Page:Sermons by John-Baptist Massillon.djvu/507

 alone; nor  on  events,  because  he  considers  them  all  as  in  the  order of  Providence;  nor  even  on  his  passions,  because  the  charity which is  within  him  is  their  rule  and  measure. The just  man alone, then,  enjoys  a  perfect  liberty:  superior  to  the  world,  to  himself, to  all  creatures,  to  all  events,  he  begins,  even  in  this  life,  to reign  with  Jesus  Christ;  all  is  below  him,  while  he  is  himself  inferior to  God  alone.

But the  sinner,  who  seems  to  live  without  either  rule  or  restraint, is, however,  a  vile  slave;  he  is  dependent  on  all, — on  his  body,  on his  propensities,  on  his  caprices,  on  his  passions,  on  his  fortune, on his  masters,  on  his  friends,  on  his  enemies,  on  his  rivals,  on  all surrounding creatures;  so  many  gods  to  which  love  or  fear  subject him;  so  many  idols  which  multiply  his  slavery,  while  he  thinks himself more  free  by  casting  off  that  obedience  which  he  owes  to God  alone;  he  multiplies  his  masters,  by  refusing  submission  to him  alone  who  renders  free  those  who  serve  him,  and  who  gives  to his  servants  dominion  over  the  world,  and  over  every  thing  which the world  contains.

You often  complain,  my  dear  hearer,  of  the  hardships  of  virtue; you dread  a  Christian  life,  as  a  life  of  subjection  and  sorrow:  but what in  it  could  you  find  so  gloomy  as  you  experience  in  debauchery? Ah! if you  durst  complain  of  the  bitterness  and  of  the  tyranny  of the  passions;  if  you  durst  confess  the  troubles,  the  disgusts,  the frenzies, the  anxieties  of  your  soul;  if  you  were  candid  on  the gloomy transactions  of  your  heart,  there  is  no  lot  but  what  would appear preferable  to  your  own;  but  you  despise  the  inquietudes of guilt  which  you  feel;  and  you  exaggerate  the  hardships  of  virtue which you  have  never  known. But, in  order  to  hold  out  to  you an assisting  hand,  let  us  continue  the  history  of  our  Gospel,  and let us  see,  in  the  resurrection  of  Lazarus,  what  are  the  means  offered to  you,  by  the  goodness  of  God,  of  quitting  so  deplorable a situation.

Reflection II. — The power  of  God,  says  the  apostle,  is  not less conspicuous  in  the  conversion  of  sinners  than  in  raising  up the  dead;  and  the  same  supernatural  power  which  wrought  upon Jesus Christ  to  deliver  him  from  the  tomb,  ought  to  operate  upon the soul  long  dead  in  sin,  in  order  to  recall  it  to  the  life  of  grace. I find  there  only  this  difference,  that  the  Almighty  voice  of  God meets no  resistance  from  the  body  which  he  revives  and  recalls  to life. On the  contrary,  the  soul,  dead  and  corrupted,  as  I  may  say, through the  long  duration  of  guilt,  seems  to  retain  a  remainder  of strength  and  motion  only  to  oppose  that  powerful  voice  which  is heard  even  in  the  abyss  in  which  it  is  plunged,  and  which  resounds for the  purpose  of  restoring  it  to  light  and  life. Nevertheless, however difficult  may  be  the  conversion  of  a  soul  of  this  description, and however  rare  such  examples  may  be,  the  Spirit  of  God,  in  order to  teach  us  never  to  despair  of  divine  mercy,  when  we  sincerely wish to  quit  the  ways  of  iniquity,  points  out  to  up  at  present,  in  the resurrection of  Lazarus,  the  means  of  accomplishing  it.