ourselves, infused into our hearts by the Holy Ghost. Q. Who are our neighbours? A. All mankind, especially Catholicks. Q. Why all mankind? A. Because all were made to the image of God, and all redeemed by the death of Christ. Q. Why especially Catholicks? A. Because they are with us members of the Church. Q. What is it to love God above all thing? A. To be willing to lose all things rather than the love and grace of God by mortal sin. Q. What is it to love our neighbour as ourselves? A. To wish him the same good as ourselves and to do him no wrong. Is this any where commanded? A. Yes, to love God above all things is the first and greatest commandment, both in the old law and the new, and the second is like unto the first Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Q. What is the highest act of charity? A. To give our life for God's honour and our neighbour's salvation. Q. What are the effects of charity? A. It remits sin, and gives spiritual life to the soul: He that loves not, remains in death, 1 John iii. 14.

Q.

INSTRUC.-Divine charity is not a natural love, but supernatural; because it comes directly from God, who is charity itself, and is infused by the Holy Ghost into our hearts in baptism. It is the most excellent virtue of all, as giving life to all other virtues, as much as the soul gives life to the body; so that whatever good I practise, if charity does not at the same time abide in my soul, if I am without charity, it is nothing: though my faith be great enough to move mountains, if I am without charity, it will avail me nothing; and so of all other gifts and virtues.

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself, Luke x. 27. Matt. xxii. These are the two great commandments or precepts of charity; in these two we fulfil the law and the prophets; and the reward is life everlasting. To love God with all your heaat, is to love him truly to love him with all your soul, is to employ all the interior powers of your soul in his service: to love him with all your strength, is to serve him with

your exterior power and actions to love him with all your mind, is to fix your mind upon him in holy contemplation, and think there is none so amiable as he. With this love we must join a holy fear: love him as our Father, fear him as our God.

To love our neighbour as ourselves, we must look on him as another self, as one friend does another; we must wish him the same good as ourselves, do as we would be done by : in a word, make ourselves the rule by which we love our neighbour.

The motives to this universal charity to mankind, are, first, because it is the great commandment of God. 2. Because all men were created to the image of God, and therefore as God willeth, that every one he has created should be saved, we must wish the same from our hearts. 3. Because Christ died for all others, as well as for us. 4. Because all were created for the same end, to be companions with us in glory. These are certainly strong reasons why our charity ought to extend to all mankind, Jew, Samaritan, Christian, friend and enemy: we must love all for God's sake, because they are all his; and very often those we take to be our enemies, may be in the friendship and favour of God: but in the first place, according to the order of charity, we must love those who are the most nearly related to us, and do good to them when they are in want, preferably to others, as to a parent, brother, or sister, &c. Next to them, we must love all that are of the household of faith in a word, all are our neighbours, but chiefly those who stand most in need of our assistance, either corporal or spiritual. We must shew our love not in words only, but in deed and truth: it is by this token, and only by this, we can have any satisfactory proof, that charity reigns in our hearts: for if it be there, it will work in our lives; and if it does not work, we may conclude it is not there; for divine charity, as St. Gregory says, does great things where it is: a man is best known by his actions, so the love of God is known by keeping his commandments; and the love of our neighbour by what we do for him both for body and soul; by feeding the hungry, giving.

drink to the thirsty, cloathing the naked, &c. By correcting sinners, by instructing the ignorant, and preventing them from losing their souls. This is what divine charity teaches, and where this charity is, it covers a multitude of sins and imperfections; it gives spiritual life to the soul; it translates us from death to life eternal; God has given his word, Do this, and thou shalt live.

EXHOR. Charity then, O christian, is a gift, a virtue which you ought to covet above all others: it is one of the divine perfections of God, For God is charity: nothing brings you nearer to God than divine love; nothing unites you more closely to him: He that remains in charity, remains in God, 2 John iv. 16. You have nothing more to do in the spiritual life, but to acquire and increase this virtue, which brings all other perfections with it, it being the life of the soul, and the soul of all virtue without charity you remain as dead to God, and without all hopes of your future happiness. Let then the love of God in the first place, possess your heart; do nothing, speak nothing, think nothing that is displeasing to him; then will his love enter into your soul, when sin is banished out of it. Let the same chari

ty extend to your neighbour; the love of God and your neighbour can never be separate from each other; let the love of Jesus to you be the rule to love your neighbour, and you will never err therein.

