all appearance thereof to imagine that the will to dye for God should be necessary unto true Martyrdom This same Jesuit hath corrupted another passage of the 3. Chap. of S. John whereof the Council of Trent makes use to explicate the Nature of meritorious good Works saying they are such because they are wrought in God quia in Deo sunt facta By which words the Holy Fathers and the best Interpreters of the Holy Scripture and of the Council of Trent have understood works done by the motion of Gods Spirit which is that of Charity But he will not endure it and is so far transported as to tax them as weak men and subject to imaginary visions who are of this opinion As to that which some represent saith he tr 3. pag. 45. that the Council doth include herein the motive of Charity because that it demands that they be wrought in God it is a meer imagination It may be he never read the Council or it is likely he took no notice that it expounded it self in saying that good works ought to be wrought by a vertue and grace which Jesus Christ inspires continually into his Members in such manner as the Vine continues life and vigour to its branches 1 Cum enim ipse Jesus Christus tanquam caput in membra tanquam vitis in palmites in ipsos justificatos jugiter virtutem influat quae virtus eorum bona opera semper antecedit concomitatur sequitur c. Sine qua nullo pacto grata meritoria esse possent nihil ipsis justificatis amplius deesse credendum est quoniam minus plene illis quidem operibus quae in Deo facta sunt divinae legi pro hujus vitae statu satisfecisse vitam aeternam suo etiam tempore si tamen in gratia decefferint consequendam vere promeruisse censeantur Concil Trid. Sess 6. cap. 16. For Jesus Christ saith the Council communicating vigour continually to those who are justified as the head communicates unto its members and the Vine unto its branches and this vigour preceding accompanying and following always their good works which without it could not in any sort whatsoever be pleasing unto God and meritorious we must believe that there is now nothing more wanting unto persons justified which might hinder us from judging reasonably that the works which are thus wrought in God have satisfied his Law so far as the condition of this present life may permit and that they have merited eternal life which they shall in due time receive provided they dye in this estate of Grace It is clear that this vertue and this vigour which the Council saith that Jesus Christ communicates incessantly to those who do good works is not an habitual vertue or a simple habitude as this Jesuit pretends but that it is actual and it is a motion by which he applies unto them and causes them to act For it is actual Grace as is manifest by the expression of the Council saying that it prevents accompanies and follows all good works which is properly the description of actual Grace according to the Scripture the Judgment of the Fathers and even of the School-Divines themselves and appertains not to a habit which prevents not good works but leaves the will in an indifference to the production of them and it must be the will which prevents and applies this habit in such manner that without this the other cannot move of it self and abides always without acting And so the Council agrees very well with S. Paul the one saying that our good works should be done in Charity and the other that they ought to be wrought in God that is to say in the Spirit and by the Spirit of God who is no other than the Spirit of Love and Charity and the words of the one expound the words of the other But I see no means to reconcile them to this Jesuit for he can no longer pretend that the Council and S. Paul require only habitual Charity with an exemption only from all mortal sin The terms of the Council by which it expounds it self may also serve for exposition unto S. Paul being so clear that it is impossible to obscure them He corrupts also a third passage which is in the second to the Corinthians whereof the Apostle speaks in these words 2 Id enim quod in praesenti est momentaneum leve tribulationis nostrae supro modum in sublimitate aeternum gloriae pondus operatur in nobis 2 Cor. 4.17 For the tribulations which we endure in this life being momentary and light produce in us a far more incomparable full solid and eternal glory And Father Sirmond pretends that he calls the tribulations and afflictions of this life light because they have not in them the weight of the love of God to command them That is that they are light then when they are undergone without love by consequent weighty and burthensom when they are born for love to God These words of S. Paul were never thus expounded in the Church and it is to fight with common sense to say that love is a weight and load which makes things heavy and burthensom which are done upon the motion thereof All the Saints and Interpreters who have spoken of this passage have conceived that S. Paul calls these present afflictions light because that the grief they cause is light in comparison of the Joys which they merit as he saith that they endure but a moment in comparison of the Eternity of Glory which is the recompence thereof But that they should be called light when they are born without love as if love did hinder them from being so is that which never entred into the thought of any Interpreter ancient or novel And if it were so the afflictions of S. Paul could not be light or we must say that he suffered them without love The afflictions of the greatest Saints also could not be light but rather they must have been more weighty and burdensom when they have been entertained and supported with most Charity and on the contrary theirs who suffered without love or without thoughts of God and against their wills should be light and easie which doth equally contradict Faith and Reason It is needless to lose time in refuting these Paradoxes and Extravagancies There is no Divine nor prudent man that sees not even by natural reason and experience that on the contrary it is love and the motions of the affection which renders things light easie and even sweet and pleasant though they be in themselves troublesom and difficult Which is yet more true of the love of God than of that of the Creatures that being infinitely exalted above this in vertue and force as well as in dignity This Jesuit contents not himself to abuse the words of S. Paul in this manner but he aspires unto the fountain and attempts to corrupt it also as well as the streams The
who are the first modules to all them that followed in that rule had no other then an humane conduct in instituting and establishing of themselves that which seemed unto them just and reasonable not as instruments animated by Jesus Christ but as the Authors and principals thereof following their own sences and thoughts The Jesuits perhaps will not be much troubled to agree to all those thing which are common enough in their Society and maintained by their most famous Writers who teach that the Laws of the Church are no other then humane that its power and conduct extends onely to the outward man and that the Church it self is onely a politick body as shall be proved elsewhere when we come to make known how pernicious these maximes are to all Religion and overturn the power and authority of the Church After Azor had spoken so basely and so unworthily of the Apostles and Apostolical constitutions we need not think that strange which he saith against the Ancients and Fathers of the Church and would have the opinions of the new writers of these times to have as much weight and credit as they so that if the Fathers sometimes prevail with them against the new Authors the new Authors do as often and more frequently prevail over the Fathers It is in the second Book of his Moral Institutions where after he had demanded q Prime quaeritur an opinio probabilior existimetur ita ut morito praeserri debeat co quod sit antiquorum sententia altera sit recentiorum whether we ought to hold an opinion more probable because it is from the ancient Fathers or Whether for this reason it ought to be preferred before that of the moderns He answers in these terms r Respondâ—o quondâ— revera opiniones sunt pares saepe antiquorum