Works

A. The works spoken of in the law are two kinds: firstly, what we should perform of good deeds; and secondly, what we should avoid of evil deeds.

A. Every inward or outward action good and pleasing to God which the Faithful are bound by Divine law to perform.

A. Every inward or outward action opposed to God’s Holiness, which the believer is bound by law to avoid.

A. His conduct may be considered religious and in accordance with the law in two ways; firstly, by knowledge—i.e., that the believer be wise and cognisant of good and bad, able to do good and avoid evil things. Secondly, by free will—i.e., that he be desirous of being good for the love of goodness, and in obedience to his Creator, doing good out of his own free will, and hating evil in obedience to the law, and avoiding it of his own free will also.

A. Besides knowledge and free will, by which man is bound to be of good religious behaviour, he needs always the Grace of God, which helps the willing and the diligent in the way of obedience. Every believer should apply for this grace from above by prayer, in order that he may be enabled through it to behave well according to the religious law.

A. Yes; with regard to the cause when done by the believer there is some distinction as being done towards God, or towards mankind, or towards the doer himself. But the effect of them—i.e., reward or punishment—is confined to the doer himself.

A. Good deeds concerning God are such as his love to the Saviour, and fear and respect to Him inwardly and outwardly; those concerning mankind are such as loving them, guarding their rights and causing them no harm; while those concerning the doer himself are such as personal purity from vices and being humble and content. Evil deeds are those which are the opposite of good deeds, whether they are contrary to the obligatory worship of God, or against doing good to others, or against the personal virtues of the believers.

A. It is the love of God and our fellow-men. This is the foundation of all good deeds, for our Lord, on being asked by one of the teachers of the Jewish Law which was the great commandment in the law, answered “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two Commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (S. Matt. xxii. 35-40). This Commandment had been previously given in detail in the Ten Holy Commandments.

A. They are those Commandments which God spoke in old times to His prophet Moses on Mount Sinai in the clouds, which follow the Lord’s words, “I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.”
I. Thou shalt have no other Gods before Me.
II. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them : for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the tathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generations of them that hate Me ; and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me, and keep My commandments.
III. Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His Name in vain.
IV. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, &e. V. Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
VI. Thou shalt not kill.
VII. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
VIII. Thou shalt not steal.
IX. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
X. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his man servant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbour’s ” (Ex. xx., and Deut. v.).

A. The Ten Commandments either relate to God (from the first to the fourth) or relate to man (from the fifth to the tenth). Thus man, by lovng God with all his might and his soul and his mind performs the four Commandments which refer to Him alone, serves Him, glorifies His Name, and keeps holy His days ; and by loving his neighbour as himself he performs the six remaining Commandments regarding the honouring of parents, and avoiding harm to others in their persons, honour, rights, and property. When man fulfils his duties towards God and men he has actually fulfilled the whole law.

A. His fulfilling the duties towards God and men is in itself fulfilling duties towards himself, for by worshipping God his Creator as he ought to do he becomes pious, and by avoiding harm to men in their persons and rights, and by not coveting their property, he becomes pure, good, and content. In short, by loving God and men, man becomes perfect.

A. The purport of the first Commandment is that we are not to acknowledge or believe in any other God but the One Eternal God in Three Persons, and of the second is that we are not to worship or honour idols, but to worship God alone; that we are not to make use of anything that is contrary to God’s worship, such as sorcery and belief in omens, belief in fortune-tellers, and other similar unlawful things; but that our adoration be to God alone, that we should offer our prayers to Him, fix our hope firmly in Him, and love Him with all our might.

A. Prayer is the worship of God, the address of the faithful servant to his Lord by spiritual words and due preparation. Its divisions are three: adoration, thanksgiving, and supplication.

A. We adore Him in our prayers by praising, magnifying, and blessing Him both with the heart and tongue; meditating on His supreme greatness and goodness and Divine wisdom in creating all things, His wonderful care and unceasing providence for all things.

A. We thank Him in our prayers; firstly, because He has created us from nothing, and is the Guardian of our life on earth; secondly, as He is our Guide to the path of truth, and has prepared for us the means of salvation and eternal happiness; and, thirdly, we thank Him for all conditions of our life, whether for health or weakness, wealth or poverty; for He knows what is for our good, and cares for us more than we do for ourselves,

A. We should ask Him for everything that pleases Him, praying always for forgiveness of sins; for the grace of faith to remain in us; for aid to fulfil our duties; the attainment of virtues, useful knowledge, pure children, the goods that are for the maintenance for our life, protection from all evil accidents, rescue from the enemies of the soul, and such other supplications as would not contradict the goodness of God, making the point and centre of our supplication to God—everlasting happiness.

A. We should be both inwardly and outwardly prepared. Inward preparation means that we should have our thoughts centred on the Almighty and majestic God, forgiving those who have sinned against us, clearing our conscience from sins and vices. Outward preparation means that we should be standing up properly and humbly, and reverently kneeling and bowing, saying the words thoughtfully, now uplifting our hands, face, and then lowering them down, knocking on our breasts as we humbly supplicate for forgiveness. In short, the man praying should be prepared in mind and body.

A. Yes; the Lord’s Prayer: which will be mentioned at the end of this book with the orders of prayers.

A. Seven times; at dawn, third hour, sixth hour, ninth hour, sunset, bedtime, and at midnight. These we must observe in their appointed time; but if we find it impossible to do so, we should pray in the morning and evening.

A. Yes; for we are daily in need of glorifying our Creator, and thanking Him, we being His servants, and are daily in need of craving for His various favours. We, therefore, must diligently pray every day.

