Page:Sermons by John-Baptist Massillon.djvu/346

 which have  formerly  disgraced  the  name  and  life  of  some  one  of your  ancestors? Would you  not  wish  for  ever  to  efface  these  hateful vestiges  of  disgrace  from  the  histories  which  hand  them  down to posterity? Do you  not  consider  as  enemies  to  your  name  those who ransack  the  past  ages,  in  order  to  lay  open  these  hateful  particulars, and  to  revive  them  in  the  memory  of  men? Do you  not in opposition  to  their  malignity,  loudly  proclaim  that  maxim  of equity,  that  faults  are  personal;  and  that  it  is  unjust  to  attach  the idea of  dishonour  to  all  who  bear  your  name,  merely  because  it  has once been  disgraced  through  the  bad  conduct  of  an  individual?

Apply the  rule  to  yourself:  the  church  is  your  house:  the  just alone are  your  relations,  your  brethren,  your  predecessors,  your ancestors: they  alone  compose  that  family  of  first-born,  to  whom you ought  to  be  eternally  united. The wicked  shall  one  day  be as  though  they  had  never  been:  the  ties  of  nature,  of  blood,  and  of society,  which  now  unite  you  to  them,  shall  perish;  an  immeasurable and  an  eternal  chaos  shall  separate  them  from  the  children of God;  they  shall  no  longer  be  your  brethren,  your  forefathers, or your  relatives;  they  shall  be  cast  out,  forgotten,  effaced  from  the land of  the  living,  unnecessary  to  the  designs  of  God,  cut  off  for ever from  his  kingdom,  and  no  longer,  by  any  tie,  holding  to  the society of  the  just,  who  shall  then  be  your  only  brethren,  your  ancestors, your  people,  your  tribe. What do  you  then,  when  you  uncover with  such  pleasure,  the  ignominy  of  some  false  just,  who dishonour their  history? It is  your  house,  your  name,  your  relations, your  ancestors,  whom  you  dishonour:  you  come  to  stain  the splendour of  so  many  glorious  actions,  which,  in  all  ages,  have  rendered their  memory  immortal  by  the  infidelity  of  an  individual,  who, bearing the  name  they  bear,  stain  it  by  manners  and  a  conduct totally dissimilar:  upon  yourselves  then  it  is  that  you  make  the dishonour fall;  unless  you  have  already  renounced  the  society  of the  holy,  and  prefer  to  associate  your  eternal  lot  with  that  of  the wicked and  the  unfaithful.

But what  is  more  particularly  absurd  in  that  temerity  which  is always  so  ready  to  judge  and  to  blacken  the  intentions  of  the  pious, is, that  you  thereby  fall  into  the  most  ridiculous  contradiction  with yourselves: — last character  of  that  temerity.

Yes, my  brethren,  you  accuse  them  of  cunningly  working  toward their own  point,  of  having  their  own  views  in  the  most  holy  actions, and of  only  acting  the  personage  of  virtue. But doth  it  become you, the  inhabitants  of  a  court,  to  make  this  reproach? Your whole life  is  one  continued  disguise;  you  every  where  act  a  part which is  not  your  own;  you  flatter  those  whom  you  love  not;  you crouch to  others  whom  you  despise;  you  act  the  assiduous  servant to those  from  whom  you  have  emolument  to  expect,  though,  in your  heart,  you  look  up  with  envy  to  their  rank,  and  think  them unworthy of  their  elevation;  in  a  word,  your  whole  life  is  an  assumed character. Your heart,  on  every  occasion,  belies  your  conduct;  every  where  your  countenance  is  in  contradiction  to  your sentiments;   you  are  the  hypocrites  of  the  world,  of  ambition,  of