Page:Sermons for all the Sundays in the year.djvu/320

 there are some who will not believe that there is a hell until they fall into it. Can you, beloved Christians, complain of the mercies of God, after he has shown you so many mercies by waiting for you so long? You ought to remain always prostrate on the earth to thank him for his mercies, saying: ” The mercies of the Lord that we are not consumed." (Lamen. iii. 32.) Were the injuries which you offered to God committed against a brother, he would not have borne with you. God has had so much patience with you; and he now calls you again. If, after all this, he shall send you to hell, will he do you any wrong? ” What is there," he will say, ” that I ought to do more for my vineyard, that I have not done to it ?" (Isa. v. 4.) Impious wretch! what more ought I to do for you that I have not done? 5. St. Bernard says, that the confidence which sinners have in God‟s goodness when they commit sin, procures for them, not a blessing, but a malediction from the Lord. ” Est infidelis fiducia solius ubique maledictionis capax, cum videlicet in spe peccamus." (Serm, iii., de Annunc.) O deceitful hope, which sends so many Christians to hell! St. Augustine says: "Sperant, ut peccent! Væ a perversa spe." (In Ps. cxliv.) They do not hope for the pardon of the sins of which they repent; but they hope that, though they continue to commit sin, God will have mercy upon them; and thus they make the mercy of God serve as a motive for continuing to offend him. accursed hope! hope which is an abomination to the Lord! “And their hope the abomination. ” (Job xi. 20.) This hope will make God hasten the execution of his vengeance; for surely a master will not defer the punishment of servants who offend him because he is good. Sinners, as St. Augustine observes, trusting in God‟s goodness, insult him, and say: "God is good; I will do what I please. ” (Tract, xxxiii. in Joan.) But, alas! how many, exclaims the same St. Augustine, has this vain hope deluded! ” They who have been deceived by this shadow of vain hope cannot be numbered." St. Bernard writes, that Lucifer’s chastisement was accelerated, because, in rebellion against God, he hoped that he should not be punished for his rebellion. Ammon, the son of king