardently and humbly his grace to become good Christians without which the benefitts of our creation conservation redemption and of the Sacraments will not profit us What profit to beleeve God and what he sayes if we do not do his Will to consent to his Word if we obey not his command to profess his verities if in practice we follow our vanities By this doctrine delivered we may discover the errour of many mistakes who speak of Christs humanity in the like manner as they do of other infirm creatures affirming that the consideration of it obscures the bright rayes of the Divinity in Contemplation and therefore to become a perfect contemplative a man must abstract from that and transcend it as he would do from that of other creatures This mistake of theirs they ground upon the doctrine of St. Denys not well understood by them that H. Father affirms it necessary to the perfect Contemplation of the Divinity to transcend all Creatures either by denying them or adding somthing to shew that they are not God and so that we ought not to rest in them if we seek God But this reason holds not good in Christ who is both God and Man and so as St. Augustine speaks by the same pace we go to him as Man we ascend to him as God And by the same act we love him as Man we love him too as God But it is not so in the love of other Creatures for here is necessary a reflection and an affirmation that I love them not for themselves but for God because they contain not God intimately in them and so in loving them my mind directly by this tends not God But when I love Christ who is personally God and Man that act tends to him as God and Man because he is both inseparably Hence saith St. Bernard The Divinity shadowed it self in a body the better to be seen So though the humanity of Christ is not a pure spirit yet it is not so flesh as to be an impediment to the spirit This is the Doctrine of St. Augustine Lib. 9. de civit c. 15. who says that God being made partaker of our humanity Compendium praebuit participandae divinitatis suae shewed a compendious way to become partakers of his Divinity is that by touching him man we touch also God what more compendious Christ inform'd us as much in his Transfiguration on the Mount where he did speak of his excess which he was to accomplish at Hierusalem Luc. 9. seeing in such a Splendour Majesty and Glory he would solemnly mention his Death and Passion Moses and Elias would not be amid'st the rayes of Divinity without the meditation of Christ Crucified glory became more pleasing to them by it and that most resplendant Vision was thereby the more easily supported without fear of being oppressed by the ravishing violence of its delightfulness And hence is that of St. Bernard Marcessit divinitatis contemplatio ubi languit passionis meditatio The contemplation of the Divinity will soon fail when the Meditation of the Passion languisheth and decays CHAP. III. The Lives of the Primitive Christians propounded as an Example in this kind of Life TErtullian affirms that the Christians in his time were of such an innocent Life that they had no other crime pretended against them by their Enemies than their Religion And he gives the Pagans the defiance if they say they have Christians in their Prisons amongst them for any thing else but for their Religion Athenagoras sayes in his Apology Nullus Christianus malus There is not any Christian bad unless he dissembles his Religion Eusebius relates that in the time of Dioclesian the Oracle of Apollo answered that the Just had hindered him from speaking Dioclesian demanding who these Just were the Idolatrous Priests replyed that they were the Christians who led an Innocent life Pliny Junior
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
extream inclination to save us an infinite Vertue to confer Graces and Succours and in the mean while we oppose Obstacles to them and offer violence to Christ himself in this Mistery This may happen divers ways First it may be we bring not necessary dispositions to render this Sacrament efficatious but rather we receive it in the state of Mortal Sin and thus trample the pretious Body and Blood of Christ under our feet he gives us his Sacred Body to be the Means and Cause of Grace and we by a Sacrilegious Communion make the same Body the Instrument of our Sin and so change the Sacrament of Love into a Sacrament of our Rage and Malice and as the Apostle says we become Guilty of the Body and Blood of Christ But suppose we come fee from Mortal Sin and in the estate of Grace as much as we can assure our selves yet we come with a certain tepidity and negligence which hinder us from receiving the fervour of Charity and the active quality of Grace which gives not only the Power but the Inclinations and Motions to good works And again If we are well disposed and receive an encrease of Sanctifying Grace and by the vertue of our Communions God gives us the Succours of actual Graces we may put another Obstacle to their efficacy in not cooperating with them by not seconding their influences but rather refusing their impressions and therefore no wonder if our Communions are so unprofitable And thus truly one may say of us in this condition as St. Paul said of the Infidels Veritatem dei in injustitia detinent Rom. 1. they detain the truth of God in injustice Jesus Christ the Truth which we have received in Communion his Grace his Lights and his Inspirations we hold Captives in our hearts and commit a high injustice by hindring them from produceing their effects in us A Last Reason of this sterility may be because we consider not the Communion we have made nor the Obligations it imposeth on us to render them efficatious After the use of Communion we should often think of it and amongst the occasions of sin or doing of good we should receive this Sacrament Spiritually in our minds saying be pleased my Saviour that I do not any thing unworthy your Pretious Blood Live in me continually by your holy Operations that I may one day receive from your hands the recompence of it in glory It is St. Chrysostom's Advice and Councel Hom. 60. ad pop to consider this our dignity in the occasions of sin to the end that such a consideration may serve us as a Bridle to Curb our Passions and as a Spur and excellent Motive to excite us to good Quaenam erit nobis excusatio what excuse can we have that being partakers of such Mysteries we commit such Crimes So the Holy Father farther especially exhorts that we ought to be Good and Vertuous before and after Communion before to render us worthy to receive the Sacrament after not to appear unworthy of having received it And by this means our Communions will produce in us Perseverance in Grace and Consummation of a Spiritual Life which is the last end of the Sacrament and the Object of our Hopes FINIS ERRATA Page Line Read 1 12 alone 10 16 Ad Pop. 26 6 anathema esse 29 10 on 33 14 pimp 45 5 preferred 46 5 meo  17 Christian  20 Infirmaâ—ian 49 24 fides 62 3 languet 71 1 A Treatice 93 1 Mecum eraâ— 94 5 cubiculo  13 retire so 97 9 dispised 101 19 De Orando 110 22 do not only