CIUDAD to - the Catholic Kingdom!

270 CITY OF GOD
so many perils, are filled with great anxiety and thus be
gin to solicit for it direct interference of God. Hence
the care of the elders is
very often supplemented by that
of the holy angels, shielding the child in its sleep, when
alone, and in other situations, in which many children
would perish, if they were not protected by their angels.
All of us, that attain the happiness of receiving Baptism
and Confirmation, possess in these Sacraments a most
powerful defense against the attacks of hell; because
through them we are marked as children of the holy
Church, being regenerated to justification as children of
God and heirs of glory. The virtues of faith, hope and
charity, and other virtues, adorn and strengthen us to
good works, and we participate in the other sacraments
and suffrages of the Church, wherein the merits of Christ
and his saints, and all the other great blessings are ap
plied to us. If we would avail ourselves of these ad
vantages, we would vanquish the demon, and hell would
have no part in any of the children of the Church.
287. But, O sad misfortune, that there should be so
few who on arriving at the use of reason do not lose the
grace of Baptism and join hands with the demon against
their God! In view of this it would seem just, that we
should be deprived and cut off from the protection of his
Providence and of his holy angels. He however does not
act thus :
be unworthy of it,
on the contrary, at the time when we begin to
He meets us with greater kindness in
order to manifest in us the riches of his infinite bounty.
Words cannot describe what and how great are the as
tuteness and diligence of the demon in order to ruin man
by inducing him to commit some sin, as soon as he comes
to the years of discretion and the use of reason. For
this they prepare from afar, seeking to accustom them to
vicious actions during the years of their infancy; to pre-
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