Jean-Baptiste Massillon

“ Philosophy conquered one vice only by another. It pompously taught contempt of the world, merely to attract the applauses of the world; it sought more the glory of wisdom than wisdom itself. In destroying the other passions, it continually, upon their ruins, raised up one much more dangerous; I mean to say, pride: like that prince of Babylon who overthrew the altars of the national gods, merely to exalt upon their wrecks his own impious statue, and that monstrous colossus of pride which he wanted the whole earth to worship.
But faith exalts the just man above even his virtue. ”

“ Is it not a weakness, even in the eyes of the world, to regulate our steps and our sentiments, our hatreds and our love toward men, merely upon the caprices of a fancy for which we can give no reason ourselves? Do men of this description do great credit, I do not say to religion, but to humanity? And are they not, even to the world itself, a spectacle of contempt, of derision, and of censure? What a chaos would society be, if fancy alone were to decide upon our duties, and upon reciprocal attentions, and if men were to be united by no other law! ”

“ Is it so natural to pardon injuries, to bear with contempt, to love, and even to load with benefits those who do evil to us, to sacrifice one's fortune in order not to fail to his conscience, to deny one's self pleasures to which all our inclinations lead us, to resist example, and singly to maintain the cause of virtue against the multitude which condemns it? Do all these appear, in fact, so easy to you, that you deem those, who for an instant depart from them, unworthy of the least indulgence? ”

“ He forgives without pride; he is disinterested without show; he suffers without wishing it to be known; he moderates his passions without perceiving it himself; he alone is ignorant of the glory and of the merit of his actions; far from graciously looking upon himself, he is ashamed of his virtues much more than the sinner is of his vices; far from courting applauses, he hides his works from the light, as if they were deeds of darkness; love of duty is the sole source of his virtue; he acts under the eyes of God alone, and as if there were no longer men upon the earth — what dignity! ”

“ The love of the world is extinguished only with them under different exteriors, and which are changed solely through decency: you see the same relish for the world, the same inclinations, the same ardour for pleasures, a youthful heart in a changed and worn out body. The delights of our younger years are recalled with satisfaction; the imagination dwells upon, and delights in reviving all that time and age have wrested from us; a blooming youth, and all its attendant amusements, are regarded with envy ”

“ O my Saviour, eternal author and finisher of our faith, defend thyself, thy doctrine. Suffer not that thy cross, by which the universe hath been submitted to thee, be still the folly and the scandal of proud minds. Once more triumph at present, through the secret wonders of thy grace, over that same unbelief which thou formerly triumphedst over through the striking operations of thy power; and by those lively lights which enlighten hearts, more efficacious than all our discourses, destroy every sentiment of pride which may still rise up against the knowledge of thy mysteries. ”

“ Is there a spot upon thy body free from the mark of some crime? Where wilt thou place the body of the Lamb? What! it shall rest upon thy tongue; that pure and immaculate body upon a tomb which had never exhaled but infection and stench; that body immolated with so much gentleness upon the instrument of all thy vengeances and bitterness; that crucified body on the seat of all thy sensualities and debaucheries. What! he shall descend to thy heart? But will he therein find where to repose his head? Hast thou not changed that holy temple into a den of thieves? ”

“ I include not the rest of men: but consider you, alone existing on the earth. The idea which occupies and frightens me, is this,—I figure to myself the present, as your last hour, and the end of the world; that the heavens are going to open above your heads; our Saviour in all his glory, to appear in the midst of this temple; and that you are only assembled here to wait his coming, like trembling criminals, on whom the sentence is to be pronounced, either of life eternal, or of everlasting death; for it is vain to flatter yourselves that you shall die more innocent than you are at this hour. ”

“ O my God! pour then through my soul that humble and generous love of the truth, with which thy chosen are filled in heaven, and which is the only characteristic mark of the just upon the earth. Let my life be only such as to render glory to thine eternal truths; let me honour them through the sanctity of my manners; let me defend them through zeal for thy interests alone, and enable me continually to oppose them to error and vanity: annihilate in my heart those human fears, that prudence of the flesh which dreads to lay open to persons their errors and their vices. ”

“ The wonders of grace are every where seen in your national advantages: the people, the cities, the provinces, who are continually hearing your names repeated, feel awakened with them, that idea of virtue which your examples have attached to them. You honour piety in the opinion of the public: you preach it to those whom you know not: you become, says the prophet, like a signal of virtue raised up amid the people: a whole kingdom has its eyes upon you, and speaks of your examples, and even abroad your piety becomes equally known as your birth. ”

“ But the faithful soul, in this last moment, ah! he sees the world in the same light he had always viewed it; as a shadow which flitteth away; as a vapour which deceives at a distance, but, when approached, has neither reality nor substance. He feels, then, the holy joy of having estimated the world according to its merit; of having judged with propriety; of never being attached to what must one day slip from him in a moment; and of having placed his confidence in God alone, who remaineth for ever, eternally to reward those who trust in him. ”

