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good. Acts 10:38. It was this caused St. Augustine to say: "I fear Jesus passing by;" by which
he meant to express that when the Lord offers us his grace, we must immediately
correspond, doing our utmost to obtain it, that otherwise he will pass on and leave us without
it. Today, if you shall hear His voice, harden not your hearts. Ps. 94:8. Today God calls you;
give yourself to God today
if you wait for tomorrow, intending to
give yourself to him then, perhaps he will
have ceased to call, and will remain deserted.

Mary, the Queen and the mother of mercies. is also a throne of grace, as St. Antoninus says. Hence,
if you see that God is angry with you, St. Bonaventure exhorts you to have recourse to the hope
of sinners. "Go, have
recourse to the hope of sinners: Mary is the hope of sinners, Mary who is called the mother of
holy hope. Ecclus. 24:24. But we must take notice that holy hope is the hope of that sinner who
repents him of his evil ways
and determines upon a change of life,  but if any one pursues an evil course in the hope
that Mary will succor and save him, such a hope is false, such a hope is bad and rash.
Let us then repent of our sins, resolve to amend, and then have recourse to Mary with a confidence
that she will assist and save us.

FOURTH DISCOURSE

THE FOUR PRINCIPAL GATES OF HELL

"Her gates are sunk into the ground."

Broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. Hell has then
different gates, but these gates stand on our earth. Her gates are sunk into

the ground. These are the vices by which men offend God, and draw down upon themselves
chastisements and eternal death. Amongst the other vices, there are four which send
most souls to hell, and on this earth bring upon men the scourges of God; and these four
are, HATRED, BLASPHEMY, THEFT, and
IMPURITY. Behold, the four gates by which the greater number of souls enter hell; and it is of
these four that I mean to speak today, in order that you may amend and cure your selves of these
four vices, otherwise God will cure you of them, but by your own destruction.

1. HATRED

The first gate of hell is hatred. As paradise is the kingdom of love, so hell is the kingdom of
hatred. Father, says such a person, I am grateful to and love my friends, but I cannot endure him
who does me an injury. Now, brother, you must know that the barbarians, the Turks and Indians say
and do all this: Do not also the heathens this? says the Lord. To wish well to him who serves you
is a natural thing; it is done not only by the infidel, but even by the brutes and wild beasts. But
I say to you. Hear what I say to you says Jesus Christ; hear my law which is a law of love: Love
your enemies. I wish, that you, my disciples, should love even your enemies. Do good to them that
hate you; you must do good to them that wish you ill, and pray for them that persecute and
calumniate you; if you can do nothing else, you must pray for them who persecute you, and then you
shall be the children of God your father: that you may be the children of your Father who is in
heaven. St. Augustine then is right in saying that it is by love alone a child of God is known from
a child of the devil. Thus have the saints always done; they have loved their enemies. A certain
woman had traduced the honor of St. Catherine of Sienna, and the saint attended

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