opinio juniorum sententiae praefeatur non tamen lege aut ratione efficaci compellimur ad cam semper anteferendam Inst Moral l. 2. c. 17. q. 1. p. 127. when the opinions are equal themselves those of the ancients are commonly preferred before new writers but there is neither law nor reason sufficient to oblige us to preferre them always This is no great honour to the Fathers to say that we may preferre their opinions before those of modern Authors when the reasons appear equal on both sides since as much may be said of all sorts of Writers following the Jesuits rule of probability But the contempt is more manifest in that which he adds that even in this case there is no obligation to subject our judgements to the opinions of the Holy Doctors of the Church who in important affairs say nothing but what they learned of it and that every one hath liberty to follow them or not to follow them so it shall be lawful to follow the moderns always and never to follow the Fathers when the reasons of the moderns are as likely as those of the Fathers which will easily appear so to those who judge by humane sense and natural reason rather then by the light of Faith as the Casuists of these times and the people of the world commonly do It will also be lawful to preferre the moderns before the Ancients even when the ancients are grounded on more strong and solid reasons according to that maxime of the Jesuits who say that we may prefer an opinion which is lesse before another which is more probable For this is an infallible consequence of this maxime joyned to that other which will have the Fathers and their opinions considered no otherwise then by reason and conformity to humane sense as the Parliament of Paris considers the Laws and opinions of the ancient Roman Lawyers or rather as the hereticks consider the holy Fathers to whom even they render a little more honour and respect in appearance saying that they are to be judged not by reason as all these new Doctors but by the Scriptures though they regard not Scripture but according to their reason and the preoccupation of their spirits But they both agree in the over throw they give the authority of the Fathers subjecting them to their reason and their fancy and giving them onely as much force as they please following the custom of all those who impugn the truths and most assured and inviolable rules of antiquity and Religion Reginaldus handling the same question whether the ancients or the moderns are rather to be believed when they are found in contrary opinions He distinguishes upon the Point saying that Å¿ Quae cirta sidem emergunt difficultates eae funt à veteribus bauriendae quoe vere circa mores homine Christiano dignâ—s à novitiis scriptoribus Reginald praefat ad Lect. in resolving difficulties that arise about faith the right thereof is to be drawn from the ancients but those which regard manners and the life of Christians are to be taken from the modern writers It is ordinary with those who have no right to a thing for which they contest unjustly to endeavour to have it divided to the end that they may have at least one half when they cannot carry all for themselves It was by this rule that Solomon knew that of the two women who disputed in his presence in the case of the Infant either pretending that it belonged to her that she who would have had it cut asunder in the middle ought to have none of it and was not the true Mother So the Jesuits cannot better testifie that they are deprived of truth then by their consenting to divide it in such manner that one half should be to the ancients and the other half to the moderns that is themselves But if it belong to the ancients to determine on questions which arise about matters of Faith it must needs be that they also decide difficult matters of conscience and manners since the faithful ought to live by Faith and if we ought to take from the moderns the rules of manners and not of faith we must have another rule of life given us then faith if faith be not the source and measure of good works nor the principle of Christian life Celot undertaking to defend the Casuists of his company testifies that Reginaldus hath done as he said and having taught moral Divinity twenty years he always made profession to follow the opinions of the newest Authors quidem recentiorum Which he approves and confirms relating that very passage of the Author which we have just now cited in the same terms as we have produced them Celot l. 8. c. 16. p. 714. Quia quae circa fidem emergunt difficultates sunt a veteribus hauriendae quae vero circa mores homine Christiano dignos a novitiis Scriptoribus Which shews that this wicked DOctrine is not peculiar to one or two but comes from the genius of the Society In whose name this Author wrote who seemeth desirous to separate us from the ancients and to hinder us from acknowledging them for
and to indispose him towards that sickness whereof he dyed But nothing touched him more to the quick than the corruption which the Jesuits had introduced into the Morality of the Church He was a mortal enemy to their compliances and he could not bear with their presumption which bent them to consult no other in their Divinity than their own proper light He declared against their loosness in all the Ecclesiastick Conferences whereunto he was invited and he gave himself up particularly in the Sermons and Instructions which he made in the Churches to fortifie the Faithful against their pernicious Maxims His Discourses made so much deeper impression upon their Spirits because they were sustained by his own examples and the truths of Christianity were no less visible in his manners than they were intelligible in his words He handled all sorts of matters with such exactness and solidity as if he had employed all his life only in study of some one of them alone and it might be perceived that he studied in all his Discourses only to clear the understanding to touch hearts and heal diseases and not to puzzle the mind please the ears and flatter the diseased But the love which he had for the purity of Christian Morals was too great for to suffer him to rest so contented He believed that to heal well the mischiefs which the Jesuits had done the Church it was necessary to have a perfect knowledge thereof and to imitate Physitians who addict themselves to know the bottom of diseases before they apply themselves to any remedy He gave himself for this cause to read the Books of these Fathers and to extract out of them the principal Errours of which he hath composed this Book which we now publish but at length he could not but sink under so painful and afflicting a labour His patience found it self exhausted The grief he had to see the Morality of Jesus Christ so horribly disfigured seized his heart and cast him into such a languor as dryed him up by little and little and ravished him away from the Church after he had received with great resentments of Piety and Religion all the Sacraments at the hands of his upper Pastor I will not take in hand to give here an Idea of the design which this excellent Man hath had in this Work of the order which he hath observed of the reasons which he hath had to undertake it and of those in particular which have engaged him to cope with the Doctrine of the Jesuits because he hath himself given satisfaction in all these points in his Preface I shall only answer here to those who have wished that he had not discovered the Errours which are represented in this Work without refuting them by the true Principles of Christian Morality which are Scripture and Tradition They avow that this had been advantagious to the Church and it was the very design of the Author But this hinders not but that his labour although separated from the more large Refutation may have also its utility For they who are acquainted with the Affairs of the Church understand that it is no new thing simply to set down the Errours which the Corrupters of Faith and Manners have attempted to introduce into the Church without undertaking to combate them by long Reasoning and that S. Epiphanius as also S. Austin observed Historics narratione commemorans omnia nulla disputatione adversus falsitatem pro veritate decertans S. August de