Page:Sermons by John-Baptist Massillon.djvu/354

 You are  surely  sensible,  my  brethren,  of  all  the  injustice  of  your conduct with  regard  to  what  I  have  been  mentioning;  but  what would it  be,  if,  in  completing  what  I  had  at  first  intended,  I  were to show  you,  that  not  only  you  give  corrupted  motives  to  the  good works of  the  pious,  which  is  a  temerity;  not  only  you  exaggerate their slightest  weaknesses,  which  is  an  inhumanity;  but,  likewise, when you  have  nothing  to  say  against  the  probity  of  their  intentions, and  when  their  imperfections  give  no  handle  to  your  censures, that  you  fly  to  your  last  hold,  that  of  casting  an  air  of ridicule  over  their  virtue  itself;  which  is  an  impiety.

Yes, my  brethren,  an  impiety. You make  a  sport,  a  comic  scene of religion;  you  still  introduce  it,  like  the  Pagans  formerly,  on  an infamous  theatre;  and  there  you  expose  its  holy  mysteries,  and  all that is  most  sacred  and  most  respectable  on  the  earth,  to  the  laughter of the  spectators. You may  apologize  for  your  passions,  through the weakness  of  temperament  and  human  frailty;  but  your  derisions of virtue  can  find  no  excuse  but  in  the  impious  contempt  of  virtue itself; nevertheless,  this  irreligious  and  blasphemous  mode  of speaking  is  now  regarded  as  a  pleasantry,  as  a  sally  of  wit,  and  as  a language  from  which  vanity  appropriates  to  itself  peculiar  honour.

But, my  brethren,  you  thereby  persecute  virtue,  and  render  it useless  to  yourselves;  you  dishonour  virtue,  and  render  it  useless to others;  you  try  virtue,  and  render  it  insupportable  to  itself.

You persecute  virtue,  and  render  it  useless  to  yourselves. Yes, my dear  hearer,  the  example  of  the  pious  was  a  mean  of  salvation provided for  you  by  the  goodness  of  God;  now,  his  justice,  incensed at your  derisions  on  his  mercies  to  his  servants,  for  ever  withdraws them from  you,  and  punishes  your  contempt  of  piety,  by  denying to you  the  gift  of  piety  itself. The kings  of  the  earth  take  signal vengeance on  those  who  dare  to  injure  their  statues,  for  these  are to be  considered  as  public  and  sacred  monuments  representing themselves. But the  just,  here  below,  are  the  living  statues  of  the great King,  the  real  images  of  a  holy  God;  in  them  he  hath  expressed the  majesty  of  his  purest  and  most  resplendent  features; and he  for  ever  curseth  those  sacrilegious  and  corrupted  hearts  who dare to  make  them  a  subject  of  derision  and  insult.

Besides, even  granting  that  the  Lord  should  not  deny  to  you the gift  of  piety  in  punishment  of  your  derisions,  they  still  form  an invincible  human  barrier  which  will  for  ever  exclude  you  from  its cause. For I  demand,  if,  when  tired  of  the  world,  of  your  disorders, of yourself,  you  wish  to  return  to  God,  and  to  save  that  soul  which you now  labour  to  destroy,  how  shall  you  dare  to  declare  for  piety, you who  have  so  often  made  it  the  butt  of  your  public  and  profane pleasantries? How shall  you  ever  boast  of  the  duties  of  religion, you who  are  every  day  heard  to  say,  that,  to  become  devout,  is,  in other  words,  to  say  that  the  senses  are  lost;  that  such  an  individual had a  thousand  good  qualities  which  rendered  his  society  agreeable to all,  but  that  devotion  has  now  altered  him  to  such  a  degree,  that he is  fully  as  insupportable  as  he  was  formerly  pleasing;  that  he affects  to  make  himself  ridiculous;  that  we  must  renounce  common