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.

CHAP. II.

The true Life of a Christian, which is that of Faith.

JUstus autem meus ex fide vivit; my just one (saith God by the Prophet) shall live by faith. There are too Sorts of just men, one according to the world, the other according to God; the just according to the world are those, who are so by Humane reason, maxims of Estate, or temporal Interest. The just according to God are those, who have Faith for the Principle of their actions, and rule of their lives. A just man according to the world doth not injury to any, because the light of reason dictates to him, what he would

not have done to himself, that he should not do to another; one just according to God, doth no injury to any, out of a further motive, which is because Jesus Christ commanded and practised it, for our example. A just man ac∣cording to the world gives alms to an indigent person, out of a natural com∣passion and tenderness of heart; A just man according to God doth it, be∣cause Jesus Christ saith, What you shall do to one of these little ones, you shall do to me, because they are members of Christ. Whosoever gives a cup of could water, shall not lose his reward; it is the promise of Christ; but he doth not promise this reward, if you give an alms to one, because he is one of the same country, condition, or nature you are of; but if you give it to him, because he is a Christian, a disciple of Christ, because he required it of you, & you gave it in the name of Christ; or because he is ordain'd as a companion to glorify God with you in heaven. A good Servant according to the world,

serves his master faithfully, because he expects a reward from him for it: a good servant according to God doth it because St. Paul exhorts servants, to obey theirs Masters, as Jesus Christ, and for conscience sake. One just according to the world nourisheth and brings up his children, because they are his: A just parent according to God, doth it because they are members of Christ, creatures ordained for his glory. The reason of this truth is evident, The life of a true Christian is a Supernaturall life; faith is more above reason, then reason above sence; and as one who lives as a man, is not go∣verned by his sence as beasts, but by reason; so he who will live as a true Christian, must not follow the con∣duct of naturall reason only, as men do, but he must be directed in his life by faith and Evangelicall maxims; The glorious name we carry, obligeth us to this; The name of Christians comes from Christ, and by it we pro∣fess 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. Ma∣thew 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, pra∣ctice his maxims; so his heavenly Fa∣ther commands, Ipsum audite; hear and obey him.

In my Judgment, the best reason, the rightest intention, the holyest disposition, we can have in our acti∣ons, is to practice them, because Christ taught them, recommended and practiced the like, for our example. When the disciples of Pythagoras ad∣vanced any proposition, they allead∣ged no proof for it, nor gave any o∣ther

reason then, ipse dixit; he said it; ought not the word, and the au∣thority 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 man∣ner? he will answer you, because his pattern and example is so. If you de∣mand 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 excel∣lent and befeeming a great courage, but because Jesus Christ, his pattern, example and captain, taught it, com∣manded it, practised it; some are of∣tentimes 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 bet∣ter 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 exam∣ple? For God hath made him the pattern and example, of all the pre∣destinate, 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 pro∣fit 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 pro∣fess his verities, if in practice we fol∣low 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 in∣firm creatures; affirming, that the consideration of it, obscures the bright rayes of the Divinity in Contempla∣tion; and therefore to become a per∣fect contemplative, a man must ab∣stract from that and transcend it, as he would do from that of other crea∣tures. 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 Divini∣ty, 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 as∣cend 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 necessa∣ry, a reflection, and an affirmation, that I love them not for themselves, but for God, because they contain not God in∣timately in them; and so in loving them, my mind directly by this tends not God. But when I love Christ, who is perso∣nally 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 huma∣nity, 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 Trans∣figuration 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 Divi∣nity, without the meditation of Christ Crucified; glory became more pleasing to them by it, and that most resplendant Vision was thereby the more easily sup∣ported, without fear of being oppressed by the ravishing violence of its delight∣fulness.

And hence is that of St. Bernard, Marcessit divinitatis contemplatio, ubi languit passionis meditatio; The con∣templation of the Divinity will soon fail, when the Meditation of the Passion languisheth and decays.