defend heresy or bad morals. 9. By provoking others to it; as those who provoke others to passion, swearing, or lewdness.

INSTRUC.-We are forbid, by the law of God, to cooperate with another in evil, whether by counsel, assistance, or any other way; for it is as if we do it ourselves. Hence says St. Paul, They who do such things deserve death; and not only they who do them, but they also who consent to the doers. Rom. i. 31. When sins are mortal in the actors, they are mortal in the advisers; and in some cases, they who advise, counsel, command, and partake of the sin, as of theft, are obliged to make restitution of the damage done, if the actor will not do it.

EXHOR. HOW cautious then ought you to be, of causing others to sin, either through your words or actions; by which you lay more burden upon your conscience and sinful soul. If you commit a sin yourself, you know where it stops; and may have the comfort to know that you have confessed and done penance for it: but if you have been the cause of others sin, you do not know where it will end, or whether they will ever repent; perhaps you have made a wound which will never more be cured: this cannot but be a matter of bitter sorrow to your heart as long as you live. To avoid this, let justice, truth, humility, meekness, and every virtue guide your life and actions. How often, for want of these virtues, have you partaken of others sins? What injustices committed through wicked counsel or command? What anger and passion through your provocations? What pride in others have you raised, by your false praise and flattery? How many ruined in their good name and character, through your wrong silence ? How many encouraged to sin, through your consent, or being partner with them in the fact? How often have you supported and defended others in a bad cause? Examine yourself in these and other facts: amend, and resolve better for the future. Aggravate not your account by others sinning, through your means; for then you sin doubly you have enough to do, to account for yourself

Of the seven Deadly Sins.

Q. WHICH

sloth.

WHICH are the seven capital sins? A. Pride, covetousness, lust, gluttony, anger, envy, INSTRUC.-These are sometimes called capital sins, as being the head from whence all manner of sin descends: they are the pestiferous roots that produce the evil fruit of all human corruption and misery. They are opposite to the greatest virtues; as pride to humility; covetousness to liberality, and charity for the poor; anger to mildness; gluttony to temperance; envy to charity; sloth to devotion.

EXHOR. These are, O christian, the deadly sins you must root out of your heart, and to prevent in time the growth of those pestiferous evils, practise with all your might the contrary virtues: vice has no room where virtue abounds: vice is wholly extinct where grace and the love of God resides: and as sin makes man miserable, virtue makes the soul happy. Behold the miseries that came from pride in the fallen angels and first man. See in avarice the best Master betrayed by his ungrateful disciple Judas. See in lechery the world drowned, Sodom burned, and the fall of king David by adultery. Behold in gluttony the lot that fell to Dives, who neglected the poor, died and was buried in hell. Behold the innumerable evils that have come from anger; an eternal hatred among mortals; a malice even to the crucifying of the Son of God. See in envy the fall of the first man, through the snares of the Devil, envying his happiness; and murder of Abel, through his spiteful brother Cain. See in sloth the decay of christianity; the overthrow of many souls; the unprofitable servant cast into darkness. Let others miseries be your caution; examine daily which of these vices you are most inclined to; lay the axe to the root and extirpate them out of your soul in time, before they come to a second nature; that you may prevent those eternal evils many suffer by them. Put a stop to the beginning: a distemper at first is easily removed, but when it grows inve

terate, nothing but a singular grace of God, can make the cure.

Of Pride.

Q. WHAT is pride? A. It is an inordinate de

sire of our own excellency and esteem. Q. Why is pride a capital sin? A. Because many sins come from thence; as vain-glory, boasting, hypocrisy, ambition, presumption, disdain of others. Q. What else ? A. Obstinacy, discord, contention, disobedience, conceitedness. Many are the dangers of pride.

INSTRUC.-Pride is an irregular love of ourselves, and of our own excellency; as when we forget that what we have is the pure gift of God; or think it was given us for our merits: or imagine we have more merit than we really have; or that in what we have we excel all others; and thus instead of giving all glory to God, we usurp the the honour of it to ourselves. This sin took root in our nature, even in the state of innocence, and none is so deeply rooted in us; it is the first vice that lives in us, and the last that dies.

