Page:Sermons by John-Baptist Massillon.djvu/385

 the eyes  of  God  alone,  and  as  if  there  were  no  longer  men  upon the earth — what  dignity! Find, if  you  can,  any  thing  greater  in the  universe. Review all  the  various  kinds  of  glory  with  which the world  gratifies  the  vanity  of  men;  and  see,  if,  all  together, they can  bestow  that  degree  of  dignity  to  which  the  godly  are  raised by faith.

Now, my  dear  hearer,  what  more  honourable  to  man  than  this situation? Do you  consider  him  as  more  glorious,  more  respectable, more  grand,  when  he  follows  the  impulses  of  a  brutal  instinct; when he  is  the  slave  of  hatred,  revenge,  voluptuousness,  ambition, envy, and  all  those  other  monsters  which  alternately  reign  in  his heart?

For, are  you,  who  make  a  boast  of  unbelief,  thoroughly  acquainted with  what  is  an  unbeliever? He is  a  man  without  morals, probity, faith,  or  character,  who  owns  no  rule  but  his  passions,  no law  but  his  iniquitous  thoughts,  no  master  but  his  desires,  no  check but the  dread  of  authority,  no  God  but  himself:  an  unnatural  child, seeing he  believes  that  chance  alone  hath  given  him  fathers;  a  faithless friend,  seeing  he  looks  upon  men,  merely  as  the  wretched  fruits of a  wild  and  fortuitous  concurrence,  to  whom  he  is  connected  only by transitory  ties;  a  cruel  master,  seeing  he  is  convinced  that  the strongest and  the  most  fortunate  have  always  reason  on  their  side. For, who  could  henceforth  place  any  dependence  upon  you? You no longer  fear  a  God;  you  no  longer  respect  men;  you  look  forward to  nothing  after  this  life;  virtue  and  vice  are  merely  prejudices of education  in  your  eyes,  and  the  consequences  of  popular  credulity. Adulteries, revenge,  blasphemies,  the  blackest  treacheries, abominations which  we  dare  not  even  to  name,  are  no  longer,  in your  opinion,  but  human  prohibitions,  and  regulations  established through the  policy  of  legislators. According to  you,  the  most  horrible crimes,  or  the  purest  virtues,  are  all  equally  the  same,  since an eternal  annihilation  shall  soon  equalize  the  just  and  the  impious, and for  ever  confound  them  both  in  the  dreary  mansion  of  the tomb. What a  monster  must  you  then  be  upon  the  earth! Does this representation  of  you  highly  gratify  your  pride,  or  can  you  support even  its  idea?

Besides, you  pride  yourself  upon  irreligion,  as  springing  from your superiority  of  mind;  but  trace  it  to  its  source. What hath led you  to  free-thinking? Is it  not  the  corruption  of  your  heart? Would you  have  ever  thought  of  impiety  had  you  been  able  to  ally religion with  your  pleasures? You began  to  hesitate  upon  a  doctrine which  incommoded  your  passions;  and  you  have  marked  it down  as  false  from  the  moment  that  you  found  it  irksome. You have anxiously  sought  to  persuade  yourself  what  you  had  such  an interest  to  believe;  that  all  died  with  us;  that  eternal  punishments were merely  the  terrors  of  education;  that  inclinations  born  with us could  never  be  crimes; — what  know  I?  And  all  those  maxims of free-thinking  originating  from  hell. We are  easily  persuaded of what  we  wish. Solomon worshipped  the  gods  of  foreign  women only to  quiet  himself  in  his  debaucheries. If men  had  never  had