Hares hath only represented by way of History the pernicious Opinions of the greater part of Hereticks without taking in hand to refute them in particular rehearsing all things with an Historical Narration but not contending for the truth against falshood by any disputation I know well that there is cause to believe by that which S. Austin adds presently after that he had only an Abridgment of the Books of S. Epiphanius But I know also that if this Saint had seen them all entire he would still have discoursed after the same manner and that this Judgment may very justly be passed on them for that of eighty different Sects of which Epiphanius hath undertaken to report the Errours he only tracks the foot as I may say of them one by one and refutes in the manner of a Divine only four or five contenting himself in a few words and as it were on his way passing by them to shew the absurdity of the Conceits of those Hereticks and how far they were distanced from the truth See how he interprets himself in his Preface concerning the manner in which he had designed to handle these things In which truly this one thing we shall perform that we shall oppose against them as much as in us lies in a few words as it were an Antidote whereby we may expel their poysons and by Gods help may free any one who either wilfully or unawares happens to fall into these Heretical opinions as it were into the poyson of some Serpents In quo quidem hoc unum praestâ—bimus ut adversus illa quitquid in nobis situm erit paucis uno atque altero verbo velut antidotum apponamus quo illorum venens propulsemus secundum Deum quemlibet qui vel sponte vel invitus in haeretica illa dogmata velut serpentum virus inciderit si quidem velit ipse liberare possimus This is the same thing which the Author of this Book of Morals which is now made publick hath given us to see therein with a marvellous address and vivacity of Spirit For though he undertake not to refute these Errours of the Jesuits but only to discover them he does notwithstanding discover them without making their excesses to appear most plainly and the opposition also which they have to the truth and sound doctrine So that according to the progress by which we advance in reading this Book we find our selves insensibly convinced of the falsities of all the Maxims which are therein related and our minds filled with the opposite truths and our hearts piously animated against these so horrible corruptions and edified by the violence which we observe this Author hath done upon himself for to moderate his zeal and to keep himself back from refuting opinions so contrary to the common sense of the Faith For unto such evils deep sighs and groans are more agreeable than long discourses Cum talibuâ— malis magis prolixi gemitus fletus quam prolixi libri debeantur S. Aug. Epist 122. Indeed the arguings of the Jesuits which he relates and whereof they make use to authorize their monstrous opinions are so evidently contrary to the Principles and Maxims of the Gospel and to the light of Nature the abuse to which they put the words of Scripture and the Fathers is so visible and so gross and there needs so little discerning to see that they take them in a sense contrary to what they do indeed contain that these Authors
and to oppose themselves to those that teach them as the Shepherds obliged to resist the Wolves who would devour their stock Yet they omitted not to have recourse to the Authority of the Church and to address their complaints and requests to my Lords the Bishops and to the General Assembly of the Clergie of France in the year 1656. who seeing that it was not at all in their power at that time to do them justice did at least make it known to the whole Church that opportunity only was wanting unto them And for that cause ordained that the Instructions of S. Charles should be imprinted by the order of the Clergie with a circular Letter to all my Lords the Prelates which served to prejudge their opinions and to give as it were a commencement to the condemnation of all these Maxims in general expecting till some opportunity were offered to do it more solemnly The voice of these charitable Pastors was heard and faithfully followed by their sheep who by the submission they owed to them and through the confidence which they had in their honesty and sufficiency entred into an aversion against this new Doctrine as soon as it was declared unto them that it was contrary to the Doctrine of the Church and that of the holy Fathers It were also to be wished that this same voice which came from Heaven being Jesus Christ speaks in the Church by its Pastors had turned or at leastwise stayed the Authors of this Doctrine and had kept them in silence and that they had themselves also suppressed these strange opinions and pernicious Maxims against which they saw the whole World to rise with a general indignation and with a most just zeal But this did nothing but provoke them yet more so that instead of receiving Christian-like the charitable correction of these worthy Pastors of Souls they had the confidence to appear in publick to maintain so great Errours by Writings yet more wicked imitating those fierce beasts who issue in fury out of the Forests and Dens to defend their young when they are about to be taken from them My Masters the Parochial Rectors had by an extraordinary temperance and moderation suppressed the names of the Jesuits and not distinguished them from the other Casuists attacquing the Doctrine only without touching the persons of any particular Order But these good Fathers could neither lye hid nor keep silence and judged themselves unworthy of the favour which they had received upon this occasion And as if this Doctrine had been their own particularly they would needs declare themselves the Defenders of it as indeed they are the principal and even the first Authors thereof in many of its most important points They made for it an Apologie wherein so very far were they from disavowing and retracting those pernicious Maxims wherewith they were reproached that they did highly maintain them and to testifie that they never intended to recant them they have declared that in many matters wherein their excesses are most visible they can yet speak more and give yet more licence to their spirits An evil so publick and so obstinate cannot be healed nor stayed by simple words Which thing hath obliged my Masters the Parochial Rectors to renew their complaints and their instances to my Lords the Prelates Some of them have already worthily acquitted themselves in this their duty to the Church and People who depend on their charge And it is hoped that the zeal and charity of the rest will press them to give the same testimony unto the truth and that if some of them for some particular reasons cannot do it so solemnly as they desire yet they will not cease to condemn in their hearts and upon occasions which shall be offered this novel Doctrine and to keep those whom they can at a distance from it as a most pernicious Divinity After all this it was thought to be high time farther to discover this Doctrine and to represent it in the whole extent it hath in the Books of the Jesuits that the corruption and the venom of it might be better known It had been to little purpose to have done it sooner because that the excess and overthrow it hath given to all the true Rules of Morality and Christian piety are so great and so incredible that the world having yet never heard any thing like unto it would have been surprized at the novelty and impiety of the principal Maxims of these dreadful Morals so that many would have been troubled to believe it others would have been offended at it and many would have altogether neglected it and would not so much as have taken the pains only to have informed themselves so far as that they might not suffer themselves to be surprized therein The Jesuits themselves would not have failed to have broken out into complaints calumnies and impostures which are common with them in use against such as discover their secrets and the shame of their Divinity and they would have employed all their artifices and disguises to elude or obscure the most clear things wherewith they should have been reproached