Page:Sermons by John-Baptist Massillon.djvu/347

 favour, and  of  fortune;  and  it  well  becomes  you,  after  that,  to  accuse the  just  of  the  same  tricks,  and  so  loudly  to  ring  their  dissimulation and  pretended  hypocrisy:  when  you  shall  have  nothing  in the  same  way  with  which  to  reproach  yourselves,  then  will  we listen  to  the  temerity  of  your  censures;  or  rather,  you  shall  have reason to  be  jealous  for  the  glory  of  artifice  and  meanness,  and  to be  dissatisfied,  that  the  pious  should  dare  to  interfere  with  a  science which so  justly  belongs,  and  is  so  especially  adapted  to  you.

Besides, you  so  nervously  clamour  out  against  the  world,  when, too attentive  to  your  actions,  it  maliciously  interprets  certain  suspicious assiduities,  certain  animated  looks;  you  so  loudly  proclaim then, that,  if  things  go  on  thus,  no  person  will  in  future  be  innocent;  that  no  woman  in  the  world  will  be  considered  as  a  person of regular  conduct;  that  nothing  is  more  easy  than  to  give  an  air of guilt  to  the  most  innocent  things;  that  it  will  be  necessary  totally to banish  one's  self  from  society,  and  to  deny  one's  self  every  intercourse with  mankind;  you  then  so  feelingly  declaim  against  the malignity of  men,  who,  on  the  most  trivial  grounds,  accuse  you  of criminal  intentions. But do  the  pious  give  juster  foundation  for the suspicions  which  you  form  against  them? And, if  it  be  permitted to  you  to  hunt  for  guilt  in  them,  though  hidden  under  the appearances of  virtue,  why  are  you  so  enraged  that  the  world  should dare to  suppose  it  in  you,  and  should  believe  you  criminal  under the appearances  of  guilt?

Lastly. O worldly  women! when we  reproach  you  with  your assiduity at  theatres,  and  other  places  where  innocence  encounters so many  dangers,  or  the  indecency  and  immodesty  of  your  dress, you reply  that  you  have  no  bad  intentions;  that  you  wish  injury to none;  you  would  wish  indecent  and  criminal  manners  to  be passed  over,  for  the  sake  of  a  pretended  innocency  of  intention, which your  whole  exterior  belies;  and  you  cannot  pass  over  to  the pious, virtuous,  and  laudable  manners,  for  the  sake  of  an  integrity of heart,  to  which  every  thing  external  bears  ample  testimony. You exact  that  they  shall  suppose  your  intentions  pure,  when  your works are  not  so;  and  you  think  yourselves  entitled  to  believe  that the intentions  of  the  pious  are  not  innocent,  when  all  their  actions are visibly  so. Cease, then,  either  to  justify  your  own  vices,  or  to censure  their  virtues.

It is  thus,  my  brethren,  that  every  thing  poisons  in  our  keeping, and that  every  thing  removes  us  farther  from  God:  the  spectacle even of  virtue  becomes  to  us  a  pretext  for  vice;  and  the  examples themselves of  piety  are  rocks  to  our  innocence. It would  seem,  O my  God! that the  world  doth  not  sufficiently  furnish  us  with  opportunities for  our  ruin:  that  the  examples  of  sinners  are  not  sufficient to authorize  our  errors;  for  we  seek  a  support  for  them  even  in  the virtues of  the  just.

But you  will  tell  us,  that  the  world  is  not  so  far  wrong  in  censuring those  who  profess  themselves  people  of  piety;  that  such  are every day  seen,  who,  if  possible,  are  more  animated  than  other  men in the  pursuit  of  a  worldly  fortune,  more  eager  after  pleasures,