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A84588 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. Eason, Laurence. 1673 (1673) Wing E99aA; ESTC R230984 39,971 127

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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