duce the gods. And the prophet says, MALAC. 11. 7. The lips of the priest shall keep knowledge, and they shall seek the law at his mouth, because he is the angel of the Lord of hosts. What wonder then that your Piety deign to honor them whom God honors by calling them angels or even gods? Ecclesiastical history also attests that when written accusations were handed to the Emperor Constantine of happy memory against the bishops, he took the papers containing the charges and burned them in the presence of the bishops assembled in the Council, saying: You are constituted gods by the true God; go and settle your disputes among yourselves; it is not proper that we judge gods. In this instance, O God, he acted from his innate humility, not from the reverence due to them. And long before him the pagan emperors who were ignorant of the true God, and worshipped idols of sticks and stones, also bestowed great honors upon their priests. What wonder is it, therefore, if the Christian emperors deign to honor the priests of the living God, if the pagan princes would honor the priests that served the wooden and stone idols ?” Venerable Brethren, whereas the neophite is at the door, with his immense army of Philistines-Methodists, Calvinists, Unitarians, at his back, bidding defiance to the people of God, proclaiming war against every thing we hold dear and sacred; against the whole Christian religion; whereas fraud and robbery are generally lauded, sanctioned and even legalized in the land; whilst you believe and teach that neither thieves nor robbers shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, and "that the sin cannot be remitted until the thing has been restored, either to the owners, if they can be found; otherwise to the poor ;" and, whereas, our flocks are dispersed amongst the unbelievers, to the evident risk of their eternal salvation, and to the manifest danger of imbibing the strange and unchristian notions and practices of the aliens: Ps .XVII. 26. With the holy thou shalt be holy; and with the innocent man thou wilt be innocent; and with the elect thou wilt be elect; and with the perverse thou wilt be perverted, we should not slumber nor sleep but should sound the trumpet, and cry, cease not, lift up our voice and show the people their wicked doings, and the house of Jacob their sins. Let none of us conform to the world, backslide or turn recreant. Let us promulgate the doctrine of Christ amidst the people that have corrupted and trampled upon it. Christ Jesus, exalted upon the cross, drew the whole world after him, and promised that he will be with us all days, even to the end of the world. Why then should we fear? Had the holy Apostles and Martyrs, for fear of a corrupt world, suppressed any part of the gospel, not a ray of the divine light would have reached our days. When God commanded one thing, and man another, they obeyed God rather than man.Shall we not follow their example; or shall we proclaim some portions of the gospels and suppress others? You proclaim temperance, piety, humility, brotherly love, forgiveness of injuries. You do right; but why suppress the free loans of Christ—Lend, hoping for nothing thereby, Luke VI. 35? Why not courageously publish, that the people hoping, or receiving any thing more than the sum lent, hoping, or receiving any usury or interest for the use of the money, violate the law of God, and incur eternal perdition? The world would undoubtedly laugh, if you preach, in these latter days, the free loans of Christ; but they also laughed at Christ himself. You cannot escape what he escaped not: The disciple is not above his master. You cannot serve two masters. By pleasing God, you displease the world, and by pleasing the world, you displease God. Remember the prophet's rebuke to the false teachers. Ezech. XXII. They daubed the people without tempering the mortar. I sought among them for a man that might set up a hedge, and stand before me in favour of the land, that I might not destroy it and I found none. Let us stand in the gap before God, in favour of these doomed States, that God may not destroy them. God declares that he will pour down his indignation, and that in the fire of his wrath he shall consume: the usurers and legalized robbers. Ezech. XXII. 31. God, unless he belie himself, will, at no distant period, scourge, if; not annihilate the United States for their public fraud and legalized robbery. Let us not be frightened by the long and general prevalence of their practices. At the Christian era, the heathen customs were stronger, more furious, and inveterate; however, the Apostles and Martyrs were not thereby deterred from announcing the truth. Customs contrary to the temporal law, if sanctioned by the temporal ruler, may be a virtual repeal of that law; but no custom, however old or general, abrogates the natural and divine law. For the truth endureth and abideth for. ever; liveth and standeth until the end of time. 3 Esdras IV. 38. And Christ, himself, saith: I am the way, the truth and. the life; he saith not: I am the custom, but the truth. Every custom that is opposite to the truth, must be abandoned; other-. wise an endless train of temporal and spiritual calamities will sooner or later overtake the sinners. Bankers ruined the settlers in Michigan, 265 Bank, Savings, the Devil's net for catching souls, 281 Bank, Savings, the swindlers' trap to rob the poor, 274 Bible, preserved and authenticated by the Pope and Catholic Bishops, 12 Christ Jesus is true God and true man, 118 Christ became man in the womb of the blessed Virgin Mary, 161 Christ is omnipotent God, and Lord of all things, 198 Christ's Lordship is not of this world, not received from man, 212 Christ's manifold titles to our life and property, 220 Christ appeals to the Scriptures, 8 Faith, Rules of 6 11 259 8 Faith, Rules of the Catholic faith, by Vincent of Lirins, Funds, invented by the Prince of Orange, 15 232 God is one, God is Omnipotent, God is a Spirit, immutable and impassible. God is in Unity and Trinity, Hebrews brought gold and silver vessels out of Egypt, Heresies, why permitted by Providence, Holy Ghost is Omnipotent God, Interest, Legal, condemned by Pope Gregory XIII., extortion Pastor, Ignorant or indifferent, is a curse on Society, Restitution of ill-gotten goods, how made, Schools and Colleges in the United States, Scriptures and Tradition, Societies in the United States, Tradition ordained by God, Usury or Interest condemned by the law of God, Usury or Interest condemned by the holy Fathers, THE END. 1947-5 |