[33] Acosta saith, that the Indians are so addicted to their idolatry, and unwearied in it, that he knoweth not what words can sufficiently declare, how totally their minds are transformed into it, no whoremonger having so mad a love to his whore, as they to their idols: so that neither in their idleness or their business, neither in public or in private, will they do any thing, till they have first used their superstition to their idols: they will neither rejoice at weddings, nor mourn at funerals, neither make a feast, or partake of it, nor so much as move a foot out of doors, or a hand to any work, without this heathenish sacrilege: and all this they do with the greatest secresy, lest the christians should know it. Lib. 5. cap. 8. p. 467. See here how nature teacheth all men that there is a Deity to be worshipped with all possible love and industry! And shall the worshippers of the true God then think it unnecessary preciseness, to be as diligent and hearty in his service? [34] How penitents of old did rise even from a particular sin, judge by these words of Pacianus Parænes. ad Pœnit. Bibl. Pat. To. 3. p. 74. "You must not only do that which may be seen of the priest, and praised by the bishop--to weep before the church, to lament a lost or sinful life in a sordid garment, to fast, pray, to roll on the earth; if any invite you to the bath (or such pleasures) to refuse to go: if any bid you to a feast, to say, These things are for the happy; I have sinned against God, and am in danger to perish for ever! What should I do at banquets, who have wronged the Lord? Besides these, you must take the poor by the hand, you must beseech the widow, lie at the feet of the presbyters, beg of the church to forgive you, and pray for you: you must try all means rather than perish." [35] Of how great concernment faithful pastors are for the conversion of the ungodly, see a Jesuit, Acosta, lib. 4. c. l, 4. Infinitum esset cætera persequi, quæ contra hos fatuos principes tanaos, contra pastores stultos, vel potius idola pastorum, contra seipsos potius pascentes, contra væsanos prophetas, contra sacerdotes contemptores, atque arrogantes, contra stercus solennitatum, contra popularis plausus captatores, contra inexplebiles pecuniæ gurgites, cæterasque pestes, propheticus sermo declamat. Vix alias sancti patres plenioribus velis feruntur in Pelagiis, quam cum de sacerdotali contumelia oratio est. Acosta, ib. p. 353. Non est iste sacerdos, non est sed infestus, atrox, dolosus, illusor sui, et lupus in dominicum gregem ovina pella armatus. Ibid.