The Jesuits - James Aitken Wylie

enefactors, who build us any sumptuous pile, or
erect any foundation, representing to them, in the
first place, that the benefits they thus do us are
consecrated to eternity; that they shall become
thereby perfect models of piety; that we will have
thereof a very particular memory, and that in the
next world they shall have their reward. But if it be
objected that Jesus Christ was born in a stable, and
had not where to lay his head, and that we, who are
his companions, ought not to enjoy perishing
goods, we ought to imprint strongly on their spirits
that in truth, at first, the Church was also in the
same state, but now that by the providence of God
she is raised to a monarchy, and that in those times
the Church was nothing but a broken rock, which is
now become a great mountain."[5]
In the chapter that follows -- the eighth, namely
-- the net is spread still wider. It is around the feet
of "the sons and daughters of devout widows" that
its meshes are now drawn. The scheme of
machination and seduction unfolded in this chapter
differs only in its minor points from that which we
have already had disclosed to us. We pass it
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