First Day — On Faith
1. All that Faith teaches is grounded on the authority of the word of God. It is from Christ himself that the church has learned whatever she proposes to the faithful as the object of their belief. When truth itself is the guide, one cannot go astray; and there is nothing more reasonable than to submit reason to faith.
2. Of what use is faith to a Christian, if it be not the rule of his conduct? If it be the most consummate folly to doubt of a doctrine which God has revealed, which so many martyrs have sealed with their blood, and which the devils themselves have so often confessed, is it not downright madness to believe this doctrine, and yet to live as if it were supposed to be false? Not to live conformable to our belief, is to believe just as the damned do.
3. Faith, then, shall henceforth be the sole principle of my actions, and the only rule of my life. Whatever it condemns, I also absolutely condemn. In spite of every natural repugnance, I will oppose the maxims of the gospel to those of the world, as often as the occasion presents itself. What does the world say?—Follow the natural bent of your inclinations, suffer nothing, &c. But what doth Jesus Christ say?—quite the contrary. But who is right—Jesus Christ or the world?
Thank God for being incorporated with his church, and recite the Creed slowly, as a solemn profession of your faith.
“Lord increase my faith.” Luke, xvii.
“What doth it avail to believe like a Catholic, and yet to live like a heathen?” Peter Dam.