though they had been represented simply as they are expressed in their Books But yet notwithstanding that these pernicious Maxims had been confounded and decryed by my Masters the Parochial Rectors fulminated by the censures of the Bishops there is cause to hope that exposing them to the day will be useful to many of the Faithful and hereby will be seen more clearly the justice and necessity of the pursuits which the Parochial Rectors made for obtaining a censure of them the equity of the Judgment of the Prelates made in pursuance thereof and the obligation which all the Faithful have upon them to stiffle these Monsters of Errour and Impiety which multiply continually and prey upon the Church So that this will even contribute very much to redouble the submission and confidence which they ought to have towards their Pastors seeing from what mischiefs their vigilance and their zeal hath preserved them and with what prudence and wisdom they have conducted them in this affair having not discovered the greatness of the evil to them before as it may be said they had delivered them from it And it may also come to pass that the Authors and Defenders of these wicked Doctrines may themselves be surprized and have horrour when they see together in a sequence of Principles and Conclusions the opinions which they have maintained to this present Because it is very common for things good or evil which apart make no great impression upon the spirit surprize and touch it powerfully when as they are united and joyned together There is also cause to believe that many of those who have followed unto this present these novel Maxims of the Jesuits only because they did not perceive all the unhappy consequences and pernicious effects of them now coming to know them as this Book will give them means to do will relinquish them
with joy and those who shall adhere to them through passion or interest may be brought to testifie the horrour they have conceived against them by the renunciation which they shall make of them or at least by the silence they shall keep and wherein they shall bury them so as neither to hold nor teach them any more for the future But if they shall not draw hence the fruit which is desired and they persist both the one and the other to maintain the same Maxims they testifie openly hereby that they also admit all the consequences whereof they cannot be ignorant any longer And by consequence they shall make themselves responsible for all the consequences and all the unhappy effects which are therefrom inseparable And if after all this they make an out-cry in the world and hold themselves offended when such disorders are imputed to them and when they are declared the Authors and Cherishers of these Irregularities of Corruption of Libertinism which are spread over all conditions in these last times they cannot attribute it to any other than themselves because they are reproached with nothing but what they have avowed themselves in that they would not disavow it after it hath been represented unto them and they have been condemned by the Church The Faithful shall at least draw hence this advantage that they may hereby discover the false Prophets and false Pastors from the good and true ones and take heed of those who under a pretence of piety do corrupt piety it self seducing simple and innocent Souls so far as to endeavour to hale them out of the bosom of their true and lawful Pastors and to turn them away from their conduct and engage them in horrible precipices Reasons wherefore we take the Morals of the Jesuits for the Subject of this Book rather than those of other Casuists THat I produce in this Work no other Authors than those of the Society of the Jesuits is not through any passion towards them or toward others For though I speak not of other Casuists yet do I not neglect them entirely as neither do I approve them nor excuse them in their opinions which they have common with the Jesuits and which are conformable to those which I reprove But as he who would cut down a Tree amuses not himself in cutting off the branches one after another but betakes himself to its body and root which being cut the branches must necessarily fall and so I believe that destroying the pernicious Doctrine of the Jesuits touching Manners and Cases of Conscience I overturn all at once whatsoever there is conformable unto it amongst the new Casuists because they are in a manner all their Disciples having learned that which they say in their Schools or in their Books After all this the Jesuits declare themselves the Masters of this sort of new Learning and they give this name to their principal Authors whom they would have pass for the Doctors and Masters of the whole World And they would even that they might assure themselves of the possession of these Titles eject the holy Fathers therefrom endeavouring to hinder men from hearing them from following them and from imitating the example and holiness of their lives by this pernicious Maxime which they have invented and established as a Principle of their Divinity that it is not the ancient Fathers but the new Divines and Casuists of these times who must be taken for the Rule of Manners and Christian life It is with the same Spirit that did testifie so great an esteem for Novelty they profess to follow it and many amongst them as Posa Celot have taken in hand to defend it to praise it and to make Apologies for it Quae circa fidem emergunt difficultates consons veteribus sancienda quae vero circa mores homine Christiano dignos à novetiis scriptoribus Reginald Praesat ad lect And hereby without doubt they designed to make the presumption pass for current that they borrowed nothing at all from others and especially nothing from the Ancients but that they produced their Opinions themselves and found them in their own heads and that they have no other Rule for their conduct and their knowledge but their own sense and humane reason and not the Authority of the Saints and that being as it were Independents they ought not to pass for Children of the Fathers and for Disciples of the holy Doctors but Masters of Novelties amongst the Authors of these times But although they think hereby to exalt their Doctrine and to acquire more honour unto it they disgrace and ruine it themselves in effect because that Novelty hath always been blamed as a mark of Errour not only by the Catholicks but also by the Hereticks who have always affected and attempted to make people believe that their Doctrine as well as their Religion were ancient so that there were never any found who would suffer themselves to be reproached much less who would boast themselves to advance new Maxims as is to be seen in the Example of the Lutherans and Calvinists who vaunt themselves though falsly to follow the Doctrine of the ancient Church and of the Disciples of Jesus Christ and hold it for a great injury to be called Innovators though indeed they be such The Jesuits on the contrary seem to affect this odious Title since they despising the Authority of the holy Fathers and renouncing the Doctrine of the Ancients prefer Novelty before them and make open profession to follow and invent new Opinions which none had over produced before them as is manifestly seen in the proper declaration of Molina Posa Amicus Maldonat and as may easily be proved by many other Casuists of the Society As they are the chief Masters in this novel Science so they are sollicitous to make themselves many Disciples who in time becoming Masters make up a Body so puissant and an Assembly of probable Doctors so numerous that it would be hard to find so many in all other Societies taken altogether So that whether we consider the Votes or compute them they will still prevail above all others and remain the sole Arbiters and Masters of this new Morality And the better to maintain themselves for ever in this advantage above other Casuists and novel Doctors knowing that Empire and Dominion amongst the Learned as well as amongst the Vulgar is supported by union and ruined by division they are expresly ordered by their Superiors to agree in the same opinions and to maintain them all at least as probable and above all when they are advanced by some of the Heads and principal Authors of the Society and they believe that the interest and honour of their whole Body is in question This Conspiration in the same Opinions whereto the Glory of the Society hath engaged them does hold them fastned thereto with so much obstinacy that no Consideration nor Authority whatsoever no not even of the Church can oblige them to acquit
