Page:Sermons by John-Baptist Massillon.djvu/427

 What  then,  my  dear  hearer,  prevents  the  truth  from  triumphing in your  heart? Wherefore do  you  change,  into  an  inexhaustible source of  cruel  remorses,  lights  which  ought  to  be,  within  you,  the whole consolation  of  your  sorrows? Since, by  a  consequence  of the  riches  of  God's  mercy  upon  your  soul,  you  cannot  succeed,  like so many  impious  and  hardened  hearts,  to  stifle  that  internal  monitor which  incessantly  recalls  you  to  order  and  duty,  why  will  you obstinately withstand  the  happiness  of  your  lot  2  Why  so  many efforts to  defend  you  from  yourself,  so  many  starts  and  flights  to shun  yourself? At last,  reconcile  your  hearts  with  your  lights, your conscience  with  your  manners,  yourself  with  the  law  of  God: behold the  only  secret  of  attaining  to  that  peace  of  heart  which  you seek. Turn yourself  on  every  side,  you  must  always  come  to  that. Observance of  the  law  is  the  true  happiness  of  man;  it  is  deceiving himself to  look  upon  it  as  a  yoke;  it  alone  places  the  heart  at  liberty. Whatever favours  our  passions,  sharpens  our  ills,  increases our troubles,  multiplies  our  bonds,  and  aggravates  our  slavery;  the law of  God  alone,  in  repressing  them,  places  us  in  order, — quiets, cures, and  delivers  us. Such is  the  destiny  of  sinful  man,  to  be incapable  of  happiness  here  below  but  by  overcoming  his  passions; to attain  by  violence  alone  to  the  true  pleasures  of  the  heart,  and afterward to  that  eternal  peace  prepared  for  those  who  shall  have loved the  law  of  the  Lord.

It is  not  enough  to  have  defended  the  evidence  of  the  law  of God  against  the  affected  ignorance  of  the  sinners  who  violate  it;  it is  necessary  likewise  to  establish  its  immutability  against  all  the pretexts which  seem  to  authorize  the  world  to  dispense  itself  from its holy  rules.

Jesus Christ  is  not  satisfied  with  announcing  to  the  Pharisees, that the  truth  which  they  knew  shall  one  day  judge  them:  that  in vain  they  concealed  it  from  themselves;  and  that  the  guilt  of  the truth, known  and  contemned,  would  be  for  ever  upon  their  head. It is  through  the  evidence  of  the  law  that  he  at  first  recalls  them to their  own  conscience;  he  afterward  accuses  them  of  having struck even  at  its  immutability;  of  substituting  human  customs  and traditions in  place  of  the  perpetuity  of  its  rules;  of  accommodating them to  times,  to  circumstances,  and  to  interests;  and  declares  to them  that,  even  to  the  end  of  ages,  a  single  iota  shall  not  be changed  in  his  law;  that  heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away,  but that his  law  and  his  holy  word  shall  for  ever  be  the  same.