The spiritual man, or, The spiritual life reduced to its first principles . OF THE Spiritual Life. CHAPTER!. FIRST GENERAL PRINCIPLE OF THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. That it is necessary to have general principles. AVING treated of the spiritual man as far aswe considered necessary, we will now pass tothe principles of the spiritual life, the subjectof the second part of our work. To proceedwith order, we shall speak, first, of its generalprinciples, and afterward of those which regard itin particular. The first general principle of thespiritual life is to have general principles. Here, asin the science
The spiritual man, or, The spiritual life reduced to its first principles . OF THE Spiritual Life. CHAPTER!. FIRST GENERAL PRINCIPLE OF THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. That it is necessary to have general principles. AVING treated of the spiritual man as far aswe considered necessary, we will now pass tothe principles of the spiritual life, the subjectof the second part of our work. To proceedwith order, we shall speak, first, of its generalprinciples, and afterward of those which regard itin particular. The first general principle of thespiritual life is to have general principles. Here, asin the sciences, we style certain propositions which hold thefirst rank, and certain great and important truths which-are theorigin of all others, principles. A principle, says Aristotle,** is that whence a thing flows as from its source, or which is aningredient in its composition, or which is the means wherebyit comes to be known. Principles are the basis, the suste-nance of the thing, and are, consequently, of the greatestimportance. In the science of salvation and in the spiritual. 182 FIRST GENERAL PRINCIPLE OF THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. life, principles are certain fundamental truths of Christianitywhich contain all others, and are the most capable of makingan imipression on our minds and touching our hearts ; ofwithdrawing us from vice, and inducing us to practise are, for example, the following truths :—There is butone God, the Creator of heaven and earth ; this God hasmade us for His glory, He recompenses our virtues andpunishes our vices ; He has not only universal, but particular,care of all that happens in the universe, and especially ofman, His noblest and dearest work ; He is present every-where ; His ears are always attentive to what we say ; His eyesare always open to see what we do. The Son of God cameon earth and clothed Himself with our nature to save us, andto become our model. There is only one important affair inthis world, namely, our salvation : a happy or a mi
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