Page:Sermons by John-Baptist Massillon.djvu/475

 nothing is  said  against  them:  the  madness  of  gambling  has  its  declared partisans,  and  they  are  quietly  put  up  with:  ambition  has its worshippers  and  slaves,  and  they  are  even  commended:  voluptuousness has  its  altars  and  victims,  and  no  one  contests  them; avarice has  its  idolators,  and  not  a  word  is  said  against  them;  all the passions,  like  so  many  sacrilegious  divinities,  have  their  established worship,  without  the  smallest  exception  being  taken;  and the sole  Lord  of  the  universe,  and  the  Sovereign  of  all  men,  and the only  God  upon  the  earth,  either  shall  not  be  served  at  all,  or it  shall  not  be  with  impunity,  and  without  every  obstacle  being placed in  the  way  of  his  service?

Great God! avenge then  thine  own  glory;  render  again  to  thy  servants that  honour  and  that  lustre  which  the  impious  unceasingly ravish from  them:  do  not,  as  formerly,  send  ferocious  beasts from the  depths  of  their  forests  to  devour  the  contemners  of  virtue and of  the  holy  simplicity  of  thy  prophets;  but  deliver  them  up  to their  inordinate  desires,  still  more  cruel  and  insatiable  than  the  lion or the  bear,  in  order,  that,  worn  out,  racked  by  their  internal  convulsions and  the  frenzies  of  their  own  passions,  they  may  know all the  value  and  all  the  excellence  of  that  virtue  which  they  contemn, and  aspire  to  the  felicity  and  to  the  destiny  of  those  souls who serve  thee.

For, my  brethren,  you  whom  this  discourse  regards,  allow  me, and with  grief,  to  say  it  here, — must  you  be  the  instruments  which the demon  employs  to  tempt  the  chosen  of  God,  and,  if  it  were possible, to  lead  them  astray? Must it  be  that  you  appear  upon the earth  merely  in  order  to  justify  the  prophecies  of  the  holy  books with regard  to  the  persecutions,  which,  even  to  the  end,  are  inevitable to  all  those  who  shall  wish  to  live  in  godliness  which  is  in Jesus  Christ? Must you  alone  be  the  means  of  sustaining  the  perpetuity of  that  frightful  succession  of  persecutors  of  faith  and  of virtue,  which  is  to  endure  as  long  as  the  church? Must you,  in default  now  of  tyrants  and  of  tortures,  continue  to  be  the  rock  and the scandal  of  the  Gospel? Renounce, then,  yourselves  the  hope which is  in  Jesus  Christ;  join  yourselves  with  those  barbarous  nations, or  with  those  impious  characters  who  blaspheme  his  glory and his  divinity,  if  to  you  it  appears  so  worthy  of  derision  and laughter to  live  under  his  laws,  and  according  to  his  maxims. An infidel or  a  savage  might  suppose  that  we,  who  serve  and  who  worship him,  are  under  delusion;  he  might  pity  our  credulity  and weakness, when  he  sees  us  sacrificing  the  present  to  a  futurity,  and a hope  which,  in  his  eyes,  might  appear  fabulous  and  chimerical: but he  would  be  forced,  at  least,  to  confess,  that,  if  we  do  not  deceive ourselves,  and  if  our  faith  be  justly  grounded,  we  are  the wisest and  the  most  estimable  of  all  men. But for  you,  who  would not dare  to  start  a  doubt  of  the  certitude  of  faith,  and  of  the  hope which is  in  Jesus  Christ,  with  what  eyes,  with  what  astonishment would that  infidel  regard  the  censures  which  you  so  plentifully  bestow upon  his  servants! You prostrate  yourselves  before  his  cross, he would  say  to  you,  as  before  the  pledge  of  your  salvation;  and