began to drink though he had formerly often fallen therein when he was drunk d Ea adhibita diligentia etsi postea eveniant minime imputabuntur Ibid. Non teneri ebrios praecavere Ibid. num 43. But if one think of these incoveniences and hath foreseen them they pretend that he is quit thereof provided that he bestow onely some little precaution though to no purpose whatsoever evil may happen thereupon and that one is not at all obliged even unto this precaution when one is urged to these disorders by others e Quippe tempore ebrietatis talia in communi hominum aestimatione non reputantur contumeliosa sed tanquam facetiae admutuntur ibid. n. 44. Nisi grave malum corporis sequatur Escobar tr 2. exam 2. n. 72. p. 302. modo non obsit valetudini Ibid. n. 102. p. 304. Quando vero damnum proximo inforunt imputabuntur si praevideantur Sanch. supra As to the injuries or follies and insolences which are committed against our Neighbours in drunkenness they count them as nothing and let them pass for divertisements as well as blasphemies and impieties against God because they provoke laughter for the most part as well as other excesses of drunkards In a word they permit all things unto drunkards whilst they are drunk provided that they do not notably prejudice their own health nor quite lose their reason and that they do not cause some temporal damage unto men Gluttony of it self is with them but a venial sin and they believe that it becomes a mortal sin but onely in some certain cases and with circumstances very rare f Quando in ea ultimus fiuis bominis collocatur Escobar supra n. 58. p. 298. as when a man makes it his last end saith Escobar It is true that this excess is very great and notwithstanding it seems that this word escaped him or that he did not consider well what he said himself a little after g An comedere bibere usque ad satietatem absque necessitate ob solam voluptatem sit peccatum Cum Sanctione negativè respondee Ibid. n. 103. p. 204. It is some sin but venial to eat and drink as much as one will for pleasure onely without proposing to ones self any other end of which he renders this reason h Quia licite potest appetitus naturalis suis actibus frui Ibid. That the natural appetite may be suffered to go according to its own proper motions and to enjoy the pleasure it finds therein For according to the common language of Philosophie as well as of the Holy Scripture i Frui animo meo mihi bonum est Frui corpore mihi bonum est to love a thing to desire it to look after it and to rejoyce in it for love of it self and for it self is no other thing than to establish it for his last end The Holy Fathers have spoken very earnestly against the Stoicks for their impiety in saying that their happiness consisted in the enjoyment of their own spirits and against the Epicures who placed theirs in the enjoyment of their own bodies They condemned these two kinds of Philosophie as making their spirit and their body their God What judgement then would they have made of those who say at this day and teach it to libertines k Edere bibere usque ad satietatem propter solam voluptatem Frui actibus mei appetitus naturalis mihi bonum est that to eat and drink to ones fill for the pleasure onely which they take therein and to give themselves up to their natural appetites and to enjoy the pleasure which they sind therein is their contentment and their happiness It is clear that these Saints following the rule of the Church would have condemned them as they did condemn the Stoicks and the Epicures of making their God of their bodies and of the pleasure which they have in eating and drinking and in the actions of their sences and in doing this they had followed the judgement which Saint Paul had pronounced on persons which appeared yet less criminal than those whom the Jesuits maintain as innocent whom notwithstanding the Apostle Paul calls Dogs and saith expressely l Quorum Deu◠venter est Ad Philip. 3. v. 19. that they make their God of their bellies ARTICLE V. Of Covetousness I. POINT That the Jesuits authorize all sorts of ways to get wealth and dispense with restitution of what is procured by the most unjust and infamous ways 1. COvetousness consists in loving temporal wealth for its own sake Escobar will not acknowledge this * C'est à dire en s'arrestant à luy au plaisir qu'on y trouve affection for any vice nor for any fault if there occure therein no notable excesse nor any other evil end m Quidnam est avaritia Inordinatus divitiarum amor Escobar tr 2. ex 2. c. 2. n. 29. p. 293. What is Covetousness demands he To which he answers presently that it is a disordered love of riches That is to say that its irregular either in it self because it is excessive or in its end because one refers it to some thing that is evil in it self n Inordinatus quidem amor culpabilis est non ordinatus sive ad rectum finem directus for without this he pretends that it is innocent and lawfull as when one loves wealth for its own sake without too great passion and without any evil design 2. Whatsoever disorder there be in the love of wealth whatsoever passion one can have for riches he holds that it cannot be more than a venial sin If to get them or preserve them he do no point of injustice o Certe in optandis divitiis inordinatio nisi conjunctá sit cum injustitia retinendi vel au serendi alienum invito domino vel cum duritia non tribuendi egeno graviter laboranti solummodo venialis est culpa Ibid. This is certain saith he that the disordered love of riches is but a venial sin if it be not found joyned with injustice and a will to take or retain the goods of another without his consent to whom they pertain or with a hardness of heart unsensible of the miseries of the poor which hinders from relieving them in their great necessities Following this principle not onely covetousness is no mortal sin any longer but also it cannot at all be any of it self and for it to become criminal it behoves that it part from its own proper matter and that it enter upon that of unjustice So then we see the whole crime of Covetousness reduced to injustice but even in this estate and in this extremitie it shall not want protectors amongst these new Divines they find inventions to justifie injustice it self that they might not condemn covetousness with it For it seems that injustice cannot proceed into a greater excess then to sell and buy the honor of women the
sapiant quia minores vocantur Lactant. lib. 2 divin instit c. 8. These deprive themselves of wisdom who suffer themselves to be led by others like Beasts receiving without discerning all that which the ancients have invented That Which deceives them is the name of Ancestors Imagining that they cannot be Wiser then they because they come after them and because these are called neoteriques And in the same place l Deus dedit omnibus pro virili portionem sapientiae nec quia nos illi temporibus sapientia quoque antecesserunt Quia si omnibus aequaliter datur occupari ab antecedentibus non potest Ibid. God hath given wisdom to every man according to his capacity and those who precede us in time do not therefore exceed us in wisdom For being it is given indifferently to all men they who came first cannot by their possession eject others from it He considered not when he alledged these passages that what these Authors say is for reproof of those who suffer themselves to be carried with humane customs and traditions to the prejudice of manifest truth or who are too credulous and timorous in the inquiry after natural things which depend on reason and that they speak not of matters of Faith and Religion such as those are which he handles in his Book But if he have perceived this truth he abuses the authority of these great personages applying it against their sence and using it without reason to justifie a thing quite remote from their thoughts and contrary to their judgements and from that of all antiquity which were easie to be made appear if it were not a thing too remote from my subject He alledges also these words which he attributes to the Council of Constantinople m Beatus qui prosert verbum inauditum id est novum Syn. Const art 1. Happy is that man who produces an unheard word that is a now one Finally he cites those words of the holy Scripture n Omnis scriba doctus similis est patrifamilias qui profert de thesauro suo nova vettra Matth. 