by the prejudices of the mind, by the desires of seeing, of acquiring, of possessing, of pleasing, or of being esteemed; all these things destroy that life of faith, which is the life of the soul. ; The man of faith is mild, he is kind, he is courteous, he is true, he is plain and sincere, he is generous, of good counsel, of good company; he is always even in his temper, easy in his conversation, and sets no bounds to the help he is ready to afford every one under the variety of human events.
To live well the life of faith, three things are necessary. 1. To love entirely Jesus Christ. 2. To have a great contempt of the world, and of all that the world esteems. 3. To live only, and to count only for the present day.
That the life of faith may be more conformable to the life of Christ, it ought to be accompanied with these three things: the love of humiliations ; rejoicing in sufferings; and embracing poverty. All the saints have lived by faith. Amongst these heroes of faith I shall name in particular, St. Paul, St. Francis and St. Teresa.
We need but to cast one glance of the eye on what passes in the world, to see that scarce any one there lives by faith. Many people pray, frequent the sacraments, give alms, practise austerities; and yet with all this, they cease not to live in themselves, with themselves, and for themselves. They have their humours, their pretensions, their eagernesses, their vanities, their oddities, their singularities; they are unwilling to suffer, or to be forgot, or to want any thing, or to deny themselves the liberty of judging of their neighbours. They are devotees quite living of self-love: they have never known the life of God, the life of faith, the internal man, the interior union with Jesus Christ.
