Page:Sermons by John-Baptist Massillon.djvu/568

 out any  additional  heat  to  your  lukewarmness;  to  appear  there with faults  a  hundred  times  detested,  yet  still  dear,  with  habits  of imperfection,  which,  though  light  in  themselves,  are  no  longer  so, however, through  the  attachment  and  the  bent  which  render  them inevitable to  us,  and  through  the  circumstance  of  the  sacrament which there  is  the  risk  of  profaning;  to  make  profession  of  piety, of estrangement  from  the  world,  to  be  almost  every  day  in  the commerce of  holy  things,  and  to  have  determined,  as  it  were,  upon a limited  point  of  virtue,  beyond  which  never  to  rise,  and,  after  ten years' exercise  of  piety,  to  be  no  farther  advanced  than  at  first;  on the  contrary,  to  have  rather  relaxed  from  the  first  fervour;  to  be continually  applying  to  this  divine  remedy,  yet  to  feel  no  alteration for  the  better  in  the  disease;  to  heap  sacrament  upon  sacrament, if  I  may  dare  to  say  so,  yet  never  to  empty  the  heart  in order  to  make  room  for  this  heavenly  food;  to  nourish  envies,  animosities, secret  attachments,  a  fund  of  sensuality,  of  vain  desires  to please,  to  be  courted,  to  be  prosperous;  to  permit,  in  conversation, the habit  of  witticisms  and  every  freedom  of  speech  upon  others, of endless  nothings,  of  sentiments  wholly  profane,  of  quibbles which wound  sincerity,  of  concealments  by  which  falsehood  becomes familiar,  of  hastiness  and  bursts  of  passion;  to  be  jealous  to an  extreme  wherever  self  is  concerned;  to  rise  indignant  at  the smallest appearance  of  neglect,  and  to  be  incapable  of  digesting  a single  disobliging  gesture;  and  yet,  with  all  this,  to  feed  upon  the bread of  angels:  O  my  God! how much  less  than  this  ought  to make  us  tremble!

But, is  it  to  eat  of  this  bread  unworthily,  to  eat  it  with  so  many imperfections and  weaknesses? Who knows  this,  O  Lord,  but thee? All we  know  is,  that  it  is  not  communicating  in  remembrance of  thee;  that  many  righteous  shall  appear  in  thy  sight,  at the  great  day,  as  a  soiled  cloth;  that  many,  who  had  even  prophesied in  thy  name,  shall  be  rejected;  and  that  every  thing  is  to  be dreaded  in  this  state. Peter is  not  admitted  to  thy  supper  till after thou  hast  washed  his  feet;  nevertheless  thou  assurest  us  that he was  altogether  pure. Magdalene is  sent  away,  and  thou  sayest to her,  "Woman,  touch  me  not/'  because  a  too  sensible  affection was  the  cause  of  her  eagerness;  and,  nevertheless,  her  love  had been  great,  and  she  had  washed  thy  sacred  feet  and  her  own  sins with  her  tears.  And  we,  Lord,  full  of  wants,  empty  of  sincere fruits  of  penitence,  made  up  wholly  of  effeminacy  and  sensualities, lukewarm,  and  without  desire,  fixed  in  a  certain  state  of  languishing and  imperfect  piety,  more  sustained  by  habitude  and  the  engagements of  a  holy  profession  than  by  thy  grace  or  by  a  lively and  solid  faith,  alas!  we  make  thy  body  our  ordinary  food.  What inexplicable  gulfs,  Lord!  What  a  train  of  crimes,  perhaps,  not known,  unrepented  of,  multiplied  to  infinity,  and  which  are  as  the shoot  upon  which  a  thousand  new  profanations  are  afterward grafted!  What  gulfs,  once  more! And what  terrible  secrets  shall thy light  make  manifest  to  us  at  the  great  day! In thy  sight, O my  God,  what  am  I!    I  can  neither  offend  nor  please  thee  by