of future ones.

    889.... So that if it is true, on the one hand, that some lax
monks and some corrupt casuists, who are not members of the hierarchy,
are steeped in these corruptions, it is, on the other hand, certain
that the true pastors of the Church, who are the true guardians of the
Divine Word, have preserved it unchangeably against the efforts of
those who have attempted to destroy it.

    And thus true believers have no pretext to follow that laxity,
which is only offered to them by the strange hands of these
casuists, instead of the sound doctrine which is presented to them
by the fatherly hands of their own pastors. And the ungodly and
heretics have no ground for publishing these abuses as evidence of
imperfection in the providence of God over His Church; since, the
Church consisting properly in the body of the hierarchy, we are so far
from being able to conclude from the present state of matters that God
has abandoned her to corruption, that it has never been more
apparent than at the present time that God visibly protects her from
corruption.

    For if some of these men, who, by an extraordinary vocation,
have made profession of withdrawing from the world and adopting the
monks' dress, in order to live in a more perfect state than ordinary
Christians, have fallen into excesses which horrify ordinary
Christians, and have become to us what the false prophets were among
the Jews; this is a private and personal misfortune, which must indeed
be deplored, but from which nothing can be inferred against the care
which God takes of His Church; since all these things are so clearly
foretold, and it has been so long since announced that these
temptations would arise from people of this kind; so that when we
are well instructed, we see in this rather evidence of the care of God
than of His forgetfulness in regard to us.

    890. Tertullian: Nunquam Ecclesia reformabitur.*

    * "The Church will never be reformed."

    891. Heretics, who take advantage of the doctrine of the
Jesuits, must be made to know that it is not that of the Church, and
that our divisions do not separate us from the altar.

    892. If in differing we condemned, you would be right.
Uniformity without diversity is useless to others; diversity without
uniformity is ruinous for us. The one is harmful outwardly; the
other inwardly.

    893. By showing the truth, we cause it to be believed; but by
showing the injustice of ministers, we do not correct it. Our mind
is assured by a proof of falsehood; our purse is not made secure by
proof of injustice.

    894. Those who love the Church lament to see the corruption of
morals; but laws at least exist. But these corrupt the laws. The model
is damaged.

    895. Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they
do it from religious conviction.

    896. It is in vain that the Church has established these words,
anathemas, heresies, etc. They are used against her.

    897. The servant knoweth not what his lord doeth, for the master
tells him only the act and not the intention. And this is why he often
obeys slavishly, and defeats the intention. But Jesus Christ has
told us the object. And you defeat that object.

    898. They cannot have perpetuity, and they seek universality;
and therefore they make the whole Church corrupt, that they may be
saints.

    899. Against those who misuse passages of Scripture, and who pride
themselves in finding one which seems to favour their error.- The
chapter for Vespers, Passion Sunday, the prayer for the king.

    Explanation of these words: "He that is not with me is against
me." And of these others: "He that is not against you is for you." A
person who says: "I am neither for nor against"; we ought to reply
to him...

    900. He who will give the meaning of Scripture, and does not
take it from Scripture, is an enemy of Scripture. (St. Augustine, Of
Christian Doctrine.)

    901. Humilibus dat gratiam;* an ideo non dedit humilitatem?*(2)

    Sui eum non receperunt; quotquot autem non receperunt,*(3) an
non erant sui?*(4)

    * Jas. 4. 6. "God giveth grace unto the humble."

    *(2) "But did he not give them humility?"

    *(3) John 1. 11-12. "The world knew him not; and his own
received him not."

    *(4) "And were they not his?"

    902. "It must indeed be," says Feuillant, "that this is not so
certain; for controversy indicates uncertainty (Saint Athanasius,