Works of Spiritual Alms and Mercy are,

1. To teach the ignorant; 2. To counsel doubting persons; 3. To admonish sinners diligently, prudently, seasonably, and charitably: to which also may be reduced, provoking and encouraging to good works;²⁴¹²⁴¹Heb. x. 24. 4. To comfort the afflicted; 5. To pardon offenders; 6. To succour and support the weak;²⁴²²⁴²1 Thess. v. 14. To pray for all estates of men, and for relief to all their necessities. To which may be added, 8. To punish or correct refractoriness; 9. To be gentle and charitable in censuring the actions of others; 10. To establish the scrupulous, wavering, and inconstant spirits; 11. To confirm the strong; 12. Not to give scandal; 13. To quit a man of his fear; 14. To redeem maidens from prostitution and publication of their bodies.²⁴³²⁴³Pulla prosternit se ad pedes: Miserere virginitatis meae, ne prostituas hoc corpus sub tam turpi titulo.—Hist. Apol. Tya.

To both these kinds a third also may be added of a mixed nature, partly corporal and partly spiritual; such are, 1. Reconciling enemies;²⁴⁴²⁴⁴Laudi ductum apud vet. αξψα τε και νεγα νεικος επισταμενες κατεπαυσε. 2. Erecting public schools of learning; 3. Maintaining lectures of divinity; 4. Erecting colleges of religion and retirement from the noises and more frequent temptations of the world; 5. Finding employment for unbusied persons and putting children to honest trades: for the particulars of mercy or alms cannot be narrower than men’s needs are, and the old method of alms is too narrow to comprise them all, and yet the kinds are too many to be discoursed of particularly; only our blessed Saviour, in the precept of alms, uses the instances of relieving the poor and forgiveness of injuries; and by proportion to these, the rest, whose duty is plain, simple, easy, and necessary, may be determined. But alms in general are to be disposed of according to the following rules: