Page:Sermons by John-Baptist Massillon.djvu/322

 an  ungrateful  people? You have  refused  to  believe  in  me,  said  he to  them  a  few  days  before  his  death;  you  have  shut  your  eyes against the  light;  you  have  had  ears,  yet  you  heard  not;  I  go,  and you shall  die  in  you  blindness. If you  were  still  blind,  and  if  you had never  known  the  truth,  your  sin  would  be  more  excuseable; but at  present,  you  see,  I  have  announced  to  you  the  truths  which my Father  had  taught  me,  and  therefore  your  sin  is  without  excuse:  your  obstinacy  is  consummate;  you  have  rejected  that  salvation which  shall  be  offered  to  you  no  more,  and  the  guilt  of  the truth despised  must  for  ever  be  upon  your  head.

Great God! should this  then  be  the  price  of  my  toils,  and  the whole fruit  of  my  ministry? Could the  unworthiness  of  the  instrument, which  thou  hast  employed  to  announce  thy  word,  have destroyed its  efficacy,  and  placed  a  fatal  impediment  to  the  progress of  the  gospel? No, my  dear  brethren,  the  virtue  of  the word of  the  cross  is  not  attached  to  that  of  the  minister  who  announces it. In the  hands  of  the  Lord,  clay  can  give  sight  to  the blind; and,  when  he  pleaseth,  the  walls  of  Jericho  fall  at  the  sound of the  weakest  trumpets. I trust  then  in  the  Lord  for  you,  my brethren,  that  having  received  his  word  with  gladness,  as  Paul formerly said  to  the  believers  of  Corinth,  that,  having  received  it, not as  the  word  of  man,  but  as  the  word  of  God,  it  shall  fructify in you;  and  that,  on  the  awful  day  of  judgment,  when  account  shall be demanded  from  me  of  my  ministry,  and  from  you  of  the  fruit which you  have  reaped  from  it,  I  shall  be  your  defence  and  your Justification, and  you  my  glory  and  my  crown. So do  I  ardently wish it.

Human prosperities  have  always  been  one  of  the  most  dangerous wiles employed  by  the  devil  to  entrap  men. He knows  that  the love of  fame  and  of  distinction  is  so  natural  to  us,  that,  in  general, nothing is  considered  as  too  much  for  their  attainment;  and  that the use  of  them  is  so  seducing,  and  so  apt  to  lead  astray,  that  nothing is  more  rare  than  piety  surrounded  with  pomp  and  power.

Nevertheless, it  is  God  alone  who  raiseth  up  the  great  and  the powerful; who  placeth  you  above  the  rest,  in  order  to  be  the  fathers of the  people,  the  comforters  of  the  afflicted,  the  refuge  of  the  helpless, the  supports  of  the  church,  the  protector  of  virtue,  and  the models of  all  believers.

Suffer then,  my  brethren,  that,  entering  into  the  spirit  of  our gospel, I  here  lay  before  you  the  dangers,  as  well  as  the  advantages of your  state;    and  that  I  point  out  to  you  the  obstacles  and  the