Think Well On't/Life of Faith
THE LIFE OF FAITH.
Be ye Followers of me, as I also am of Christ,
1 Cor. xi. 1.
MEDITATE ofien of these. words of the apostle; The just man liveth by faith, Rom, i. 17. O what great things are contained in this life of faith!
The life of faith supposes, that one first dies to oneself. The spiritual death is here the beginning of life. You are dead, said the apostle, 3. and your life is hid with Christ in God.
To live in faith is to be only taken up with the objects of faith; to think only on the promises of faith; and to make our judgment of all things here below, only with respect to their agreeableness with the things of faith.
To live by faith, is to lead as to the exterior, a common life; but as to the interior, to unite oneself continually to God through Jesus Christ.
The life of faith maintains itself principally by mental prayer and the holy communion. Prayer puts to death the old man; and the holy communion gives life to the new man.
Nothing is more contrary to the life of faith, than the frequenting the high-life world, with its companies and assemblies; idle visits, vain compliments, frivolous letters, &c. But on the other hand, the life of faith grows in us by godly conversation, by an union with those who are truly good, and by the reading of such spiritual books, as are solidly pious and affecting.
The life of faith is much hindered by the tumult of business, by the trouble of scruples, 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.
He who said, I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me, Gal. ii. 20. was indeed a man of faith, a soul quite animated by faith, a heart from which the world was totally banished. He had no longer a being of his own, a life of his own; Jesus Christ was all in him, and he was all in Jesus Christ. St. Paul was this man. O let us live by faith, and we shall be cheerful, easy and happy; the kingdom of God will be in us; we shall neither fear men, nor devils, nor death. We shall have for our wealth the cross of Jesus Christ, the sacraments of Jesus Christ, the body of Jesus Christ, and our riches shall surpass the riches of kings.
Manchester,
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