Page:Sermons by John-Baptist Massillon.djvu/421

 appears clear  to  those  who  would  wish  that  nothing  were  so;  that every thing  appears  doubtful  to  those  who  have  an  interest  in  its being so. I say,  with  St.  Augustine,  that  it  is  a  willing  spirit alone which  gives  understanding  of  the  precepts;  that  unless  the rules and  duties  are  loved,  they  can  never  be  thoroughly  known; that we  enter  into  the  truth  only  through  charity;  and  that  the sincere desire  of  salvation  is  the  grand  solver  of  all  difficulties: I say,  that  faithful  and  fervent  souls  have  almost  never  any  thing to oppose  to  the  law  of  God;  and  that  their  doubts  are  rather pious alarms  upon  holy  actions,  than  pretexts  and  difficulties  to authorize  profane  ones.

Men have  learned  to  doubt  upon  the  rules  of  the  manners, only since  they  have  wished  to  connect  them  with  their  iniquitous passions. Alas! all was  almost  decided  for  the  first  believers. In those  happy  ages,  we  see  not  that  the  first  pastors  of the  church  had  many  difficulties  to  resolve  upon  the  detail  of  the duties. Those immense  volumes,  which  decide  their  doubts  by endless  resolutions,  have  appeared  only  with  the  corruption  of manners:  in  proportion  as  believers  have  had  more  passions  to  satisfy, they  have  had  more  doubts  to  propose;  it  hath  been  necessary to multiply  volumes  upon  volumes,  in  order  to  resolve  difficulties which cupidity  alone  formed, — difficulties  already  all  resolved  in the  Gospel,  and  upon  which  the  first  ages  of  faith  would  have  been scandalized that  they  had  dared  to  form  even  a  doubt. Our ages, still more  dissolute  than  those  which  preceded  us,  have  still  beheld these enormous  collections  of  cases  and  resolutions  increasing  and multiplying to  infinity:  all  the  most  incontestable  rules  of  the morality of  Jesus  Christ  are  there  become  almost  problems;  there is no  duty  upon  which  corruption  hath  not  had  difficulties  to  propose, and  to  which  a  false  learning  hath  not  found  mollifications: every thing  has  there  been  agitated,  contested,  and  put  in  doubt: the mind  of  man  hath  there  been  seen  quibbling  with  the  spirit  of God,  and  substituting  human  doctrines  in  place  of  that  doctrine which Jesus  Christ  hath  brought  to  us  from  heaven;  and  although we pretend  not  universally  to  blame  all  those  pious  and  able  men, who have  left  to  us  these  laborious  masses  of  decisions,  it  had been to  be  wished  that  the  church  had  never  called  in  such aids; and  we  cannot  help  looking  upon  them  as  remedies  which are themselves  become  diseases,  and  as  the  sad  fruits  of  the necessity of  the  times,  of  the  depravity  of  manners,  and  of  the decay of  truth  among  men.

Doubts upon  the  duties  arise,  therefore,  from  the  corruption  of our  hearts,  much  more  than  from  the  obscurities  of  the  rules.

The light  of  the  law,  says  St.  Augustine,  resembles  that  of  the sun; but  vainly  doth  it  shine,  glitter,  enlighten,  the  blind  are  unaffected by  it:  now  every  sinner  is  that  blind  person;  the  light  is near  to  him,  surrounds  him,  penetrates  him,  enters  from  every quarter into  his  soul;  but  he  is  always  himself  far  from  the  light. Purify your  heart,  continues  that  holy  father;  remove  from  it  the fatal bandage  of  the  passions;  then  shall  you  clearly  see  all  your