PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE. CHILDREN OF A HEAVENLY FATHER, Were any one to tell you that there exists no tie between you and your parents, that the authors of your days owe you no care, no succour, no advice, nor even the means of existence, and that you in return owe them no love, no gratitude, no respect, nor submission, you would be scandalized at this unheard-of language, you would repel it with horror, and most justly so, since the man who ventured to use it would be a fool, or a miscreant. Between a father and a son, between a mother and a daughter, there exist connexions and ties as tender as they are sacred. These connexions are natural and unchangeable,—that is to say, they are not of human invention, and they can no more cease to exist than your parents can cease to be your parents, or you can cease to be their children. Now tell me, is not God our creator and our father, and are not we his creatures and his children? Consequently, there subsist between God and us ties infinitely more tender and infinitely more sacred than those which unite children to their parents, because God is our creator and our last end; but our parents are not so. These connexions are as necessary as they are natural,—that is to say, being founded upon the nature of God and of man, they cannot be human inventions; they are unchangeable, and can no more cease to exist than God can cease to be our creator and our father, or that we can, cease to be his creatures and his children. Now, it becomes you to know that these tender, sacred, natural, necessary, and unchangeable connexions, constitute religion. According to Saint Augustine, "Religion is the tie which unites man to God." a Hence, you will conclude that the study of religion ought to be your principal object, and its practice the most sacred of all your duties: upon this depends your happiness, both in this world and in the next. Dear children! It is to enable you to understand well this holy and sublime connexion, which unites us to God, that we present to you an Abridgment of the Catechism of Perseverance. If you wish to draw from it any profit, you must first of all make yourselves acquainted with the order and the plan. It is divided into four parts. The first part comprises the history of religion from the beginning of the world to the coming of the Messiah. "To comprehend religion in all its magnitude, we must," says Saint Augustine, "begin with these words: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth;'" and thus go to the actual commencement of the Church, b back In fact, the true religion which you have the happiness to profess goes back, without interruption, to the creation of the world. For that reason the Abridgment of the Catechism requires of you to study God and man in the manner De Retract. lib. i. c. 13, No. 9. b De Catech. Rud. No. 1. we should do, did we wish to become acquainted with a family for in such case we should begin by forming an acquaintance with the parents and the children; we should then proceed to extend it to their more distant relations. Thus also, in raising up our eyes to heaven, we contemplate God himself; then looking down upon the earth, we consider him in his works, wherein his adorable perfections are reflected as in a beautiful mirror. Everything around us proclaims his existence, his unity, his power, his wisdom, and his infinite goodness. After our admiration has dwelt upon the magnificent spectacle of the universe, we raise it to the highest pitch by fixing it upon man, the masterpiece of the hand of God. We consider him both as to soul and body, and also as to his destiny in reference to creatures. We next examine the ties and connexions which unite him to God, his creator and his father. You will behold Adam and Eve perfectly happy, so long as they were faithful to religion; but from the moment in which they revolted against their creator and their father, by breaking the social link which united them to him, you will witness the termination of their felicity, and their subjection to every species of misery. Nevertheless, the all-merciful God did not abandon his children; he promised to man a Redeemer, who would re-establish the sacred bond. To believe in this Redeemer, to hope in him, to love him, and to unite all his actions and his prayers with the future merits of this Redeemer, was henceforth the indispensable condition of salvation for man. It was, however, decided by the decrees of eternal wis dom, that this Redeemer should not come upon the earth until the expiration of many centuries. In the meantime, by means of a multitude of figures, promises, and prophecies, the Almighty kept in remembrance this great liberator. These announced, or prefigured, him in so distinct and precise a manner, that it was impossible for any one, unless he were voluntarily blind, to doubt of his coming, or ignore his existence, when he had actually come. We pass each and all of these admirable figures, promises, and prophecies, in review before you, we show their perfect fulfilment in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. We next explain in what manner God prepared the minds of men to receive the Messiah; and how, by the succession of the four great empires, of the Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans, he paved the way for the speedy establishment of his eternal reign. From this lucid history arises, as bright as the sun, the fundamental truth that Jesus Christ was the end of all the events of the ancient world, as also the type of the figures, and the object of all the prophecies. The Son of God came into this world for the purpose of saving us; and hence it follows, that the salvation of man, through Jesus Christ, has been the object of all the designs of God, and to this, as to its centre, the order of nature and of grace has its reference and its end. Now what can be more conducive than this to secure our gratitude to God, and to give us an exalted idea of ourselves. So far for the first part of our abridgment. The Second Part, which commences at the coming of the Messiah, contains the history of the Redeemer, and the explanation of his doctrine. After four thousand years of anticipation the Son of God deigned to become man. ings, he not only wished to expiate iniquity, but also to exhibit a model for our example. You will follow him step by step from the cradle to the cross. His admirable works, discourses, and miracles, the mysteries of his life, death, resurrection, and ascension, will at once prove that he is man, but man exempt from the corruption of sin; and that he is God, but God the Saviour, whose every thought was to deliver us from evil, and to place us in a state whence we might arrive, after death, at a place of happiness without end or alloy. By his birth, life, death, and suffer Children, his life, so holy, is presented to you as an indispensable model for all ages and for all positions, since he has said, I have given you an example, that as I have done to you so do you also. And elsewhere, I am the way, and the truth and the life.d Degraded children of the first Adam, you will learn how to regain your lost dignity; for this you must become children of the second Adam. You must unite your souls to his, by believing in him; you must give up your own will to his by loving him; and even your senses, by a holy communion with him. He it is who requires this triple union; listen to his words: He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be condemned.e He that loveth not abideth in death. Except you eat the flesh of c John xiii. 15. d Ib. xiv. 6. |