Page:Sermons by John-Baptist Massillon.djvu/518

 pleasures and  excesses,  leave  you  all  your  indifference  with  regard to salvation,  ah! insult not  at  least  his  good  fortune;  despise  not in him  the  gift  of  God;  take  not  even  from  the  miracles  of  grace, so proper  to  open  your  eyes,  a  fresh  motive  of  blindness  and  unbelief; and  do  not  thus  change  the  blessings  of  God  to  your brethren, into  a  dreadful  judgment  of  justice  against  you.

In reading  the  history  of  our  Gospel,  you  are  sometimes  astonished that  the  obstinacy  and  blindness  of  the  Jews  should  be  able to resist  the  most  striking  miracles  of  Jesus  Christ;  you  do  not comprehend how  the  raising  up  of  the  dead,  the  curing  of  persons born blind,  and  so  many  other  wonders  wrought  before  their  eyes, did not  force  them  to  acknowledge  the  truth  of  his  ministry  and the sanctity  of  his  doctrine:  you  say  that  much  less  would  convince you;  that  any  one  of  all  these  miracles  would  suffice,  and that you  would  immediately  yield  to  the  truth.

But, my  brethren,  you  condemn  yourselves  out  of  your  own mouth; for,  (without  refuting  here  that  absurd  manner  of  speaking, by  those  grand  and  sublime  proofs  which  religion  furnishes  against impiety,  and  which  we  have  elsewhere  employed);  candidly,  is  it not  a  more  arduous  and  more  astonishing  miracle,  that  a  soul, delivered up  to  sin,  and  to  the  most  shameful  passions, — born  with every propensity  to  voluptuousness,  pride,  revenge,  and  ambition, and more  distant  than  any  one,  by  the  nature  of  his  heart,  from  the kingdom of  God,  and  from  all  the  maxims  of  Christian  piety;  that all at  once,  that  soul  should  renounce  all  his  gratifications,  break asunder all  his  warmest  attachments,  repress  his  liveliest  passions, change his  most  rooted  inclinations,  forget  injuries,  attention  to the  body  and  to  fortune;  no  longer  have  a  relish  but  for  prayer, retirement, the  practice  of  the  most  gloomy  and  repulsive  duties, and hold  out  to  the  eyes  of  the  public,  in  a  change,  in  a  resurrection so palpable,  the  spectacle  of  a  life  so  different  from  the  former, that the  world,  that  freethinking  itself,  shall  be  forced  to  render glory to  the  truth  of  his  change,  and  that  they  shall  no  longer know him  to  be  the  same; — is  it  not,  I  say,  a  more  arduous  and more astonishing  miracle?

Now, doth  not  the  mercy  of  Jesus  Christ  operate  such  miracles almost every  day  before  your  eyes? Doth not  his  holy  word,  though in a  weak  and  languishing  mouth,  still  raise  up,  every  day,  new Lazaruses from  the  dead? You behold  them;  you  know  and  you appear astonished  at  them;  yet,  nevertheless,  do  they  touch  you? Do these  wonders  which,  with  so  much  majesty,  the  finger  of  God maketh to  shine  forth,  recall  you  to  truth  and  to  the  light? Do these changes,  a  thousand  times  more  miraculous,  than  the  raising up of  the  dead,  convince  you? Do they  bring  you  nearer  to  Jesus Christ, or  restore  to  you  that  faith  which  you  have  lost.

Alas! your whole  care,  like  the  Jews,  is  to  stand  out  against,  or to  weaken  their  truth. You deny  that  grace  hath  any  part  in  the glory of  these  wonders:  you  seek  to  trace  their  motives  in  causes altogether worldly;  you  consider  them  as  delusions  and  impositions;   you  attribute  to  the  artifices  of  man  the    most  shining