Of the Ten Commandments in general.

Q. How many commandments are there? A. Ten

A. To teach us the love of God and our neighbour: He that loveth has fulfilled the law. Q. Who gave the commandments? A. God himself in the old law, and Christ confirmed them in the new. Q. Why did God give the commandments to Moses in thunder and lightning? A. To move the Israelites to a careful keeping of them. Q. Is it possible for frail man to keep them all? A. It is, through God's grace. Q. Are we bound under pain of

hell to keep them? A. We are: If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments, St. Matt. xix. 17.

INSTRUC.-The decalogue, or ten commandments, were delivered to man, by the authority of God himself, as a rule to govern his whole life, both his outward actions, and inward thoughts and affections, according to the will of his Creator: nor is there any law on earth so excellent as this: 1. From the dignity of the Author, being written by the finger of God. In the creation of the world, God imprinted a natural law in the soul of man, that is, he gave him a light and knowledge to direct him what he ought to do, and what to avoid: but, by long sinning, this law being in a manner razed out of his heart, that none, through a feigned ignorance, might excuse themselves in sin, God was pleased that what before was wrote in the mind, should be visibly engraved in stone, and placed before their very eyes. 2. It is the most excellent law as to its perfection, and the substance of the things it contains; such things as render man truly pleasing to God, and beloved by him. All virtue is commanded, and all vice prohibited by it. 3. As to the end of it, it aims at nothing transitory, no momentary good, but life eternal.

The commandments are divided into two tables: The first relates to God, the second to our neighbour, in which we are shewn what we owe to God, and what to man; the fulfilling whereof is life everlasting. The first table, which contains our whole duty to God, directs us to be faithful to him, to worship him, to honour him by our thoughts, words and actions; all which is taught us in the three first commandments. In the first we are taught to be true and faithful to our God, that, as true servants, we pay not that service to another which is due to our Master; that we keep no intelligence with his enemy, but truly love and honour him with our whole soul. The second directs, that, as servants of God, we speak nothing injurious against our Lord; but, on the contrary, that we reverence and adore his very name. The third teaches us to render him public worship, and the service that is due from man to his Creator, ordering us to consecrate one day in the week wholly to him,

whereon we are to have no other business but to serve him, and thereby acknowledge his sovereignty over us, and it is from him we have all blessings.

In the second table is contained the rule how to behave to our neighbour. As charity requires that we give to every one their due, by the fourth commandment we are enjoined to love, honour, and obey our parents and superiors, both spiritual and temporal: then as it is the command of charity to do to every one as he would be done by, and therefore we ought not to wrong any one; by the fifth commandment, we are forbid to kill or wrong our neighbour in his own person; by the sixth, we are forbid adultery, or to wrong him in his wife; by the seventh, we are forbid to steal, or to wrong him in his goods; by the eighth we are forbid to bear false witness, or to wrong him in his reputation; and lastly, as charity obliges us to wish all good to others in our very thoughts, we are forbid to harbour any ill against him in our hearts; and therefore, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's goods.

These commandments, though the Mosaic law is now abolished, we are strictly obliged to observe, as well for regard to the authority of God, the supreme Lawgiver, who imprinted them as a law of nature in the soul of man, before the Mosaic law was given, as for regard to the gospel, in which they are expressly renewed and confirmed by the authority of Christ: they were given to Moses on Mount Sinai, in thunder and lightning, to move the people by rigour and fear, to keep them carefully; they were confirmed by our Saviour, who moves us to keep them by his grace and love.

These commandments are not impossible to be kept, as some have erroneously said; for God does not command impossibilities; and in effect many have kept them, as Zachary and Elizabeth did, who were both just, walking in all the commandments of our Lord, without reproof, Luke i. 6. And our Saviour has said, My yoke is sweet, and my burden is light, Matt. xi. 30.; there is no one then but may fulfil them by the help and grace of God, and a willing mind: I can do all things in him that strengthens me.