Page:Sermons by John-Baptist Massillon.djvu/400

 It happens,  I  confess,  that  sinners  are  sometimes  found,  who push their  madness  and  impiety  even  to  that  last  moment:  who expire in  vomiting  forth,  with  their  impious  souls,  blasphemies against the  God  who  is  to  judge  them,  and  whom  they  refuse  to acknowledge. For, O  my  God! thou art  terrible  in  thy  judgments, and  sometimes  permittest  that  the  atheist  die  in  his  impiety. But such  examples  are  rare;  and  you  well  know,  my brethren,  that  an  entire  age  scarcely  furnishes  one  of  these  shocking spectacles. But view,  in  that  last  moment,  all  the  others  who vaunted their  unbelief;  see  a  sinner  on  the  bed  of  death,  who  had hitherto appeared  the  firmest  in  impiety,  and  the  most  resolute  in denying  all  belief;  he  even  anticipates  the  proposal  of  having  recourse to  the  church  remedies:  he  lifts  up  his  hands  to  heaven, and gives  striking  and  sincere  marks  of  a  religion  which  was  never effaced from  the  bottom  of  his  heart:  he  no  longer  rejects,  as  childish bugbears,  the  threatenings  and  chastisements  of  a  future  life; what do  I  say? — this sinner,  formerly  so  firm,  so  stately  in  his pretended unbelief,  so  much  above  the  vulgar  fears,  then  becomes weaker, more  fearful,  and  more  credulous,  than  the  lowest  of  the people; his  fears  are  more  excessive,  his  very  religion  more  superstitious, his  practices  of  worship  more  silly,  and  more  extravagant than those  of  the  vulgar;  and,  as  one  excess  borders  on  its  opposite excess, he  is  seen  to  pass  in  a  moment  from  impiety  to  superstition; from  the  firmness  of  the  philosopher  to  all  the  weakness  of the  ignorant  and  simple.

And here  it  is,  that,  with  Tertullian,  I  would  appeal  to  this  dying sinner, and  let  him  hold  forth,  in  my  stead,  against  unbelief;  it  is here  that,  to  the  honour  of  the  religion  of  our  fathers,  I  would  wish no other  testimony  of  the  weakness  and  of  the  insincerity  of  the pretended atheist,  than  this  expiring  soul,  who,  surely,  now  can speak only  the  language  of  truth;  it  is  here  that  I  would  assemble all unbelievers  around  his  bed  of  death;  and,  to  overthrow  them by a  testimony  which  could  not  be  suspicious,  would  say  to  him, with Tertullian,  "  O  soul!  before  thou  quittest  this  earthly  body, which  thou  art  so  soon  to  be  freed  from,  suffer  me  to  call  upon  thy testimony:  speak,  in  this  last  moment,  when  vanity  is  no  more, and  thou  owest  all  to  the  truth:  say,  if  thou  considerest  the  terrible God,  into  whose  hands  thou  goest,  as  a  chimerical  being  with whom  weak  and  credulous  minds  are  alarmed?  Say,  if  all  now disappearing  from  thine  eyes,  if,  for  thee,  all  creatures  returning  to nothing,  God  alone  doth  not  appear  to  thee  immortal,  unchangeable, the  being  of  all  ages  and  of  eternity,  and  who  filleth  the heavens  and  the  earth?  We  now  consent,  we,  whom  thou  hast always  considered  as  superstitious  and  vulgar  minds,  we  consent that  thou  judge  between  us  and  unbelief,  to  which  thou  hast  ever been  so  partial. Though, with  regard  to  faith,  thou  hast  hitherto been as  a  stranger  and  the  enemy  of  religion,  religion  refers  its cause to  thee,  against  those  with  whom  the  shocking  tie  of  impiety had so  closely  united  thee. If all  die  with  thee,  why  does  death appear so  dreadful? Why these  uplifted  hands  to  heaven,  if  there