A. The substance of the third Commandment is that we are not to accustom our tongues to swearing in all we say, but to always speak the truth—yea, yea, nay, nay—and if we are put under a legal obligation to swear, let our oath be true and straightforward. The substance of the fourth Commandment is that we are to honour the Lord’s days—i.e., Sundays and Feasts of the Lord—and pass such days in pure worship, both public and private; in polishing the soul by religious and beneficial knowledge, and by feeding it with spiritual sacraments, and doing moral and material good, and in observing the Holy Days of fasting, performing during them the necessary service.

A. The keeping of Saturday was a duty specially imposed upon the Jews; specially, as it was the day of their exodus from Egypt (Deut. v.15). As Sunday is the holiest day of the week, it being the day on which the Creation was begun, and the day on which Christ our Redeemer rose from the dead, and the day on which the Holy Ghost fell on the Apostles, distributing among them His gifts, the Church of Christ, therefore, although respecting Saturday, honours Sunday, the Lord’s Day, on account of the favours granted on it, specially the Resurrection of our Saviour, which is the origin of our resurrection and life of happiness.

A. It is the humiliation of the soul by abstaining from food and drink for certain appointed periods, and being satisfied with sustaining the body at the termination of the fast with a slight diet containing neither meat or fat.

A. The holy forty days followed by the week of suffering, the days of Wednesday and Friday; the fast of Christmas; the fast following the day of Pentecost: the days relating specially to Our Lady; and three days known by the name of the Nineveh fast.

A. God’s command in the two Testaments (vide Joel ii. 12, and S. Matt. vi. 16, and S. Mark ii. 20), particularly as the Lord Himself, Who accepts the prayers and fasting, practised fasting for forty days and nights. The Church of Christ, from the very beginning of Christianity, regarded the necessity of the forty days’ fast as a Divine duty, after the example of the Saviour, and the days of Wednesday and Friday in remembrance of the conspiracy against Christ and His Crucifixion. It then imposed fasting on the days preceding Christmas, with the object of making the believers feel with pleasure the coming of that day. The fast days after Pentecost serve as a reminder of the gifts poured upon the Apostles by the Holy Ghost, through which they spread the Evangelical doctrines in the world, submitting to persecutions, and most of them ending their mission by martyrdom under the most painful sufferings, and so on with the other fast days.

A. The object of fasting is the suppression of the bodily lusts; and this cannot be done if we have all we desire of meat and drink. The Church therefore said that ascetic diet was sufficient during the fast, especially as it saw in the Holy Scripture an example of this; for do not you observe that when Daniel humbled himself in prayer before God he abstained for three weeks from flesh and wine, and gave up the use of perfumes, and that at last an angel appeared to him and praised his humility and asceticism, revealing to him profound mysteries (Dan. x. 10, &c.)?

A. If the Jewish Church in its time used to appoint fasts for the people for certain occasions, as is shown in 2 Ch. xx. 3, Jonah i. 5, Ezra viii. 21, and Esther iv. 16, and other places, would it not be reasonable for the Church of Christ to appoint fasts, which is the pillar and ground of the truth, and which did not ordain fasts for secular reasons, but for religious considerations, such as memorials of the Lord’s great acts of Redemption, or for encouraging asceticism and devotion in the Faithful, who were commanded not to care for the meat that perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life.

A. The persons exempted from it are infants, invalids, women in child-bearing, those worn out by captivity or exile, and the like; but those healthy in mind and body, and not suffering from tribulation that hinders them from fasting, are obliged to fast.

A. The purport of the Fifth is that we are to revere our parents and natural friends, and entirely sympathise with them, and that we are to revere also those in the position of parents, such as the spiritual fathers, masters and mistresses, elders, and others included in the Commandment. The substance of the Sixth is that we are to avoid murder, and fly away from all its causes and incitement, such as anger, hot dissensions, excitements to evil and evil partisanship, and to take hold of meekness, peaceableness, and sincerity, and long-suffering patience. That of the Seventh, that we are to avoid all sorts of the vice of adultery, and guard against every profanity which is against the chastity of religion, and to take care of the causes of this vice, such as the desires of the eye, drink, bad songs, inordinate pleasure, and voluptuousness; that we are to adhere to purity, both inwardly and outwardly, keeping ourselves modest, chaste, and sober. That of the Eighth is that we are to shun all sorts of stealing, such as robbery and stealing in any way; to avoid fraud in dealing with others, and in matters of rights using intrigues for appropriating the property of others, such as bribery and the like; to beware of the causes of all these things, giving every man his right, and fearing God in all our dealings. The purport of the Ninth Commandment is that we are not to give false evidence against anyone, whoever he may be, nor to attempt to do evil to anyone; never to make conspiracies or intrigues, never to backbite, not to throw discord among men; but to endeavour to do good to one another, and to speak well of one another. That of the Tenth is that we are not to desire the property of others, nor envy them for it, nor hope to see them lose it, but to be content with God’s favours given to us, individually or collectively, whatever they may be, and pleased with the welfare of our brethren. In general, let the commandments of love to God and to mankind be the rule for our religious conduct in the world, for as long as we really love God we shall necessarily fulfil His Commandments, and avoid everything that leads to our disobeying Him, and as long as we love one another indeed, and not falsely, for religion’s sake, and no other motive, we cannot attempt to injure one another, but like to see one another prosperous. How grand is the Evangelical rule which the Lord of all ordained, saying, “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them, for this is the law and the prophets” (S. Matt. vii. 12).

A. The chief virtue of real love is mercy to mankind in general, as is shown in the Parable which the Lord gave about the man who was stripped naked and wounded by robbers, and whom a Samaritan, a stranger to him, pitied, and took care of (S. Luke x. 30, &c.). Our Lord has given the divisions of active mercy as the feeding of the hungry and giving water to the thirsty, hospitality to the stranger, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and prisoner (S. Matt. xxv. 35, &c.).