Quesnel: Moral Reflections on the Gospels Vol 1

CHAPTER XVIII, 279
obstinate sinner to be dreaded, since it is ratified in
heaven ! God binds and looses all those who are
bound and loosed on earth ; because no person is
truly bound or loosed, who is not so justly. A man
may be excommunicated externally, and to the eyes
of men, without being really so either on earth or
in heaven. Let us be more afraid of one single sin
than of all the excommunications in the world; since
these can be only the punishment or remedy of sin,
and without it are nothing at all.
" 19. Again I say unto you, That if two of you
shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they
shall ask, it shall be done for them of ray Father
which is in heaven."
God is found in union and agreement. Nothing
is more efficacious in prayer. When we are united
to Jesus Christ, and offer up our prayers through
his mediation, it is he himself who prays, his merits
which ask, his love which entreats, his heart which
groans, his blood which intercedes ; and it is the Son
who obtains all from his Father. This shows the
advantages of prayer made in common—of Christian
societies, where God is served, as it were, with one
heart and one soul—but above all, of the great so-
ciety of the church, where we are united in the body
and by the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
" 20. For where two or three are gathered to-
gether in my name, there am I in the midst of them."
Where charity is, there is Christ—where division
is, there is the evil spirit. A Christian family which,
in choosing the state of marriage, has sought God
alone, which brings up children only for him, and
which does all the good that lies within its sphere,