13. ver 53. every learned Doctor is like unto a Father of a Family who brings out of his treasure things new and old I passe by this last passage of the Gospel of Saint Matthew which he abuseth manifestly against the sence of the Son of God and that of all interpreters But I cannot passe over the remarkable falsity and visible corruption of the pretended words of the Council of Constantinople For the true words of the Council are Beatus qui profert verbum in auditum obedientium Blessed is he who utters a word into obedient ears From which he first cuts off the word obedientium obedient Afterwards he joins two words into one and instead of in auditum in to the hearing which were the Councils words he makes it say inauditum unheard In the third place adding corruption of sence unto falsification of words he saith that this word inauditum signifies new But there is no cause to marvel that the desire of novelty leads to falsity and consequently to errours and heresies Azor and after him Filliutius who doth nothing in effect but follow him speak also very advantagiously for novelty saying generally that the Apostolical Traditions are of humane right and that by consequence they may be changed o Ex quo officitur ut traditiones divinae ad â—us divinum specteat ac proinde sunt immutabiles Apostolicae vero ad jus humanum propterea Ecclesiae authoritate mut abiles Azor Instit mor. l. 8. c. 4. q. 4. pag. 743. Filliutius tom 2. tr 22. c. 1. n. 11. p. 65. Divine Traditions saith Azor appertain to Divine right and by consequence they are immutable but the Traditions of the Apostles are humane Laws and for that cause the Churoh may change them He expounds a little above what he means by Divine and Apostolical Traditions in these terms p Divinae traditiones sunt quaâ— ab ipsius Christi ore Apostoli acceperunt vel quas Spiritu Sancto dictante vel gubernante vel Christo Domino imperante promulgarunt Apostolicae sunt qu as ipsi Apostoli tanquam Ecclesiae Praelati Doctores magistri recto es instituerunt Azor. Ibid. Divine Traditions are those which the Apostles have learned from the mouth of Jesus Christ or which the Holy Ghost hath dictated and they have written by his Command or by that of Jesus Christ The Traditions of the Apostles are those which the Apostles have instituted in the quality of Prelats Doctors Tutors and Governours of the Church In such manner that according to them the Traditions of the Apostles are no other then the Inventions of the Apostles which they ordained of themselves and of their own proper motion without having learned them of Jesus Christ or the Holy Spirit This is no more then his words clearly signifie and the division he makes suffers not any other sence to be given them since he opposes those Traditions which the Apostles have instituted of themselves quas ipsi Apostoli instituerunt to those which they have received from the mouth of Jesus Christ and from those which the Holy Ghost taught them and which he established by their Ministry quas ab ipsius Christi ore Apostoli receperunt vel quas Spiritu Sancto dictante jubente vel Christo Domino imperante promulgarunt He makes then of these two sorts of Traditions as it were two opposite members dividing Traditions into Divine and Humane or Apostolical He calls the first Divine because they draw their original from God and his Spirit who hath instituted them the Apostles having onely published them by his motion and order he affirms that the other are humane and of humane right ad jus humanum spectant because according to him they proceed from an humane spirit and not from Gods and that the Apostles who were men instituted them and are become their Fathers and Authors If it be true as he faith that the Apostles have made these rules in the Church whether concerning faith or manners and that they have not received them from Jesus Christ nor the Holy Ghost he hath reason to say that the constitutions and traditions which he terms Apostolical are onely of humane right because they take their original and their authority from the spirit of man and which by consequence may be changed by men and it may follow also from the same principle that they are subject unto errour the spirit of a man how holy soever it be may always deceive him when he is the Author and original of his thoughts and actions It will follow thence also that the Apostles have governed the Church as Princes and Politicians govern their estates and their common wealths by their wit and reason It would follow likewise that the Church is not governed by the Spirit of Jesus Christ being they who first governed it and
than his own Sect though it do not cease to appear unto him also credible But he answers in the second place that this opinion pleaseth him not at all and pretends that in this very case a Pagan is not bound at all to embrace the Faith a Caeterum hoc non placet it a generaliter dictum quippe dum Infidelis sibi persuasum habet suam sectam esse probabitem quamvis contraria sit probabilior tenetur utique in articulo mortis constitutus veram fidem quam probabiliorem judicat amplecti utpote in coarticulo constitutus in quo de extrema salute agitur ac proinde partem quam tutiorem probabiliorem judicat amplectitenetur At extra eum articulum non tenetur quod adhuc prudenter existimet se posse in sua secta perseverare Sanch. op mor. l. 2. c. 1. n. 6. p. 86. Because that when an Infidel is perswaded that his Sect is probable though the contrary which is the Christian Religion appear unto him more probable it is true that at the point of death when his Salvation is reduced to extremity and when by consequence he is obliged to follow that part which he judges to be more sure and more probable he is bound to embrace the true Faith which he believes to be more probable But out of this extremity he is not obliged because he judgeth prudently that he may persist in his idolatry In pursuance of this rule of probability that he acts prudently who follows a probable opinion I believe this Jesuit would not answer for the Salvation of a man who dyes in this estate since he must then believe that he may be saved without Faith and in Idolatry which is the greatest of crimes So that in saying he acts wisely in persisting in Idolatry he saith in effect that it is wisdom to walk in the darkness of death that it is prudence to destroy and precipitate himself into Hell in persuance of his rules of morality and grounding himself upon the principles of probability SECT II. That this Doctrine of Probability favours the Heretiques and nourisheth them in Heresie THe Doctrine of Probability is no lesse favourable to Heretiques then Infidels in that the ordinary arms whereof the Church makes use to defend it self against Heretiques and to assail them being Scripture Counsels Fathers and all that which we have received from the Ancients by Tradition the Jesuits and those who with them defend this Doctrine of Probability find not these evidences for their advantages and are so far from making use of them that they fear and fly from them all they can They cite in their Schools in their writings in a manner as often the Books of the Pagans as of the Scriptures they professe openly to preferre the new Authors above the Ancient they acknowledge not properly for Masters and Fathers any but those of their Society to the judgement and the censure of whom they submit frequently enough the judgements of the Saints which the Church hath always acknowledged for Masters and Fathers Divine or Ecclesiastick authority as well as Faith have scarce any credit in their Schools all as regulated and resolved by the authority of men and humane reason and in all contests and difficulties which they encounter if they cannot prevail by dispute they have recourse to