Page:Sermons by John-Baptist Massillon.djvu/77

 the innumerable  obstacles  which  check  our  progress,  do  not  therefore comprise  only  a  simple  advice,  and  a  practice  reserved  for  the cloister and  the  desert  alone, — they  form  the  essential  state  of  a Christian,  and  the  life  according  to  faith  on  this  earth.

For the  life  according  to  faith,  which  the  just  man  leads,  is  only an uninterrupted  desire  that  the  kingdom  of  God  may  be  accomplished in  our  hearts;  a  holy  eagerness  to  form  a  perfect  resemblance in  us  to  Jesus  Christ,  and  to  increase  even  to  the  plenitude of  the  new  man;  a  continual  lamentation,  excited  by  the internal sensibility  of  our  own  miseries,  and  by  the  load  of  corruption which oppresses  the  soul,  and  makes  it  to  bear  so  many  marks  still of the  worldly  man;  a  daily  struggle  between  the  law  of  the  spirit, which continually  wishes  to  raise  us  above  our  sensual  appetites, and the  dominion  of  the  flesh,  which  incessantly  draws  us  back  toward ourselves:  such  is  the  state  of  faith,  and  of  Christian  piety. Whoever you  be,  great  or  of  humble  rank,  prince  or  subject,  courtier or  recluse,  behold  the  perfection  to  which  you  are  called;  behold the  ground-work  and  the  spirit  of  your  vocation. The austerities  of  an  anchorite,  the  silence  and  solitude  of  the  desert,  the  poverty of  the  cloister,  are  not  demanded  of  you;  but  you  are  required to  labour  incessantly  toward  the  repression  of  those  internal desires which  oppose  themselves  to  the  law  of  God;  to  mortify those rebellious  inclinations  which  so  unwillingly  submit  to  order and duty;  in  a  word,  to  advance,  as  much  as  possible,  your  perfect conformity  with  Jesus  Christ. Behold the  degree  of  perfection to  which  Christian  grace  calls  you,  and  the  essential  duty  of  a just  soul.

Now, from  the  moment  you  give  way  to  every  inclination,  provided it  extends  not  to  the  absolute  infraction  of  the  precept,  from the moment  you  confine  yourselves  to  the  essentials  of  the  law; that you  establish  a  kind  of  system  of  coldness  and  negligence; that you  say  to  yourselves,  "We  are  unable  to  support  a  more exact  or  more  exemplary  life;" — from  that  moment  you  renounce the desire  of  perfection. You no  longer  propose  to  yourselves  an unceasing  advancement  toward  that  point  of  piety  and  holiness  to which  the  Almighty  calls  you,  and  toward  which  his  grace  never ceases to  impel  you  in  secret;  you  no  longer  grieve  over  those  miseries and  weaknesses  so  inimical  to  your  progress;  you  no  longer wish the  kingdom  of  God  to  be  established  in  your  hearts;  you abandon, therefore  from  that  moment,  the  great  work  of  righteousness, at  which  you  are  commanded  to  labour;  you  neglect  the  care of your  soul;  you  enter  not  into  the  designs  of  grace;  on  the  contrary, you  check  its  holy  impressions:  you  are  no  longer  Christian:  that  is  to  say,  that  this  disposition  alone,  this  formal  intention of  limiting  yourselves  to  the  essentials,  and  of  regarding  all the rest  as  laudable  excesses,  and  works  of  supererogation,  is  a state  of  sin  and  death,  since  it  is  an  avowed  contempt  of  that  great commandment which  requires  us  to  be  perfect,  that  is  to  say,  to labour  toward  becoming  so.

Nevertheless, when  we  come  to  instruct  you  with  regard  to