Pride is truly said to be the origin of all sin. Eccl. x. the first sin committed above, and the first below; the bad angels and man both aspiring to be as God: the rebellion of Satan in heaven, and the disobedience of Adam in Paradise, both sprung from this monster, pride; and hence spring innumerable evils. Vain-glory, which is an immoderate desire of human praise, to which many sacrifice all things: this Christ condemns, even by his own example, I says he, come not to seek my own glory, but the glory of him that sent me. St. John vii. 18. Vain-boasting, which is extolling one's self: against this the Apostle says, He that thinks himself something when he is nothing, seduces himself, and truth is not in him. Gal. vi. 3. Hypocrisy, which is a counterfeiting more piety, virtue and worth, than we have; this our Saviour often corrected in the proud Scribes and Pharisees. Ambition, which is an immoderate desire of honour, preferment, high dignities: this Christ corrected several times in his disciples, and in the mother of St.

James and St. John. Presumption, which is relying too much upon ourselves, our science, abilities; attempting things above our strength: against which it is said, Knowest thou not, that thou art wretched and miserable, Disdain of poor, blind, and naked, Apoc. iii. 17.

others, which is preferring ourselves far above them and is a horrible species of pride, too common among the rich and the great: this our Saviour expressly condemned in the proud Pharisee, who disdained the poor Publican. Obstinacy, which is a wilful adhering to our own opinion and judgment, contrary to that of our betters; and this is the rise of all heresy and schism, while proud men, rather than yield in dispute, resist the known truth of faith or morals, in opposition to their superiors against these it is written, Be not too wise in your own conceit. Prov. iii. 7. Contention, which is a defending our opinion with noise, confidence, and foul language. Discord, which is a division of hearts from those with whom we ought to live in charity; a wrangling in words, a differing in sentiments with those we ought to assent and yield to, which sometimes hinders much good being done, by voting against it merely because it is advised by others.

Disobe

dience, which is a stubborn refusal to obey our superiors, and a contumacious acting contrary to their orders. Conceitedness, which is a singularity and affectation in our opinion, dress, and behaviour. All these are the daughters of pride.

Pride is one of the greatest sins, as being the sin of devils, and directly opposite to the majesty of God for while other sinners fly from God, the proud oppose him, and glorify themselves, and would be honoured in their wickedness, and esteemed wise in their folly. It is also one of the most pernicious of sins, perverting oftentimes the souls of the most perfect, whom no other vice could overcome: it has ruined, by discord and faction, the most flourishing societies, communities, families, and kingdoms. In a word, it is the most dangerous sin, as often insinuating itself along with the greatest virtues, not easy to be discerned: it corrupts the most holy actions, by turning every virtue into mat

ter of vain-glory, as did the Pharisees: it introduces itself every where, into the most holy places, attacks the most devout christians in the church, the religious in his cell, the priest even in the sanctuary. When this vice predominates in us, it is a sign of reprobation, as in Lucifer, who is the king of the children of pride! it is the character and mark of all reprobate souls; it is odious to God, who resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble humility then is the virtue that opposes all pride in thought, word, or action, and is in truth, the only effectual remedy for it; for this reason, there is no virtue so often advised by our Saviour, so much commended by his doctrine, and his own example: Learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart, Matt. xi. 29.

:

EXHOR.-Pride, being so odious to God, and hateful to a thinking man; pride, which is the beginning of sin, and has brought immense evils upon us, ought to be regarded with the greatest dread and horror. You have seen the miseries that spring from it in the several branches; it being so innate to corrupt nature, there is nothing more we ought to guard against. What is pride in itself, but a false glory, a false imagination, which falls of itself to the ground, to lowness and baseness? Every one who exalts himself shall be humbled, Luke v. iii. 14. What is vain glory, vain boasting, vain ambition, all which perish, and evaporate of themselves? Humility is, by far, more becoming the man, particularly the christian, than this foolish arrogant pride this can never harbour in the breast of one that knows himself, his beginning, and his end; what he was, what he is, and what he is to be ; what he has, and what he has not: sin and corruption, weakness and frailty, misery, rottenness and dust, are his portion. Reflect well on these, and you will see no reason to glorify yourself in any thing; you will contemn no one but yourself, nor prefer yourself before any; you will find nothing to boast of; no matter for vain glory, ambition, or presumption. At the same time contemplate the immense greatness of God; it must crush the very thought of proud dust and ashes. Blindness of