CHAPTER XVI.
Of some other Things which may contribute much to our Advancement in Virtue and Perfection.
"Be ye perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Mat. v. 48), says our blessed Saviour, in that admirable sermon he preached to his disciples on the Mount. In his discourse on these words, St. Cyprian says, "If men feel great pleasure in seeing their children resemble them, and if a father is never better pleased than when all his son's features are like his own; how much greater joy will our eternal Father feel, when we are so happily regenerated in spirit, that, by all our actions, and by our good behaviour, we are known to be truly his children; what palm of justice, and what crown of glory will it be to you, that God shall have no cause to say, I have nourished and brought up children and they have scorned me (Isa. i. 2): but, on the contrary, that all your actions tend to the glory of your heavenly Father? For it is truly his glory, to have children who resemble him in such a manner as that by them he may come to be honoured, known and glorified ."
But how will it be possible for us to render ourselves like to our heavenly Father? St. Austin teaches us in these words: "Let us remember," says he, "that the more just we become, and the more united with God's will, the better we shall resemble him; and that the more holy, and the more perfect we are, the greater resemblance we shall have to our heavenly Father." (Ep. 85. ad Consent.) And it is for this reason, that our Saviour so earnestly wishes and desires our holiness and perfection, and so often recommends it to us; sometimes by himself in St. Matthew, in the passage we have already quoted; telling us also the same thing by the mouth of St. Paul in these words, " That which God desires of you is, that you be sanctified" (1 Thess. iv. 3): and also by the Prince of the Apostles, saying, " You shall be holy, because I am holy." (1 Pet. i. 16.) It is a very great comfort to parents to have wise and discreet children; this truth the Holy Ghost tells us by Solomon, who says, "That a wise son brings great joy to his father: but a foolish son causes grief to his mother." (Prov. x. 1.) If then, by doing so, we attained no other end than to please Almighty God, whose pleasure, honour, and glory should be the chief motive of all our actions; we ought continually to aspire to perfection. But that we may
