Page:Sermons by John-Baptist Massillon.djvu/211

 self-love; it  is  to  give  all  to  nature,  and  nothing  to  faith;  it  is  to give  way  to  every  impulse  of  inclination,  and  to  live  solely  for  ease and self-enjoyment,  as  constituting  the  chief  happiness  of  man.

Now, in  this  situation,  and  with  this  excessive  fund  of  love  for the world  and  for  yourself,  if  the  Lord  were  not  to  provide  afflictions for  your  weakness;  if  he  did  not  strike  your  body  with  an habitual  languor  which  renders  the  world  insipid  to  you;  if  he  did not send  losses  and  vexations,  which  force  you,  through  decency, to regularity  and  retirement;  if  he  did  not  overthrow  certain  projects, which,  leaving  your  fortune  more  obscure,  remove  you  from the great  dangers;  if  he  did  not  place  you  in  certain  situations where irksome  and  inevitable  duties  employ  your  best  days;  in  a word,  if  he  did  not  place  between  your  weakness  and  you  a  barrier which checks  and  stops  you,  alas! your innocence  would  soon  be wrecked;  you  would  soon  make  an  improper  and  fatal  use  of  peace and prosperity? — you who  find  no  security  even  amid  afflictions and troubles. And seeing  that,  afflicted  and  separated  from  the world and  from  pleasures,  you  cannot  return  to  God,  what  would it be  did  a  more  happy  situation  leave  you  no  other  check  to  your desires than  yourself? The same  weakness  and  the  same  load  of self-love  which  render  us  so  feeling  to  sorrow  and  affliction,  would render us  still  more  so  to  the  dangerous  impressions  of  pleasures and of  human  prosperities.

Thus, it  is  no  excuse  for  our  despondency  and  murmurs,  to  confess that  we  are  weak  and  little  calculated  to  support  the  strokes with which  we  are  afflicted  by  God. The weakness  of  our  heart proceeds only  from  the  weakness  of  our  faith;  a  Christian  soul ought to  be  a  valiant  soul,  superior,  says  the  apostle,  to  persecution, disgrace,  infirmities,  and  even  death. He may  be  oppressed, continues the  apostle,  but  he  cannot  be  vanquished;  he  may  be despoiled  of  his  wealth,  reputation,  ease,  and  even  life,  but  he  cannot be  robbed  of  that  treasure  of  faith  and  of  grace  which  he  has locked up  in  his  heart,  and  which  amply  consoles  him  for  all  these fleeting and  frivolous  losses. He may  be  brought  to  shed  tears  of sensibility  and  of  sorrow,  for  religion  does  not  extinguish  the  feelings of  nature;  but  his  heart  immediately  disavows  its  weakness, and turns  its  carnal  tears  into  tears  of  penitence  and  of  piety.

What do  I  say? A Christian  soul  even  delights  in  tribulations; he considers  them  as  proofs  of  the  tender  watchfulness  of  God over him,  as  the  precious  pledges  of  the  promises  to  come,  as  the blessed features  of  resemblance  to  Jesus  Christ,  and  which  give him an  assured  right  to  share  after  this  life  in  his  immortal  glory. To be  weak  and  rebellious  against  the  order  of  God  under  sufferance, is  to  have  lost  faith,  and  to  be  no  longer  Christian.

I confess  that  there  are  hearts  more  tender  and  more  feeling  to sorrow  than  others;  but  that  sensibility  is  left  to  them  only  to  increase the  merit  of  their  sufferings,  and  not  to  excuse  their  impatience and  murmurings. It is  not  the  feeling,  it  is  the  immoderate use, of  sorrow  which  the  gospel  condemns. In proportion  as  we are  born  feeling  for  our  afflictions,  so  ought  we  to  be  so  to  the  con-