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? {174} 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_. _Second Day_.-— On the End of Man. 1. God alone is our last end; he did not create us but for himself. Our hearts tell us that we were made for him; we cannot disown it without belying ourselves. 2. Every one should have what justly belongs to him; let us then give ourselves to God, since it is he that has a right to us. If we be not his children of our own accord, we must be his slaves in spite of us. We must of necessity live under the dominion of his justice or his bounty. Which choice shall we make? 3. Every thing should tend to its proper object, and act according to its nature. If the sun, which is made to shine, refused its light to the world, it would be a monster in the universe; nor is that heart less monstrous, which, being made for God, doth still refuse to belong to him. Do I behave myself as a creature which belongs to God? Are my thoughts and all my actions directed to him? Ah, how little do I do, that may be called truly done for God? What doth all the business in this world avail me, if I forget the only affair for which I am come into it. {175} Make here a resolution of seeking God alone, and of depriving him of nothing which he has a right to. "Thou art my Lord and my God." _John_, xx. "He requires you entirely, who hath made you entirely." _St. Augustine_. _Third Day_.--Contempt of the World. 1. From the moment we are attached to the world, we cease, in some measure, to be Christians. This profane world, so passionately fond of grandeur, of pleasure, of every thing that can flatter self-love, is the capital enemy of Jesus Christ; their maxims, their commandments, their interests, are quite opposite; they cannot be obeyed at once, we must break off either with one or with the other. 2. We cannot take part with the world, without a breach of the promises we made at our baptism. When we renounced Satan and his pomps, we bound ourselves down, by solemn oath, to trample under foot whatever is greatest in the esteem of worldlings. What perfidy! what sacrilege! to prefer the goods of the earth to those of heaven, and to become idolaters of vanity. {176}