Page:Sermons by John-Baptist Massillon.djvu/313

 pity upon  you,  you  no  doubt  promise  yourself  that  he  will  change your heart;  now,  why  do  you  depend  upon  this  change,  so  necessary to your  salvation,  more  in  future  than  at  present? In the  first  place, shall your  disposition  for  penitence  be  then  more  favourable? Shall your heart  find  it  easier  to  break  asunder  its  chains? What! inclinations deeply rooted  through  time  and  years  shall  be  more  easily torn out? A torrent  which  has  already  hollowed  out  its  bed,  shall be more  easy  to  turn  aside? Are you  in  your  senses  when  you say so? Ah! even now,  it  appears  so  difficult  to  repress  your  inordinate passions,  though  yet  in  your  infancy,  and  consequently more tractable  and  easy  to  regulate! You delay  your  conversion only because  it  would  cost  you  too  much  to  conquer  yourself  on certain  points:  how! you are  persuaded  that  it  will  cost  you  less in the  end;  that  this  fatal  plant,  then  become  a  tree,  shall  be  more pliable; that  this  wound,  inveterate  and  of  longer  standing,  shall  be more  easy  to  cure,  and  shall  require  less  grievous  remedies? You expect resources  and  facilities  toward  penitence  from  time;  it  is time,  my  brethren,  which  will  deprive  you  of  all  those  yet  remaining.

Secondly. Shall grace  be  either  more  frequent  in  future,  or more  victorious? But, granting  it  even  to  be  so,  your  cupidity, then more  powerful,  opposing  greater  impediments,  the  grace  which would now  triumph  over  your  heart,  and  change  you  into  a  thorough penitent,  will  no  longer  then  but  slightly  agitate  you,  and excite within  you  only  weak  and  unavailing  desires  of  repentance. But you  have  little  reason  to  flatter  yourself  even  with  this  hope: the more  you  irritate  the  goodness  of  God  by  delaying  your  conversion, the  more  will  he  withdraw  himself  from  you:  every  moment diminishes  m  some  measure  his  favours  and  his  kindness. Recollect, that  when  you  first  began  to  deviate  from  his  ways,  not a day  passed  without  his  operating  within  you  some  movement  of salvation,  troubles,  remorses,  and  desires  of  penitence. At present if you  attend  to  it,  these  inspirations  are  more  rare:  it  is  only  on certain  occasions  that  your  conscience  is  aroused;  you  are  partly familiarized with  your  disorders. Ah! my dear  hearer,  you  easily see that  your  insensibility  will  be  only  increased  in  the  sequel: God will  more  and  more  retire  from  you,  and  will  deliver  you  up to  a  reprobate  feeling,  and  to  that  fatal  tranquillity  which  is  the consummation and  the  most  dreadful  punishment  of  iniquity. Now I ask,  are  you  not  absurd  in  thus  marking  out,  for  your  conversion, a time  in  which  you  shall  never  have  had  fewer  aids  on  the  part  of grace,  and  less  facility  on  the  part  of  your  heart?

I might  still  add,  that  the  more  you  delay,  the  more  you  accumulate debts;  the  more  you  enrich  the  treasure  of  iniquity,  the more crimes  you  shall  have  to  expiate,  the  more  rigorous  shall  your reparation have  to  be,  and  consequently  the  more  shall  your  penitence be  difficult. Slight austerities,  some  retrenchments,  some Christian charities,  would  perhaps  suffice  at  present  to  acquit  you before your  Judge,  and  to  appease  his  justice. But, in  the  sequel, when the  abundance  of  your  crimes  shall  have  risen  above  your head, and  time  and  years  shall  have  blunted,  if  not  totally  destroyed,