Untitled - Saints' Books

Isa.
"
2OO Material for Sermons. [PART i.
men, says the Lord by the prophet Isaias: Woe to you,
apostate children, that you would take . . . counsel, and not of
me. On 1
the day of judgment they shall claim a reward,
but Jesus Christ shall cast them off.
Many will say to
Me in that day, have we not prophesied in Thy name (by
preaching and teaching), and cast out devils in Thy name
(by absolving penitent sinners), and done many miracles in
Thy name (by correcting the wicked, by settling disputes,
by converting sinners). And then will I prof ess unto them:
I never knew you; depart from Me, you that work iniquity?
Priests who have not been called are indeed workmen
and ministers of God, because they have received the
sacerdotal character; but they are ministers of iniquity
and rapine, because they have of their own will, and
without vocation, intruded themselves into the sheepfold.
They have 3
not, as St. Bernard says, received the
keys, but have taken them by force. They toil, but God
will not accept; he will, on the contrary, punish their
works and labors, because they have not entered the
sanctuary by the straight path. The labor of fools shall
afflict them that know not how to go to the city? The
Church, says St. Leo, receives only those whom the Lord
chooses, and by his election makes fit to be his minis
ters. 5 But, on the other hand, the Church rejects those
1 "
ex me !"
Vae filii
desertores, dicit Dominus, ut faceretis consilium, et non
xxx. i.
2 "
Multi dicent mihi in ilia die. Domine, Domine. nonne in nomine
tuo prophetavimus (praedicando, docendo), et in nomine tuo daemonia
ejecimus (absolvendo poenitentes), et in nomine tuo virtutes multas
fecimus (corrigendo, lites componendo, errantes reducendo)? Et tune
confitebor illis:
Quh nunquam novi vos: discedite a me, qui operamini
iniquitatem." Matt. vii. 22.
3 "
Tollitis, non accipitis claves; de qtiibus Dominus queritur: Ipsi
regnaverunt, et non ex me. De Conv. ad cler. c. 19.
4
Labor stultorum affliget eos, qui nesciunt in urbem pergere."
Eccles. x. 15.
5 "Eos Ecclesia accipit, quos Spiritus Sanctus praeparavit,
. . . et
dignatio coelestis gratia^ gignit."
In die ass. SIKZ, s. 2.