Page:Sermons by John-Baptist Massillon.djvu/429

 thens, was  the  instability  of  their  moral  system,  and  the  continual fluctuations of  their  doctrine. As the  fulness  of  truth  was  not  in vain  philosophy,  and  as  they  drew  not  their  lights,  said  Tertullian, from that  sovereign  reason  which  enlightens  all  minds,  and  which is the  immutable  teacher  of  the  truth,  but  from  the  corruption  of their  heart  and  the  vanity  of  their  thoughts,  they  qualified  good and evil  according  to  their  caprices,  and,  among  them,  vice  and virtue were  almost  arbitrary  names. Nevertheless, continues  this father, the  most  inseparable  character  of  truth  is  that  of  being always the  same:  good  and  evil  take  their  immutability  from  that of God  himself,  whom  they  glorify  or  insult;  his  wisdom,  his  holiness, his  righteousness,  are  the  only  eternal  rules  of  our  manners: and it  belongs  not  to  men,  at  their  pleasure,  to  change  what men have  not  established,  and  what  is  more  ancient  than  men themselves.

Now, it  was  not  surprising  that  morality  had  nothing  determinate, in  the  heathen  schools,  delivered  up  to  the  pride  and  to the  variations  of  the  human  mind:  it  was  vanity,  and  not  the truth, which  made  philosophers;  the  rules  changed  with  the  ages; new times  brought  new  laws:  in  a  word,  the  tenets  did  not  change the manners;  it  was  the  change  of  manners  which  drew  after  it that  of  the  tenets.

But what  is  astonishing  is,  that  Christians,  who  have  received from heaven  the  eternal  and  immutable  law  which  regulates  their manners, believe  it  to  be  equally  changeable  as  the  morality  of philosophers:  that  they  persuade  themselves  that  the  rigorous duties which  the  Gospel  at  first  prescribed  to  the  primitive  ages of the  church,  are  mollified  with  the  relaxation  of  manners,  and are no  longer  made  for  the  weakness  and  the  corruption  of  our  ages.

In effect,  the  Gospel,  the  law  of  Jesus  Christ,  is  immutable  in its  duration:  seeing  every  thing  change  around  it,  it  alone  changes not; the  duties  which  it  prescribes  to  us,  founded  upon  the  wants and upon  the  nature  of  man,  are,  like  it,  of  all  times  and  of  all places. Every thing  changes  upon  the  earth,  because  every  thing partakes of  the  mutability  of  its  origin:  empires  and  states  have their rise  and  their  fall;  arts  and  sciences  fall  or  spring  up  with the ages;  customs  continually  change  with  the  taste  of  the  people, and with  climates;  from  on  high,  in  his  immutability,  God  seems to sport  with  human  affairs,  by  leaving  them  in  an  eternal  revolution;  the  ages  to  come  will  destroy  what  we,  with  so  much  anxiety rear up;  we  destroy  what  our  fathers  had  thought  worthy  of  an eternal  duration:  and,  in  order  to  teach  us  in  what  estimation  we ought  to  hold  things  here  below,  God  permitteth  that  they  have nothing determinate  or  solid  but  that  very  inconstancy  which  incessantly agitates  them.

But, amid  all  the  changes  of  manners  and  ages,  the  law  of God  always  remains  the  immutable  rule  of  ages  and  of  manners. Heaven and  earth  shall  pass  away;  but  the  holy  words  of  the  law shall never  pass  away:  such  as  the  first  believers  received  them  at the  birth  of  faith,  such  have  we  them  at  present;  such  shall  our