Page:Sermons by John-Baptist Massillon.djvu/214

 tributed a  patience  which  should  be  a  gift  of  God. Thus, the weaker you  are,  the  fitter  instrument  you  become  for  the  designs and for  the  glory  of  God. When his  hand  hath  been  heavy,  he hath  chosen  only  the  weak,  that  man  might  attribute  nothing  to himself,  and  to  overthrow,  by  the  example  of  their  constancy,  the vain fortitude  of  sages  and  of  philosophers. His disciples  were only weak  lambs,  when  he  dispersed  them  through  the  universe, and exposed  them  amidst  the  wolves. They rendered  glory  in  their weakness to  the  power  of  grace,  and  to  the  truth  of  his  doctrine. They are  those  earthen  vessels  which  the  Lord  taketh  delight  in breaking,  like  those  of  Gideon,  to  make  the  light  and  the  power  of faith  shine  forth  in  them  with  greater  magnificence;  and  if  you entered into  the  designs  of  his  wisdom  and  of  his  mercy,  your weakness, which  in  your  opinion  justifies  your  murmurs,  would constitute the  sweetest  consolation  of  your  sufferings.

Lord, would  you  say  to  him,  I  ask  not  that  proud  reason  which seeks in  the  glory  of  suffering  with  constancy  the  whole  consolation of  its  pains:  I  ask  not  from  thee  that  insensibility  of  heart, which either  feels  not,  or  contemns  its  misfortunes. Leave me>

0 Lord,  that  weak  and  timid  reason,  that  tender  and  feeling heart, which  seems  so  little  fitted  to  sustain  its  tribulations  and sufferings: only  increase  thy  consolations  and  favours. The more

1 shall  appear  weak  in  the  sight  of  men,  the  greater  wilt  thou  appear in  my  weakness:  the  more  shall  the  children  of  the  age  admire the  power  of  faith,  which  alone  can  exalt  the  weakest  and most timid  souls  to  that  point  of  constancy  and  firmness,  to  which all philosophy  hath  never  been  able  to  attain. First pretext,  taken in the  weakness  of  man,  confuted,  we  have  now  to  expose  the  illusion of  the  second,  which  is  founded  on  the  excess  or  the  nature  of the  afflictions  themselves.

Part II. — Nothing is  more  usual  with  persons  afflicted  by  God, than to  justify  their  complaints  and  their  murmurs  by  the  excess or the  nature  of  their  afflictions. We always  wish  our  crosses  to have  no  resemblance  to  those  of  others;  and,  lest  the  example  of their  fortitude  and  of  their  faith  condemn  us,  we  seek  out  differences in our  grievances,  in  order  to  justify  that  of  our  dispositions  and  of our  conduct. We persuade  ourselves  that  we  could  bear  with  resignation crosses  of  any  other  description;  but  that  those  with which we  are  overwhelmed  by  the  Lord,  are  of  such  a  nature  as  to preclude  consolation:  that  the  more  we  examine  the  lot  of  others, the more  we  do  find  our  own  misfortunes  singular,  and  our  situation unexampled:  and  that  it  is  impossible  to  preserve  patience and serenity  in  a  state  where  chance  seems  to  have  collected,  solely for us,  a  thousand  afflicting  circumstances  which  never  before  had happened to  others.

But, to  take  from  self-love  a  defence  so  weak  and  so  unworthy of faith,  I  would  only  have  forthwith  to  answer  you,  that  the  more extraordinary our  afflictions  appear,  the  less  ought  we  to  believe them the  effects  of  chance;  the  more  evidently  ought  we  to  see  in