those whom they regard as their Masters and Soveraign Judges in all sorts of matters They appeal to Suarez to Vasquez Molina Lessius and to others such like without making almost any mention of Jesus Christ the Apostles or the Ancient Fathers unless for form and without producing the definitions of the Councils or Traditions of the Church to determine the questions because they find them not conformable to their Spirit nor their designs some can make no use of them because they understand them not and even will not give themselves the trouble to study them and the others because they find not in them what is for their purpose Besides they wish they could content the whole World and answer all persons that consult them according to their humour and disposition Which obligeth them to look out for a Doctrine that is flexible and manageable and which may be accommodated to all occasions The maximes of Faith seem to them too fixed and the rules of the Church and the Gospel too firm and the opinions of the Holy Fathers too exact and too unmoveable For this cause they being not able to make use of them to establish the maximes of which they have need that they may make their designs to prosper and fearing on the other hand that they might be made use of against them to overturn their naughty maximes they find themselves as it were constrained by necessity to do all that they can directly or indirectly to corrupt them weaken them and to take away all credit from them In this they imitate and favour the hereticks of whom they have learned to reject the Holy Fathers especially in the difficulties which regard manners and the conduct of life and to despise Antiquity and Tradition through a blind love of their own novelties and proper imaginations and they are even in some sort more blameable then the Hereticks because they renounce the Father and the Tradition upon a pretence of holding to Scripture and these to follow their new Authors from whom they declare openly that we ought to take Law and rules for Christians Morals rather then from the Fathers of the Church Quae circa fidem emergunt dissicultates eae sunt ex veteribus hauriendae quae vero circa mores homini Christiano dignos à novitiis scriptcribus Colot l. 8 c. 16. p. 714. And indeed there hath never been any heresie which hath not had at the least some sort of probability because there hath yet never been any which hath not had some appearance of truth without which it could have found no followers the spirit of man not being capable to follow any thing but truth nor to be deceived but by the shaddow of it And it often happens that the greatest Heresies took for their foundation the greatest truths and have built on the strongest reasons Which shews clearly that if to follow a probable opinion be to act prudently and if an opinion be probable when it is grounded on the authority of some learned man or some likely reason as the Jesuits and those who hold their Doctrine of Probability tell us there is no heretick who may not maintain against them that he acts prudently whilest he lives in his heresie It is true that the Hereticks have misconceived the truths of which they would make use and especially those of the Scripture which they have corrupted in their sence and in their words that they might fit them to their thoughts and errours b Communis error ex probabili opinione ortus satu est ad gestorum per Sacerdotem vaâ—…em Sanch. op mor. l. 1. c. 9. n. 35. p.
rule of Truth the Doctrine from whence issues by infallible consequence so great errours is truly pernicious and entirely false because it is indubitable in Logick that from a true conclusion nothing but truth can follow and likewise that that from whence false and pernicious conclusions may be drawn must needs be false and pernicious it self without troubling ones self to seek other reasons to prove it this same being evident and certain by the light of Nature only and by the acknowledgement of them who are the Authors and Defenders of this Doctrine We need no other proofs to make appear that this Doctrine introduceth Independency and the ruine of all sorts of Authority since the principal Defenders of it acknowledge it and by the same reason it is entirely opposed to the spirit and conduct of Faith and leads to Irreligion For the true Faith and true Religion being nothing but Obedience and being given us of God to captivate our understanding to revealed Truths the one and the other keeps our spirit under a perpetual dependance and voluntary submission unto the Word and Will of God But the Jesuits Doctrine of Probability gives the spirit of man a Soveraign liberty which submits it self to nothing and reserves alwayes to it self a power not only to condemn and approve what it pleases but also to condemn that which it approves and to approve what it condemns passing from one to another and even from the more probable to the less probable without fearing to engage it self at all in the least sin and pretending alwayes to walk in an assured way and more then probable in the midst of Probabilities which environ us on every side since they have made probable almost all the rules of life and humane converse and have even elevated mens spirits above all these Probabilities to a Soveraign Independance Caramouel expresses this in this manner y Fidei Orthodoxae dogmatibus demonstrationibus ac principiis per se notiâ— subest ingenium probabilibus sententiis superest Caram Theol. fund p. 138. The wit of man is subject to the Doctrines of Orthodox Faith and the evident principles of natural reason which it cannot resist but it is above all probable opinions So that to reduce the substance of this Article into a few words the Doctrine of the Jesuits Probability withdraws the Spirit from all sorts of obedience from that which is due to Superiors by giving it power to resist them upon the least appearance of reason from that which is due unto God himself by permitting to dispense with a great part of his Commandments and from that which is due to the Church teaching to deride its Laws and clude its Ordinances from that which is due to reason by giving liberty to follow that which is less probable if it please better and be more conformable to our interests and also attributing unto it an Empire greater than that of God himself who can never depart from that which is most just and most reasonable and giving it an incomparable power and Independance in the Kingdom of Probabilities SECT V. That an opinion probable being once received all the Prelates of the Church and all the men in the World cannot hinder that it should be probable and safe in conscience according to the Jesuits THere is nothing more easie than to introduce into the Schools a new opinion and to make it probable according to the Jesuits and their followers because they hold that it needs only one reason by which it may be maintained or one Author that approves it There is also nothing more easie than to cause it to be received in the World because they believe that the most pleasant which are those that all enquire after are the best and most safe Finally there is nothing more easie than to uphold and bring it in credit it s own pleasantness and the approbation that some give it being sufficient to acquire unto it new Partizans and new Defenders who will publish it and induce it unto practice and so it will have for it the approbation of Divines the example of private persons and plausible reasons which are all foundations of Probability And being once established in this manner it will as it were be impossible to destroy and discredit it and consequently there will be no means to hinder the World from following it or the Authors who have undertaken its defence to teach and publish it For 1. It is well known what trouble it is to undo things that are passed into custom and evil things rather than good and amongst evil things those which are most pleasing and favourable to the corrupt inclinations of nature give most trouble in rooting them out and we hardly ever obtain our design therein 2. When a custom which hath taken birth from an evil maxim is also propped up by apparent reasons and the authority of those that have reputation of being vertuous and