Quesnel: Moral Reflections on the Gospels Vol 1

150 ST. MATTHEW.
abundance of prudence. He who flatters them,
makes himself an accomplice in their sins.
" 19. But when they deliver you up, take no
thought how or what ye shall speak; for it shall be
given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.''
The Holy Spirit is in the heart, in the mind, and
on the tongue of those who are to speak for Christ,
and who belong to hira. Neither surprise, nor
defect of talent, nor even ignorance, can hurt the
cause of God, when the heart is ready to defend it.
This promise banishes all distrust and disquiet on
•dangerous occasions, but without encouraging sloth
and negligence, and without dispensing with the
obligation we are under, to prepare ourselves, by
the meditation of Christian truths, by the study of
the Holy Scriptures, and by prayer. A promise so
positive would more frequently have its effect, if the
incredulity of man did not oppose it.
" 20. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit
of your Father which speaketh in you."
The Holy Spirit animates the confessors of Christ,
and makes them speak. The Head speaks in his
members by his Spirit. It belongs to the Spirit of
God to speak for God. It is the Spirit of the Father
which speaks, because he works powerfully in the
heart of his children, puts into their mouth what
they ought to speak, and causes them to do it.
Mayest thou, O Holy Spirit, speak in me upon all
occasions, since on all occasions I ought to speak
like a Christian, only for the glory of God, and by
thy impulse and direction !
"21. And the brother shall deliver up the brother
ta death, and the father the child: and the children