It is thus, that after diftinguishing yourselves from the finful on earth, you will be gloriously separated from them in eternity,

Now to God the Father, &c.

SERMON

SERMON III.

THE DISGUSTS ACCOMPANYING VIRTUE.

JOHN X. 31.

Then the Jews took up stones again, to ftone him.

BEHOLD then, my brethren, the marks of gratitude which Jefus Chrift receives from men; behold the confolations which Heaven prepares for him in the painful exercife of his miniftry. There he is treated as a Samaritan, and poffeffed by the devil: Here they take up ftones to ftone him. It is thus that the Son of God has paffed all the time of his mortal life, continually expofed to the most obftinate contradiction, finding only hearts infenfible to his kindneffes, and rebellious to the truths which he announced to them, yet never did he allow the finalleft fign of impatience, or the least complaint to escape him.

And we, my brethren, we, his members and his difciples; alas! the smallest difgufts, the fmalleft contradictions we experience in the practice of virtue, revolt our delicacy; from the moment we cease to relish those attractions, that fenfibility which foftens every thing to be found painful in duty, there is nothing but complaint and murmurs ; troubled, discouraged, we are tempted almost to abandon

God,

God, and to return to the world, as a more agreeable and commodious master: In a word, we would wish to find no. thing in the service of God, but pleasure and confolation.

But our divine Master, in calling us to his fervice, has he not declared, in express terms, that the kingdom of heaven is only to be gained by conqueft; and that none but thofe who do violence upon themselves, can force it? And what do these words fignify? Unlefs, that entering into the fervice of God, we are not to promife ourselves, that we shall always find in it a certain sweetness, a certain relish, which deprives it of all pain, and caufes it to be loved; on the contrary, it is almost certain, that in it we fhall experience difgufts, and contradictions which will exercise our patience, and put our fidelity to frequent trials; that we shall often feel the weight of the yoke, without feeling the unction of grace, which renders it light and eafy; because piety effentially oppofes the gratification of our former tastes, and original inclinations, for which, we always preserve fome unhappy remains of tenderness, and which we cannot mortify, without making the heart fuffer; that befides, we shall have to undergo the eternal caprices of an inconftant and volatile heart, fo difficult to fix, that without reafon or foundation, it is difgufted in a moment with what it formerly loved moft. Behold, my brethren, what we ought to have expected, when we embraced the cause of virtue: Here, it is the time of combat and trials; peace and felicity are only for heaven; but notwithstanding this, I fay, that it is unjust to form the disagreeable circumstances which may accompany virtue in this life, a pretext either to abandon God when we have begun to ferve him; or to be afraid to serve him, when we have begun to know him.

Behold

Behold my reasons: In the first place, because disgufts are inevitable in this life: Secondly, because those of piety are not fo bitter as we imagine them to be: Thirdly, because they are less so than those of the world: Fourthly, because, were they equally fo, they yet poffess resources which those of the world have not. Let us investigate thefe edifying truths, and implore the affiftance of divine grace towards their proper explanation.

REFLECTION I. I say, in the first place, because disgusts are inevitable in this life. Alas! We complain, that the service of God difgufts us; but fuch is the condition of this miferable life. Man born fully to enjoy God, cannot be happy here below, where he never but imperfectly poffefses him; difgufts are a neceffary confequence of the inquie tude of a heart which is out of its place, and is unable to find it on the earth; which seeks to fix itself, but cannot with all the created beings which furround it; which, difgufted with every thing else, attaches itself to God; but being unable to poffefs him as fully as it is capable of doing, feels always that something is wanting to its happiness; agitates itself, in order to attain it, but can never completely reach it here; finds in virtue almoft the fame void and the famë disgusts it had found in fin; because, to whatever degree of grace it may may be exalted, there ftill remains much to accomplish before it can arrive at that fulness of righteoufness and love, which will poffefs our whole heart; will fill all our defires; extinguish all our paffions; occupy all our thoughts; and which we can never find but in heaven.

Were it poffible to be happy in this world, we should undoubtedly be fo in ferving God; because grace calms our paffions; moderates our defires, confoles our fufferings, and gives us a foretaste of that perfect happiness we

expedit

expect; and which we shall not enjoy, but in a bleffed immortality. Of all the fituations in which man can find himself in this life, that of righteoufnels undoubtedly brings him neareft to felicity; but as it always leaves him in the path which conducts to it, it leaves him likewise still uneafy, and in one fenfe miferable.

We are therefore unjust to complain of the disgusts which accompany virtue. Did the world make its followers happy, we fhould then have reafon to be diffatisfied, at not being fo in the service of God: We might then accufe him of using his fervants ill; of depriving them of an happiness which is due to them alone; that far from attracting, he rejects them; and that the world is preferable to him, as a more confoling and faithful mafter. But examine all stations; interrogate all finners; confult in rotation the partizans of all the different pleasures which the world promifes, and the different paffions which it infpires; the envious, the ambitious, the voluptuous, the indolent, the revengeful; none are happy; each complains; no one is in his place; every condition has its inconveniencies; and forrows are attached to every ftation in life: The world is the habitation of the difcontented; and the difgufts which accompany virtue, are much more a confe-, quence of the condition of this mortal life, than any imperfection in virtue itself.

Befides, the Almighty has his reasons for leaving the moft upright fouls below in a ftate, in fome refpects, al-, ways violent and difagreeable to nature: By that, he wishes to difguft us with this miferable life; to make us long for our deliverance, and for that immortal country, where nothing fhall more be wanting to our happiness.