learned the evil becomes as it were incurable and without remedy And this is that which we have seen to happen to the most part of the new and pernicious opinions under which the Church groans at this day whilst it endures them 3. The Authors of these opinions make use of no other armes commonly to defend them nor admit of others to oppose them than reason they submit all to dispute they examine all by the rules of Logick by Syllogismes and Subtilties So that he who is most proper to catch at niceties and contest about them carries it commonly though his cause be the weaker and less reasonable 4. It is clear that there is scarcely any that will give way to another in wit and reason especially in the heat of a dispute but the opinions which carry men on to looseness and vice have yet more advantage in this kind of combat which is made by reason and disputation that they are there as it were invincible because of the force which the natural corruption of our spirits give them It were easie to produce many proofs hereof if one of the newest and withall of the most eager defenders of Probability did not testifie it openly by his words a Qui rem dicit esse illicitam ad multa tenetur Primo enim debet ostendere rationes quae malitiam probant esse demonstrativas nempe tales quibus dari responsio probabilis noâ— possit 2. Debet etiam ostendere rationes quae bonitatem probant ne quidem probabilem esse ostendet si omnibus ad unam dederit solutionem quae evidenter sit vera 3. Etiam debebit ostendere partem illam quae bonitatem astruit non haâ—ere sufficientes authoritates ut dicâ—tur probabilis Haec omnia tria simul ostendere debet casurus causa etsi duâ— ex illis ostâ—ndat modo unum non ostendat Caram Theol. fund p. 138. He that saith that an action is evil and unlawfull is obliged unto many things 1. To make appear that the reasons which prove
transported by voluntarily despising the Doctrine of the holy Fathers after he hath acknowledged it since he hath confidence to say afterwards I believe nevertheless that to fail in these things is no mortal sin unless in case of scandal pag. 81. He means that it is no morsal sin to be deficient in that which God and Nature obligeth us unto as he said but now that it is no mortal sin as he saith also in the same place to have such an â—atred against our neighbour as not to be willing to keep company with him to have such and so violent an aversion from him as upon no terms or occasion to be willing to speak with him nor help him in his business nor at all to forgive him when he acknowledges his fault and offers satisfaction For he declares roundly that to be deficient in all these things which he hath related according to the opinion of the Fathers and new Divines themselves is no mortal sin unless in case of scandal that is to say in the language of this good man that provided men be not offended at these things the violation of Charity and the Law of God is of little consideration He speaks also of Envy with the same spirit citing also S. Austin and S. Cyprian but only to despise their Authority also by openly preferring his own opinion before that of these great Saints For after he hath related the words of S. Cyprian who wondring at the nature of Envy crys out Qualis est animi tinea zelare in altero felicitatem in malum proprium bona aliena convertere illustrium prosperitate torqueri He adds speedily after as thinking strange at S. Cyprians wondring and correcting the opinion of S. Austin whom he quotes likewise This sin though by the testimony of S. Austin it be contrary to Charity yet seems not to be mortal pag. 80. And the reason he opposes to the Authority of these great Saints is Because the good which is found in these temporal things is so slender and of so little consequence for Heaven that it is of no consideration with God and the Saints I let pass this reason of which I have spoken in another place to relate that which he adds also concerning the sin of Envy It is no more mortal saith he when a man gives way to such desires upon some good motive ex bono motivo He expresses a little before some of these desires which he doth not only discharge of mortal sin but which he justifies absolutely and would have to pass for innocent saying that we may wish evil to our neighbour without sin when we are urged to it by some good motive pag. 77. And to expound and support his opinion he makes use of the Authority of Bonacina writing in these terms So Bonacina upon the first Commandment disp 3. q. 4. n. 7. exempts from all fault the mother who desires the death of her daughters quod ob deformitatem aut inopiam nequeat juxta animi desiderium eas nuptui tradere or indeed because for their sakes she is ill used by their father quia occasione illarum male secum agitur à marito aut injuriis afficitur Non enim proprie filias detestatur ex displicentia ipsarum sed in detestationem proprii mali pag. 77. He brings also another Example on the same subject also one may without fault desire some evil to befal a wicked man as death non quidem optando quatenus malum ipsius est sed quatenus boni rationem habet This good or this appearance of good which serves for motive to desile the death of a man without offending God is expounded by Emanuel Sa in this sort 1 Potes optare hosti tibi alioqui valde nocituro mortem non odio sed ad vitandum damnum tuum Item de morte ejus gaudere ob bonum inde secutum Sa verbo charitatis num 8. pag. 65. You may desire the death of an enemy who might do you much hurt not of hatred to him but to avoid the damage and hurt which he would do you You may also rejoyce in his death because of the good which you receive thereby Jesus Christ was far off from this Doctrine when in the Gospel he forbids us to render evil for evil and commands us on the contrary to do good for evil But this Maxime justifies the greatest part of the enmities and mortal feuds that are in the world For commonly we desire not the hurt and especially not the death of another but to deliver our selves from some evil or to reap thereby some good and he must have lost all regard of God and Nature who should desire any evil or death it self to befal a man out of a meer frolick without occasion reason or hope of any good I might here also represent that the Jesuits dispense with the obligation of assisting our neighbour except only in extream necessity and that they cherish the licence of committing without fear of punishments thests murthers impostures cheats and breaches of trust in all sorts of condition For all these abuses and all these sins are against the Command which God hath given us to love our neighbour as our selves and never to do unto him what we would not have done unto us But because all these things have been largely proved in other places I will speak no more of them at present I will add only for conclusion unto this Chapter that which Amicus saith upon a question which he proposeth concerning the command to love our neighbour to wit 1 An vi hujus praecepti teneamur ad aliquem actum charitatis erga proximum An vero huic praecepto satisfacere possimus per solos actus externos misericordiae beneficentiae quando necessitas ratio postulat Amicus tom 4. disp 28. sect 1. n. 3. pag. 377. Whether by vertue of this Precept we be obliged to some act of Charity towards our neighbour Or whether we may satisfie it by acts of mercy and bounty exercised towards him when necessity and occasion require After he hath quoted the Divines who hold the affirmative and related their reasons to the number of five which are very considerable he cites Suarez Coninck and some others who are of the contrary opinion with whom he concludes in these terms 2 Haec sententia probabilis est quam expresse tradit Bernardus Serm. 50 in Cantica Ibid. num 14. Baque non obscure colligitur ex illis verbis Matth. 7. Lucae 6. Quaecunque vultis ut faciant vobis homines vos facite illis Ibid. This opinion is probable He attributes it also to S. Bernard saying That S. Bernard teaches it expresly in his 50. Sermon upon the Canticles Which we should have more reason to wonder at if he had not also the confidence to say that he learnt it of Jesus Christ and that it was drawn and did evidently follow from these words of Jesus