Page:Sermons by John-Baptist Massillon.djvu/342

 eulogiums on  righteousness,  finds  no  character  amongst  the  upright who is  entitled  to  them;  I  say,  that  such  language,  of  which  so little  scruple  is  made  by  the  world,  saps  religion,  and  tends  toward rendering all  virtue  suspicious:  I  say,  that  you  thereby  furnish arms to  the  impious  in  an  age  when  too  many  other  scandals  countenance and  authorize  impiety. You assist  in  making  them  believe that none,  truly  pious,  exist  on  the  earth;  that  even  the  saints,  who have formerly  edified  the  church,  and  whose  memory  we  so  warmly cherish, have  held  out  to  men  only  a  false  spectacle  of  virtue,  of which,  in  reality,  they  had  only  the  phantom  and  the  appearances: and that  the  Gospel  hath  never  formed  but  pharisees  and  hypocrites. Do you,  my  brethren,  comprehend  all  the  guilt  of  these  foolish derisions? You think  that  you  are  only  deriding  false  virtue,  and you are  blaspheming  religion. I repeat  it;  in  mistrusting  the  sincerity of  the  just  whom  you  see,  the  freethinker  concludes  that  all who have  preceded  them,  and  whom  we  see  not,  were  equally  insincere;  that  the  martyrs  themselves,  who  met  death  with  such  fortitude, and  who  rendered  to  truth  the  most  shining  and  least  suspicious testimony  which  can  be  given  by  man,  were  only  madmen, who sought  a  human  glory  by  a  vain  ostentation  of  courage  and heroism; and  lastly,  that  the  venerable  tradition  of  so  many  saints, who, from  age  to  age,  have  honoured  and  edified  the  church  is merely  a  tradition  of  knavery  and  deceit. And would  to  God  that this were  only  a  transport  of  zeal  and  exaggeration! These blasphemies, which  strike  us  with  such  horror,  and  which  ought  to have  been  buried  with  Paganism,  we  have  still  the  sorrow  to  hear repeated among  us. And you  who  shudder  at  them,  unknowingly put them,  however,  into  the  mouth  of  the  freethinker;  it  is  your continual sarcasms  and  censures  upon  piety  which  have  rendered, in our  days,  impiety  so  general  and  so  uncurbed.

I do  not  add,  that,  by  these  means,  every  thing  in  society  becomes dubious and  uncertain. There is  no  longer,  then,  either  good  faith, integrity, or  fidelity  among  men. For, if  we  must  no  longer  depend on the  sincerity  and  virtue  of  the  just;  if  their  piety  be  only  a mask  to  their  passions,  we  assuredly  will  not  place  any  confidence in the  probity  of  sinners  and  worldly  characters:  all  men  are  consequently only  cheats  and  villains,  of  whom  too  much  care  cannot be taken,  and  with  whom  we  ought  to  live  as  with  enemies;  and these so  much  the  more  to  be  dreaded,  as,  under  a  treacherous outside of  friendship  and  humanity,  they  conceal  the  design  of either  deceiving  or  ruining  us. None but  a  heart  profoundly wicked and  corrupted  can  suppose  such  iniquity  and  corruption  in that  of  others.

And behold  the  second  character  of  that  temerity  of  which  we speak. Yes, my  brethren,  that  fund  of  malignity,  which  sees  guilt through the  appearances  even  of  virtue,  and  attributes  criminal  intentions to  works  of  holiness,  can  proceed  only  from  a  black  and corrupted heart. As the  passions  have  poisoned  your  heart,  you whom this  discourse  regards, — as  you  are  capable  yourself  of  every duplicity and  meanness, — as  you  have  nothing  in  your  own  breast