Page:Sermons by John-Baptist Massillon.djvu/66

 perate impressions;  when  the  passions,  still  in  their  growth,  bend easily toward  good,  and  make  virtue,  as  it  were,  a  natural  inclination to  us! What happiness  when  we  have  been  able  to  put  an early  check  upon  our  heart;  when  we  have  accustomed  it  to  bear the yoke  of  the  Lord;  and  when  we  have  arrested,  almost  in  their infancy, passions  which  render  us  miserable  in  our  guilt,  and  which likewise occasion  all  the  bitterness  of  our  virtues! How many  uneasinesses, how  many  pangs  does  it  prevent! How many,  consolations does  it  prepare! How many  comforts  spread  through  the rest of  life! and what  a  difference  for  the  ease  and  tranquillity  of our  future  years,  between  days  whose  primitive  ones  have  been pure, and  those  which,  infected  in  their  source,  have  felt  flow  from thence a  fatal  bitterness,  which  has  blasted  all  their  joys,  and spread itself  through  all  the  remainder  of  their  career! It is  ourselves alone,  says  a  holy  father,  who  render  virtue  disagreeable; and we  are  wrong  to  complain  of  an  evil,  in  which  we  have  such  a share  ourselves,  or  to  attribute  faults  to  virtue,  which  are  our  own handy-work.

But granting  these  reflections  to  have  even  less  solidity; were it  even  true,  that  we  are  not  the  first  and  original  cause  of our  disgusts  at  virtue;  it  is  at  least  incontestable,  that  the  longer we defer  our  return  to  God,  the  more  invincible  do  we  render that distaste  which  separates  us  from  him;  that  the  more  we shrink  and  draw  back,  the  more  do  we  fortify  that  repugnance within us  to  virtue;  that  if  the  Christian  life  offers,  at  present, only melancholy  and  tedious  duties,  they  will  appear  more  insupportable in  proportion  as  we  grow  old  in  the  ways  of  the  world, and in  the  taste  for  its  iniquitous  pleasures. Could the  delay  of our  conversion  sweeten  the  bitter  and  painful  portion  of  virtue,  by holding  out  a  little  longer  against  grace;  could  we  obtain  a  more favourable composition,  as  I  may  say,  and,  as  an  article  of  it,  stipulate, that  piety  should  afterward  be  presented  to  us  with  more charms and  graces,  and  with  conditions  more  agreeable  and  flattering; — alas! whatever risks  we  may  run  by  deferring  it,  the  hopes of softening  our  pains  and  sufferings  might  serve  in  some  measure to excuse  our  delays. But delay  only  prepares  new  sorrows  for us; the  more  we  accustom  our  heart  to  the  world,  the  more do we  render  it  unfit  for  virtue. It is  no  longer,  says  the  prophet, but a  polluted  vase,  to  which  the  passions  we  have  allowed  to settle  in  it  have  communicated  a  taste  and  smell  of  death,  which generally last  the  remainder  of  life. Thus, my  brethren,  when, after a  long  course  of  crimes  and  deeply-rooted  passions,  we  must return to  God,  what  obstacles  do  not  these  frightful  dispositions present! What insensibility  toward  good  do  we  not  find  within ourselves! Those hearts  which  the  world  has  always  engrossed, and who  afterward  wish  to  consecrate  to  God  the  remains  of  a  life entirely mundane;  what  a  buckler  of  brass,  says  the  prophet,  do they  not  oppose  to  grace! What hardness  of  heart  to  the  holy consolations of  virtue! They may  find  it  just,  but  it  is  impossible, they say,  to  find  it  amiable:  they  may  return  to  God,  but  they