Page:Sermons by John-Baptist Massillon.djvu/523

 and how  little  shall  we  then  estimate  nobility  of  blood,  the  glory of ancestry,  the  blaze  of  reputation,  the  distinction  of  talents,  and all the  pompous  titles  with  which  men  endeavour,  on  this  earth,  to puff  out  their  meanness,  and  to  found  so  many  vain  distinctions and privileges,  when  we  shall  see,  amidst  that  crowd  of  guilty,  the sovereign confounded  with  the  slave,  the  great  with  the  meanest  of the  people,  the  learned  promiscuously  blended  with  the  ignorant and mean, — the  gods  of  war,  these  invincible  and  far-famed  characters who  had  filled  the  universe  with  their  name,  at  the  side  of the  husbandman  and  the  labourer! Thou alone,  O  my  God! hast glory, power,  and  immortality;  and,  all  the  titles  of  vanity  being destroyed and  annihilated  with  the  world  which  had  invented  them, each will  appear  before  thee  accompanied  solely  by  his  works!

Secondly. That examination  will  be  universal,  that  is  to  say,  it will  comprehend  all  the  different  ages  and  circumstances  of  your life: the  weaknesses  of  childhood,  which  have  escaped  your  remembrance; the  transports  of  youth,  of  which  almost  every  moment  has been a  crime;  the  ambition  and  the  anxieties  of  a  riper  age;  the obstinacy and  the  chagrins  of  an  old  age,  still  perhaps  voluptuous. What astonishment,  when  repassing  over  the  diverse  parts  which you have  acted  on  the  earth,  you  shall  find  yourself  every  where  profane, dissolute,  voluptuous,  without  virtue,  without  penitence, without good  works;  having  passed  through  a  diversity  of  situations merely  in  order  to  amass  a  more  abundant  treasure  of  wrath; and having  lived  in  these  diverse  states  as  if  to  a  certainty  all  were to die  with  you!

The variety  of  events  which  succeed  each  other  here  below,  and divide our  life,  fix  our  attention  only  on  the  present,  and  do  not permit us  to  recollect  it  in  the  whole,  or  fully  to  see  what  we  really are. We never  regard  ourselves  but  in  that  point  of  view  in  which our present  situation  holds  us  out;  the  last  situation  is  always  the  one which leads  us  to  judge  of  ourselves;  a  sentiment  of  salvation,  with which God  sometimes  indulges  us,  calms  us  on  an  insensibility  of many  years;  a  day  passed  in  exercises  of  piety,  makes  us  forget  a life  of  crimes;  the  declaration  of  our  faults  at  the  tribunal  of  penitence, effaces  them  from  our  remembrance,  and  they  become  to  us as  though  they  had  never  been:  in  a  word,  of  all  the  different  states of our  conscience  we  never  see  but  the  present. But, in  the  presence of  the  terrible  Judge,  the  whole  will  be  visible  at  once;  the history will  be  entirely  laid  open. From the  very  first  feeling formed by  your  heart,  even  to  its  last  sigh,  all  shall  be  collected before your  eyes;  all  the  iniquities,  dispersed  through  the  different stages of  your  life,  will  then  confront  you;  not  an  action,  not  a desire,  not  a  word,  not  a  thought,  will  there  be  omitted;  for,  if  our hairs be  numbered,  judge  of  our  deeds. We shall  see  spring  up the  whole  course  of  our  years,  which  though  as  if  annihilated  to us,  yet  lived  in  the  eyes  of  God;  and  there  we  shall  find,  not  those perishable histories  in  which  our  vain  actions  were  to  be  transmitted to  posterity,  not  those  flattering  recitals  of  our  military  exploits, of  those  brilliant  events  which  had  filled  so  many  volumes,