Confessorship as necessary proof of holiness.

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commandment of God, that ye may establish your own tradition.

16. This crime is worse, than that which the lapsed appear to commit; who, at least, when in the condition of penitents for their offence, seek their peace with God, by full satisfactions. In this case the Church is enquired after and applied to; in the other the Church is resisted : here there may have been compulsion' in guilt; there free choice is involved: the lapsed harms only himself, but one who undertakes to raise heresy and schism, is a deceiver of many, by leading them along with him. The one both understands that he has sinned, and laments and mourns it; the other, puffed up in his wickedness, and finding pleasure in his own offences, separates sons from the Mother, entices sheep from their shepherd, and disturbs the Sacraments of God. And whereas the lapsed has committed one offence, the other is an offender every day: lastly, the lapsed, if he be admitted to martyrdom afterwards, may reap the promises of the kingdom; the other, if he be killed out of the Church, cannot attain to the Church's rewards.

17. Neither let any one wonder, dearest brethren, that some, even from among Confessors, adventure thus far: that even from among them there are those who sin thus greatly, and thus grievously. Confession does not make a man safe from the crafts of the Devil, nor, while he is still placed in this world, encompass him with perpetual security against its temptations, and dangers, and assaults, and shocks; were it so, we should never witness in Confessors those after-commissions of fraud, fornication, and adultery, which we now groan and grieve at seeing in some of them. Whosoever any Confessor may be, he is not a greater man than Solomon, nor a better, nor one more dear to God: who, nevertheless, so long as he walked in the ways of the Lord, continued to be gifted with that grace which from the Lord he obtained; but when he deserted the way of the Lord, he lost the Lord's grace; as it is written, And the Lord 1 Kings raised up the Adversary against Solomon. It is for this 11, 14. cause written, Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man Rev. 3, take thy crown. This the Lord would not threaten, that the 11. crown of righteousness can be taken away, except because

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Confessorship a call for higher obedience

TREAT. When righteousness goes from us, the crown must go from V. us also. Confession is the beginning of glory, not the full meri- price of the crown; it is not the perfection of our praise, but the entrance upon our honours: and whereas it is writMat. 10, ten, He that endureth to the end shall be saved, all that is before the end, is the stepping whereby one mounts toward the height of salvation, not the close at where the full summit is gained. If any is a Confessor, then his danger is the greater after confession, because the Adversary is more provoked; if he is a Confessor, he ought the more truly to stand with the Gospel of the Lord, since through the Gospel he has Luke 8, gained his glory from the Lord: for the Lord says, To whom much is given, of him shall much be required; and to whom more dignity is ascribed, of him more service is exacted. Let none ever perish through a Confessor's example; let none learn injustice, insolence, or misbelief, from the manners of a Confessor. If he is a Confessor, let him be humble and quiet; let him exercise in his conduct the modesty of a disciplined state, and being called a Confessor of Christ, let him Mat. 23, imitate Christ whom he confesses. For since He says, Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased, and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted; and since Himself has been Sermo. exalted by the Father, because being the Word, and Power, and Wisdom of God the Father, He humbled Himself upon earth, how can He love exaltation, having both commanded humility from us by His law, and Himself received from the Father a most excellent Name, as the reward of His humiliation? If any is a Confessor of Christ, he is such no more, if the majesty and dignity of Christ is afterwards blasphemed through him. The tongue that has confessed Christ, must not speak evil only, not be clamorous, not be heard dinning with reproaches and quarrels, nor, after words of worship,dart serpent's poison against the Brethren and the Priests of God. But if a man afterwards becomes guilty and hateful, if he is wasteful of his confession by an evil conversation, and blots his life by a vile unholiness; if, in fine, deserting that Church in which he had become a Confessor, and rending the concord perfidia. of unity, he transforms what was faith before, into faithlessness afterwards, he must not flatter himself on the score of his Confession, that he is one elected to the reward of glory,

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since the desert of punishment is rendered greater on this ground; for the Lord chose Judas among the Apostles, and yet Judas afterwards betrayed the Lord.

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18. The faith and firmness of the Apostles did not thereupon fall, because the traitor Judas was a deserter from their fellowship; and thus neither here is the sanctity and dignity of Confessors forthwith impaired, because the faith of certain of them is broken. The blessed Apostle in his Epistle thus speaks; For what if some did not believe? shall their Rom. 3, unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid:" yea, let God be true, but every man a liar. The larger and better part of the Confessors stands in the strength of their faith, and in the truth of the law and discipline of the Lord. Neither do they depart from the peace of the Church, who bear in mind that in the Church they gained grace from God's bounty; but hereby they reach a higher praise of faith, because that separating from the faithlessness of persons, who perfidia. were fellows with them in Confession, they withdrew from the contagion of guilt; and illuminated by the true light of the Gospel, overshone with pure and white brightness of the Lord, they have praise in keeping Christ's peace, not less than their victory, in combating the Devil.

