118 The Sins against the Holy Ghost Expounded. Q. How prove you sloth to be a deadly sin? A. Out of Apoc. iii. 15. "Because thou art neither cold nor hot, but lukewarm, I will begin to cast thee out of my mouth." Q. What other proof have you? A. Out of Matt. xxv. 30. "And the unprofitable servant cast ye forth into exterior darkness." Q. When is sloth mortal? A. As often as by it we break any commandment of God or his church. Q. What are the daughters of sloth? A. Tepidity, pusillanimity, indevotion, weariness of life, aversion from spiritual things, and distrust of God's mercy. Q. What are the remedies of sloth? A. To remember that of Jeremiah xlviii. 10. "Cursed be he that doth the work of the Lord negligently." And to consider with what diligence men do worldly business. Q. What is the virtue opposite to sloth? A. Diligence, which makes us careful and zealous in performing our duty both to God and men. "Take heed, watch and pray, for you know not when the time is," Matt. xiii. 33. "Strive to enter by the narrow gate, for many I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able." Luke xiii. 24. CHAP. XIX. The Sins against the Holy Ghost Expounded. Q. How many are the sins against the Holy Ghost? A. Six: despair of salvation, presumption of God's mercy, to impugn the known truth, envy at another's spiritual good, obstinacy in sin, and final impenitence. Q. What is despair of salvation? A. It is a diffidence in the mercies and power of God, as also, in the merits of Jesus Christ, as if they were not of force enough to save us. This was the sin of Cain, when he said, "My sin is greater than that I can & deserve pardon." Gen. iv. 13. And of Judas, "when casting down the silver pieces in the temple, he went and hanged himself." Matt. xxvii. 4, 5. Q. What is presumption of God's mercy? A. A foolish confidence of salvation, without leading a good life, or any care to keep the commandments; such as they entertain who think they will be saved by faith only, without good works. Q. What is it to impugn the known truth? A. To argue obstinately against known points of faith, or to prevent the way of our Lord by forging lies and slander, as Heretics do, when they teach the ignorant people, that Catholics worship images as God, and give Angels and Saints the honour which is due to God; or that the Pope for money gives us pardon to commit what sins we please; than all which, greater falsehoods cannot be invented. Q. What is envy to another's spiritual good? A. A sadness or repining at another's growth in virtue and perfection; such as sectaries seem to have when they scoff and are troubled at the frequent fasts, prayers, feasts, pilgrimages, alms-deeds, vows, and religious orders of the Catholic Church, calling them superstitions and fooleries, because they have not in their churches any such practices of piety. Q. What is obstinacy in sin? A. A wilful persisting in wickedness, and running on from sin to sin, after sufficient instructions and admonition. Q. How show you the malice of this sin? A. Out of Heb. x. 26, 27. “If we sin wilfully after having received the knowledge of the truth, there is now left no sacrifice for sins, but a certain dreadful expectation of judgment." Q. What other proof have you? A. Out of 2 Pet. ii. 21. “It was better for them not to know the way of justice, than after the knowledge to turn back from the holy commandment which was given them." Q. What is final impenitence? A. To die without either confession or contrition- for 120 The Sins that cry to Heaven for Vengeance. our sins, as those do of whom it is said, "With a hard neck, and with uncircumcised hearts and ears, you always resist the Holy Ghost." Acts vii. 51. And in the person of whom Job speaks, saying, Depart thou from us, and we will not have the knowledge of thy ways." Job xxi. 14. 66 Q. Why is it said that those sins should never be forgiven, neither in this world, nor in the world to come? A. Not because there is no power in God or in the sacraments to remit them, if we confess them, and be sorry for them, (excepting only final impenitence) of which we read, "There is a sin to death for that I say not that any man ask." 1 John iv. 16, but because men very seldom do hearty penance for them. Q. How prove you that? A. Out of 1 John i. 9. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins, and cleanse us from all iniquity." CHAP. XX. The Sins that cry to Heaven for Vengeance Expounded. Q. How many such sins are there? A. Four. Q. What is the first of them? A. Wilful murder, which is a voluntary and unjust taking away another's life. Q. How show you the pravity of this sin? A. Out of Gen. iv. 10. Where it is said to Cain, "What hast thou done? the voice of the blood of thy brother crieth to me from the earth: now, therefore shalt thou be cursed upon the earth." And Matt. xxvi. 52, "All that take the sword, shall perish with the sword." Q. What is the second? A. The sin of Sodom, or carnal sin against nature, which is a voluntary shedding of the seed of nature, out of the due use of marriage, or lust with a different sex. Q. What is the scripture proof of this? A. Out of Gen. xix. 13, where we read of the So domites, and their sin. "We will destroy this place because the cry of them hath increased before our Lord, who hath sent us to destroy them," (and they were burnt with fire from heaven.) Q. What is the third? A. Oppressing of the poor, which is a cruel, tyrannical, and unjust dealing with inferiors. Q. What other proof have you of that? A. Out of Exod. xxii. 21. "Ye shall not hurt the widow and the fatherless: If you do hurt them, they will cry unto me, and I will hear their cry, and my fury shall take indignation, and I will strike thee with the sword." And out of Isa. x. 1, 2. "Wo to them that make unjust laws, that they might oppress the poor in judgment, and do violence to the cause of the humble of my people." Q. What is the fourth? A. To defraud working men of their wages, which is to lessen, or detain it from them. Q. What proof have you of it? A. Out of Eccl. xxxiv. 37. "He that sheddeth blood, and he that defraudeth the hired man, are brethren," and out of James v. 4. "Behold the hire of the workmen that have reaped your fields, which is defrauded by you, crieth, and their cry hath entered into the ears of the Lord God of Sabaoth." CHAP. XXI. The Four Last Things Expounded. Q. WHAT are the four last things? A. That we are mortal, and shall once die; how soon, we are uncertain, and therefore we must be always prepared for it. Q. How prove you that? A. Out of Heb. ix. 27. "It is decreed for all men once to die." And Matt. xxv. 13. "Watch ye therefore, because ye know not the day nor the hour." Q. What is the best preparation for death? A. A godly life, and to be often doing penance for our sins, and saying with St. Paul, "I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ." Phil. i. 23. Q. What else? A. To remember often that of Matt. xvi. 25. "He that will save his life shall lose it, and he that shall lose his life for me shall find it." Q. What understand you by judgment? A. I understand, that (besides the general judgment at the last day) our souls as soon as we are dead, shall receive their particular judgment at the tribunal of Christ, according to that, "Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, from henceforth now, saith the spirit, they rest from their labours, for their works follow them." Apoc. xiv. 13. Q. What is the best preparation for this judgment? A. To remember often that of Heb. x. 31. 66 It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God." And that of 1 Cor. xi. 21. "For if we did judge ourselves, we should not be judged." Q. What understand you by hell? A. That such as die in mortal sin, "shall be tormented there both day and night, and for ever and ever." Apoc. xx. 21. "There shall be weeping, howling, and guashing of teeth; the worm of conscience shall always gnaw them, and the fire that torments them, shall never be extinguished." Mark viii. 44, 45. Q. What understand you by heaven? A. That the elect and faithful servants of God, shall for ever reign with him in his kingdom, "where he hath such delights and comforts for them, as neither eye hath seen or ear hath heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man." 1 Cor. ii. 9. Q. How prove you that? A. Out of Matt. vii. 21. "He that doth the will of my Father who is in heaven, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven." Q. What profit is there in the frequent memory of all those things? A. Very great according to that, "In all thy works |