world, and the idols which you formerly worshipped in it; you are come from afar into the paths of God; you have had many passions to overcome, and obstacles to surmount, many things to sacrifice, and difficult exertions to make; there remains only one step more to accomplish, which is, a faithful and constant vigilance over yourselves. If a sacrifice of the criminal passions were not already made, and you were required to do it, you would not, I believe, hesitate a moment; cost what it might, you would make it: And, in the mean while, when simple purifications only are demanded of you; nay, when you are required to do almost the same things which you already do, but only to perform them with more fervour, fidelity, faith, and vigilance; are you excusable in declining them? Why will you render useless all your former efforts, by the refusal of a thing so easy? Why should you have renounced the world, and all its criminal pleasures, only to find in piety the same danger, which, by flying from sin, you thought to have escaped? And would it not be lamentable, if, after having sacrificed to God the principal, you should lose yourselves, by wishing still to dispute with Him a thousand little sacrifices, much less painful to the heart and to nature? Finish, then, in us, O my God! that which Thy grace has already begun; triumph over our languor and our weakness, since Thou hast already triumphed over our crimes; give us a heart fervent and faithful, since Thou hast already deprived us of a criminal and corrupted one; inspire us with that willing submission which the upright possess, since Thou hast extinguished in us that pride and obstinacy which occasion so many sinners: Leave not, O my God! Thy Vol. I. 15 work unfinished; and since Thou hast already made us enter into the holy lists of salvation, render us worthy of the holy crown promised to those who shall have lawfully fought for it. SERMON V. THE CERTAINTY OF THE LOSS OF OF LUKEWARMNESS. LUKE iv. 38. And he rose out of the Synagogue, and entered into Simon's house and Simon's wife's mother was taken with a great fever; and they besought him for her. SINCE Simon thought the presence of our Saviour necessary for the cure of his mother-in-law, it would appear, my brethren, that the evil was pressing, and threatened an approaching death; the usual remedies must have been found ineffectual, and nothing but a miracle could operate her cure, and draw her from the gates of death; nevertheless, the Scripture mentions her being attacked by only a common fever. On other occasions, we never find that they had recourse to our Saviour, but to raise people from the grave, to cure paralytics, res tore sight to the blind, and hearing to the deaf; and, in a word, to cure diseases incurable by any other than the sovereign Master of life and death: In this instance, He is called upon to restore health to a person attacked by a simple fever. Whence comes it that the Almighty power is employed on so slight an occasion? It is, that this fever, being a natural image of lukewarmness in the ways of God, the Holy Spirit has wished to make us understand by it, that this disease, apparently so slight, and from which no danger is apprehended; this lukewarmness, so common in piety, is a disease which inevitably destroys the soul, and that a miracle is necessary to rescue it from death. Yes, my brethren, of all the maxims of Christian morality, there is none upon which experience allows us less to deceive ourselves, than the one which assures us, that contempt for the smallest points of our duty insensibly leads us to a transgression of the most essential; and that negligence in the ways of God, is never far from a total loss of righteousness. He who despises the lesser objects of religion, says the Holy Spirit, will gradually fall; he who despises them, is one who deliberately violates them, and lays down, as it were, a plan of conduct; for if, through weakness or surprise, you fail in them sometimes, it is the common destiny of the just, and this discourse would no longer have reference to you; but to despise them in the sense already mentioned, which can happen only with lukewarm and unfaithful souls, is a path which must terminate in the loss of righteousness. In the first place, because the special grace necessary towards perseverance in virtue is no longer granted. Secondly, Because the passions are strengthened which lead us on to vice. Thirdly, Because all the external succours of piety become useless. Let us develop these three reflections: They contain important instructions in the detail of a Christian life: Useful, not only to those who make profession of a public and avowed piety, but likewise to those who make all virtue to consist in that regularity of conduct and propriety of behaviour, which even the world requires. ger PART I.- It is a serious truth, says St. Augustin, that the innocence of even the most upright has occasion for the continual assistance of grace. Man, delivered up to sin by the wickedness of his nature, no lonfinds in himself but principles of error, and sources of corruption: Righteousness and truth, originally born with us, are now become as strangers; all our inclinations, rebelling against God and His law, drag us on in spite of ourselves towards illicit objects; in so much, that to return to our duty, and submit our heart to the law, it is necessary ince santly to resist the impressions of the senses; to subdue our warmest inclinations, and to harden ourselves continually against ourselves. There is no duty but what now costs us something; no precept in the law but combats some of our passions; no step in the paths of God against which our heart does not revolt. To this load of corruption, which renders duty so difficult and irksome, and iniquity so natural, add the snares which surround us, the examples which entice us, the objects which effeminate us, the temptations which surprise us, the compliances which weaken us, the afflictions which discourage us, the prosperities which corrupt us, the situations which blind us, and the contradictions |