“ Your heart so grand, so exalted, and which nothing here below can satisfy, has been bestowed on you solely for pleasures which weary you, creatures which deceive you, honours which embarrass you, a world which tires or disgusts you? God alone, for whom you are made, and who hath made you what you are, should find nothing for himself in the principle of your being. Ah! you are unjust toward your own heart: you know not yourself, and you take your corruption for yourself. And, in effect, if not born for virtue, what then is the melancholy mystery of your lot? ”

“ What an obstacle do you become to the fruit of our ministry! How many hearts, already prepared, oppose, to the force of the truth which we announce, only the long engagements which bind them to your manners and to your pleasures, and find within themselves only you who serve as a wall and a buckler against grace! My God! what a scourge for the age, what a misfortune for the people, is a grandee according to the world, who lives not in the fear of thee, who knows thee not, and who acts in contempt of thy laws and eternal ordinances! ”

“ Not that the heart of the just enjoys a tranquillity so unalterable but that they, in their turn, experience troubles, disgusts, and anxieties here below. But these are passing clouds, which shade, as I may say, only the surface of their soul. A profound calm always reigns within, — that serenity of conscience, that simplicity of heart, that equality of mind, that lively confidence, that mild resignation, that calm of the passions, that universal peace, which begins, even from this life, the felicity of innocent souls. ”

“ Our projects, our cares, our attachments to the world, are not less lively than if we were labouring for eternal ages; and, at our departure from a melancholy spectacle, where we have sometimes seen birth, youth, titles, and fame, wither in a moment, and for ever buried in the grave, we return to the world more occupied with, and more eager than ever after all those vain objects of which we so lately had seen with our eyes, and almost felt with our hands, the insignificancy and meanness. ”

“ Yes, my brethren, such is the lot of an unbelieving soul. Intoxication, delirium of passion, and the extinction of all reason, alone can render him happy; and, as that situation is merely momentary, the instant the mind becomes calm and regains itself, the charm ceases, happiness takes wing, and man finds himself alone with his conscience and his crimes.
But how different, O my God, is the lot of a soul who walks in thy ways, and how much to be pitied is the world which knows thee not? In effect, the sweetest thoughts of a righteous soul are those by which the past is recalled. ”

“ It is an eternal servitude, where no one lives for himself, and where, in order to be happy, we must bring ourselves to hug our chains, and to love our slavery. The world? It is a daily revolution of events, which successively arouse, in the hearts of its partisans, the most violent and the most melancholy passions, cruel antipathies, hateful perplexities, torturing fears, devouring jealousies, and corroding cares. The world? It is a land of curse, where even its pleasures are productive of only bitternesss and thorns. ”

“ What regret must agitate the mind of this unfortunate wretch, when he sees that his whole life has been one continued toil, yet that nothing to the purpose has been accomplished for himself! What regret, to have so often done violence to his inclinations, without gaining the advance of a single step toward heaven! — to have always believed himself too feeble for the service of God, and yet to have had the strength and the constancy to fall a martyr to vanity and to a world which is on the eve of perishing! ”

“ What are the promises of faith, my brethren? The adoption of God, an immortal society with him, the complete redemption of our bodies, the eternal felicity of our souls, freedom from the passions, our hearts fixed by the possession of the true riches, our minds penetrated with the ineffable light of the sovereign reason, and happy in the clear and always durable view of the truth. Such are the promises of faith; it informs us that our origin is divine, and our hopes eternal.
Now, I ask, is it disgraceful to reason to believe truths which do such honour to the immortality of its nature? ”

“ Every where you render homage, by your inward anxieties and remorses, to the sanctity of that law which you violate; every where a fund of weariness and of sorrow, inseparable from guilt, makes you to feel that regularity and innocence are the only happiness which was intended for you on the earth; you vainly display an affected intrepidity: the guilty conscience always betrays itself. Cruel terrors march every where before you: solitude disquiets, darkness alarms you; you fancy to see phantoms coming from every quarter to reproach you with the secret errors of your soul ”

“ O divine Reconciliator of men! return then once more upon the earth, since the peace which thou broughtest to it at thy birth still leaves so many wars and so many calamities in the universe!
Nor is this all: that circle itself, which unites us under the same laws, unites not the heart and affections; hatred and jealousies divide citizens equally as they divide nations; animosities are perpetuated in families, and fathers transmit them to their children, as an accursed inheritance. ”

“ O my soul! how long shalt thou continue to love, in creatures, what is but thine affliction and punishment? Wouldst thou suffer more by breaking asunder thy chains, than thou now dost in bearing them? Would virtue and innocence be more painful than those shameful passions which at present debase and rend thee? Ah! thou shalt find every thing light and easy, in comparison with the cruel agitations which render thee so unhappy in guilt. ”

“ Great God! what goodness to man, to consider as meritorious a virtue which costs so little to the heart; to number in our favour feelings of humanity of which we could never divest ourselves, without being, at the same time divested of our nature; to be willing to accept, as the price of an eternal kingdom, frail riches, which we even enjoy only through thy bounty, which we could never continue to possess, and from which, after a momentary and fleeting enjoyment, we must at last be separated! ”