19. It is my desire, dearest brethren, it is the end both of my endeavours and exhortations, that, if it be possible, no one of the Brethren may perish, but our rejoicing Mother may fold within her bosom the one body of a people agreeing together: but if saving counsel cannot recal to the way of salvation certain leaders of schisms and authors of dissensions, who abide on in their blind and obstinate madness, yet do the rest of you who are either betrayed through simplicity, or drawn on by error, or deceived through some artfulness of a cunning craftiness, release yourselves from the toils of deceitfulness, free your wayward steps from their wanderings, submit to that straight path which leads to heaven! It is the word of the Apostle uttering witness; We command you, he says, in 2 Thess. the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition that he hath received from us. And again he says, Let no man deceive you with vain words; for Eph. 5, because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the

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148 Peace and unanimity the first principles of Christian life.

TREAT. children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with V. them. We must withdraw from them that go astray, nay

rather must flee from them, lest any joining himself with those who walk evilly, and going in ways of error and guilt, should himself lose the true path, and be found in an equal guilt. There is One God, and One Christ, and His Church One, and the Faith One, and a people joined in solid oneness of body by a cementing concord. Unity cannot be sundered, nor can one body be divided by a dissolution of its structure, nor be cast piecemeal abroad with vitals torn and lacerated. Parted from the womb, nothing can live and breathe in its separated state; it loses its principle of health. The Holy Ps. 34, Spirit warns us and says, What man is he that lusteth to live, 12. 13. and would fain see good days? Refrain thy tongue from evil,

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and thy lips that they speak no guile. Eschew evil and do good, seek peace and ensue it. Peace ought the son of peace to seek and to ensue; he who understands and cherishes the bond of charity, should refrain his tongue from the evil of dissent. Amongst His divine commands and saving instrucJohn 14, tions, the Lord now nigh to passion spoke this beside; Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you. This is the legacy which Christ has given us; all the gifts and rewards which He foretokens to us, He promises to the preserving of peace. If we are Christ's heirs, let us abide in the peace of Christ; if we are sons of God we ought to be peacemakers; Mat. 5, Blessed, He says, are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God. The sons of God ought to be peacemakers, mild in heart, simple in word, agreed in feelings, faithfully entwining one with another by links of unanimity. Under the Apostles of old there was this oneness of mind; it was thus that the new congregation of believers, keeping the commandments of the Lord, preserved its charity. Divine Acts 4, Scripture proves it, which says, The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: and again; These all continued with one mind in prayer with the women, and Mary the Mother of Jesus, and with His brethren. Therefore they prayed with effectual prayers, and were with confidence enabled to obtain whatsoever they required of the Lord's mercy.

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20. But in us unanimity has as greatly fallen away, as has

Decay of bountifulness as well as of unanimity.

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tionis.

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bountifulness in works of charity decayed. Then they gave operahouses and lands for sale, and laying up for themselves treasures in heaven, offered the price to the Apostles to be distributed for the uses of the needy. But now we give not even the tithes from our property, and while the Lord bids us to sell, we rather buy and heap up. It is thus that the vigour of our faith has waxed faint, and the strength of the believers has languished; and hence the Lord, looking to our times, says in His Gospel, When the Son of Man cometh, Luke shall He find faith on the earth? We see come to pass that which He foretold. In the fear of God, in the law of righteousness, in love, in good works, our faith is nought. No man opere. from fear of things to come, gives heed to the day of the Lord and the anger of God; none considers the punishments which will come on the unbelieving, and the eternal torments appointed to the faithless. What our conscience would fear if it believed, that, because nowise believing, it fears not: if it believed, it would take heed; if it took heed, it would escape. Let us awaken ourselves, dearest brethren, what we can, and breaking off the slumber of our old slothfulness, let us be watching, for observance and fulfilment of the Lord's commands. Let us be such as He bade us be when He said, Let your loins be girded about, and your lamps burning, Luke and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord, when He will return from the wedding, that when He cometh and knocketh, they may open unto Him: blessed are those servants, whom their Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching. We need to be girded about, lest when the day of march cometh, He find us hindered and impeded. Let our light shine in good works, let it so beam forth, as to be our guide out of this night below, into the brightness of eternal day. Let us ever in anxiety and cautiousness be awaiting the sudden advent of the Lord, that when He knocketh our faith may be on the watch, and gain from the Lord the reward of its watchfulness. If these commandments are observed, if these warnings and precepts are kept, we can never be overtaken in slumber by the deceit of the Devil, but shall reign, as servants who watch, in the kingdom of Christ.

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