Sinners purified without penitence; the righteous justified without love; all Christians without the grace of Jesus Christ; G.o.d without power over the will of men; a predestination without mystery; a redemption without cert.i.tude!
884
Any one is made a priest, who wants to be so, as under Jeroboam.[367]
It is a horrible thing that they propound to us the discipline of the Church of to-day as so good, that it is made a crime to desire to change it. Formerly it was infallibly good, and it was thought that it could be changed without sin; and now, such as it is, we cannot wish it changed!
It has indeed been permitted to change the custom of not making priests without such great circ.u.mspection, that there were hardly any who were worthy; and it is not allowed to complain of the custom which makes so many who are unworthy!
885
_Heretics._--Ezekiel. All the heathen, and also the Prophet, spoke evil of Israel. But the Israelites were so far from having the right to say to him, "You speak like the heathen," that he is most forcible upon this, that the heathen say the same as he.
886
The Jansenists are like the heretics in the reformation of morality; but you are like them in evil.
887
You are ignorant of the prophecies, if you do not know that all this must happen; princes, prophets, Pope, and even the priests. And yet the Church is to abide. By the grace of G.o.d we have not come to that. Woe to these priests! But we hope that G.o.d will bestow His mercy upon us that we shall not be of them.
Saint Peter, ii: false prophets in the past, the image of future ones.
888
... So that if it is true, on the one hand, that some lax monks, and some corrupt casuists, who are not members of the hierarchy, are steeped in these corruptions, it is, on the other hand, certain that the true pastors of the Church, who are the true guardians of the Divine Word, have preserved it unchangeably against the efforts of those who have attempted to destroy it.
And thus true believers have no pretext to follow that laxity, which is only offered to them by the strange hands of these casuists, instead of the sound doctrine which is presented to them by the fatherly hands of their own pastors. And the unG.o.dly and heretics have no ground for publishing these abuses as evidence of imperfection in the providence of G.o.d over His Church; since, the Church consisting properly in the body of the hierarchy, we are so far from being able to conclude from the present state of matters that G.o.d has abandoned her to corruption, that it has never been more apparent than at the present time that G.o.d visibly protects her from corruption.
For if some of these men, who, by an extraordinary vocation, have made profession of withdrawing from the world and adopting the monks" dress, in order to live in a more perfect state than ordinary Christians, have fallen into excesses which horrify ordinary Christians, and have become to us what the false prophets were among the Jews; this is a private and personal misfortune, which must indeed be deplored, but from which nothing can be inferred against the care which G.o.d takes of His Church; since all these things are so clearly foretold, and it has been so long since announced that these temptations would arise from people of this kind; so that when we are well instructed, we see in this rather evidence of the care of G.o.d than of His forgetfulness in regard to us.
889
Tertullian: _Nunquam Ecclesia reformabitur._
890
Heretics, who take advantage of the doctrine of the Jesuits, must be made to know that it is not that of the Church [_the doctrine of the Church_], and that our divisions do not separate us from the altar.
891
If in differing we condemned, you would be right. Uniformity without diversity is useless to others; diversity without uniformity is ruinous for us. The one is harmful outwardly; the other inwardly.
892
By showing the truth, we cause it to be believed; but by showing the injustice of ministers, we do not correct it. Our mind is a.s.sured by a proof of falsehood; our purse is not made secure by proof of injustice.
893
Those who love the Church lament to see the corruption of morals; but laws at least exist. But these corrupt the laws. The model is damaged.
894
Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.
895
It is in vain that the Church has established these words, anathemas, heresies, etc. They are used against her.
896
The servant knoweth not what his lord doeth, for the master tells him only the act and not the intention.[368] And this is why he often obeys slavishly, and defeats the intention. But Jesus Christ has told us the object. And you defeat that object.
897
They cannot have perpetuity, and they seek universality; and therefore they make the whole Church corrupt, that they may be saints.
898
_Against those who misuse pa.s.sages of Scripture, and who pride themselves in finding one which seems to favour their error._--The chapter for Vespers, Pa.s.sion Sunday, the prayer for the king.
Explanation of these words: "He that is not with me is against me."[369]
And of these others: "He that is not against you is for you."[370] A person who says: "I am neither for nor against", we ought to reply to him ...
899
He who will give the meaning of Scripture, and does not take it from Scripture, is an enemy of Scripture. (Aug., _De Doct. Christ._)
900
_Humilibus dat gratiam; an ideo non dedit humilitatem?[371]
Sui eum non receperunt; quotquot autem non receperunt an non erant sui?_[372]