faith, indeed, is extremely holy ; but we make it reside in extremely
tepid and criminal souls. It is extremely chaste ; but we make it
dwell in extremely sensual and voluptuous souls : " We hold the
truth of God in injustice." What, therefore, does faith do ? All !
beloved hearers, may I here be permitted to use this figurative
130 ON FAITH.
mode of speaking. Our faith thus treated, thus dishonoured and
profaned, rises up against us, demands justice of God, and cries
out to his tribunal. Nor can it be doubted that he hearkens to
and sides with it, to our utter destruction.
In this particular, we are the more culpable and deserving of
censure, because we destroy and bring to nought by our vicious
lives, its finest fruit, and most blessed fecundity. For, as we have
seen, faith is the origin of all our virtues, a fruitful origin, which
continually produces new fruits of grace, or is capable to produce
them. Of this assertion the proof is obvious. To say nothing of
the patriarchs in the old law, and of their wonderful works,
which the great apostle hath so accurately sketched out in hia
epistle to the Hebrews, call to mind the great things which have
been done in the new, by so many martyrs of both sexes, and so
many pious solitaries and penitents ; which still are done by so
many holy cloistered religious, and virtuous souls in the wide
world. Revolve with yourselves whatever you have heard of their
bloody flagellations, their protracted prayers, their watchings and
labours, their abstinence and fasts, their zeal and fervour, and of
the wonderful constancy with which they practised, to their latest
breath, the whole compass of evangelical perfection. These are
the fruits of faith ; and these it may easily produce in us with our
own concurrence. For although the fervency of the faithful be
relaxed, the virtue of faith is no way diminished. It ever proposes
to us the same truths, and in the same truths the same motives to
excite and impel us. But, beloved Christians, as we live after the
spirit of the world and the flesh, we nip these fruits in the very
bud. Faith we want not ; but active as it is, it makes us not more
vigilant, not more exact in the observance of our duty, not more
addicted to the works of godliness. It is listless and steril, because
we put a stop to all its actions.
Nay, more : we are the death of it, according to the expression
of St. James the apostle. For, faith is quickened by good works,
which, as I may say, are its vivifying spirit. As the body, then, is
dead, the moment the enlivening soul is departed, faith, in like
manner, should be deemed extinct, if not accompanied with the
good works by which it was animated : " For as the body without
the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." Jaci. ix.
And to take it in a plain and natural sense, without figurative
expressions, we may affirm that nothing conduces more directly or
ON FAITH. 131
speedily to infidelity and licentiousness of belief, than licentious-
ness of manners. Now as you have wickedly murdered your faith,
what can you in reason expect but a severe and rigorous sentence ?
Think, beloved hearers, think seriously, what it is to have mur-
dered your faith. It is a grievous crime, for which you will one
day be called to account, and obliged to undergo correspondent
penalty. Then shall this faith, now dead in your heart, either
through the slothfulness or viciousness of your life, revive all at
once, rise up against you, and appear before God to your conviction
and condemnation.
2ndly. 1 say to your conviction ; for you desire to know, not
precisely why, but how it will condemn you. And indeed, it is
easy to make this point sufficiently clear. I shall do it by evincing
the truth of the three following assertions : that you might have
lived like a Christian : that you ought to have lived like a Chris-
tian : that you have not by any means lived like a Christian.
Convinced of these, you will be unable to reply, and must, against
your will, subscribe to the sentence of eternal reprobation pro-
nounced against you.
Faith will convince you that it was in your power to have lived
like a Christian, because nothing was wanting to that end, neither
knowledge nor assistance. Not knowledge, inasmuch as it served
you, itself, for a teacher, revealed to you all truths to enlighten
your understanding, and, without intermission, raised tumults and
alarms in the bottom of your heart ; sometimes it stirred you up
by hope, sometimes it restrained you by fear, sometimes it engaged
you by a holy love, sometimes it attracted you by a solid advan-
tage, always it instructed you and impelled you to rectitude. Not
assistance, inasmuch as you had, in the Christian religion, all the
succours of grace : so many sacraments to purify you, to strengthen
you, to reconcile you to God, to feed your soul, and make you
more and more virtuous ; so many ministers of the Lord, deposito-
ries of the law of God, to instruct you in it, dispensers of the
treasures of God to distribute them to you, filled with the Spirit
of God to communicate it to you, invested with the power of God
to sanctify you ; so many good counsels, pathetic and vehement
exhortations, salutary examples ; in a word, so many means, to
enumerate which would be an endless task, and the use of which
would have infallibly saved you. Now, to have known, and to
have been able, are the whole reasons why the wicked servant
132 ON FAITH.
shall be the more severely judged, the more rigorously condemned,
and the more grievously punished.
You are still more deserving of God's chastisements, because
faith will convince you not only that you ought to have led a
Christian life, but that such was your duty. For, your word was
engaged. You had made that promise in the face of the altar,
and over the sacred font of baptism. You had solemnly renounced
the devi land all his works, the world and all its pomps, the flesh and
all its sensual desires. All this was promised and vowed in your
name ; and so soon as you were arrived at sufficient maturity, you
ratified, yourself, the same promise and vow to God. Now a pro-
mise to God cannot be insignificant ; and of all contracts, there is
none more inviolable than that which is made with so great a
master. The moment, therefore, that you submitted to the faith,
you submitted to the law. That is, the moment you were
honoured with the character of Christian, and began to bear that
sacred name, you were consequently, and indispensably obliged
to perform all the duties of a Christian, and were responsible for
them to your faith and to your God.
But to put this matter in a clearer light, and to examine it
more narrowly : of all contradictions, is there none more absurd,
than to act more contradictorily to what we believe, or believe con-
tradictorily to what we do ? And of all infidelities, is it not one
of the most criminal and monstrous, to have renounced, in the
presence of God, to hell, and to the works of darkness, which are
so many sins proscribed by the law, and to commit them with
impunity, voluntarily, and habitually ? To have renounced the
pomps and vanities of the world, and to make them our idols ?
To wish for nothing else, to pant after them perpetually, to seek
them without ceasing, and to take no pains but for that end, and
with that view ? To renounce the flesh, and live after the flesh,
hearkening' but 'to passion, and blindly following the lures and
suggestions of corrupt nature.
Of this, however, will faith convince you ; and it is the last tes-
timony which it will bring against you : I mean, that notwith-
standing it was quite in your power, and your incumbent duty, to
lead a Christian life, yet your manner of life was directly the
contrary. For, developing all these principles and maxims, it
will compare them with your life ; or developing your life, it will
compare it with all these principles and maxims. Now what an
ON FAITH. 133
opposition ! A faith which teaches us to despise terrestrial and
perishable things ; and a life taken up in procuring, preserving,
hoarding them, by every manner of means, just or unjust, which
an insatiable and unbounded avarice inspires. A faith which
informs us, that it is our duty to be humble, and to decline the
honours of this world, and its shadowy greatness ; and a life
employed in cares, in projects, in intrigues, sometimes very cri-
minal, and all this to scrape together a wretched fortune. A
faith which inculcates mortification, penance, and self-abnegation ;
and a life spent in gaming, at plays and routs, in parties of plea-
sure, and beastly voluptuousness. A practical and active faith,
and a life devoid of all Christian works. Is this to be a Christian,
or to live like a Christian ? To do nothing of all that faith com-
mands, but every thing it forbids ? Such are the reproaches
which you may expect from your faith ; and after such reproaches,
reproaches so founded as to preclude subterfuge, what can you
look for but judgment without mercy ?
And now, beloved hearers, I shall dismiss you with a reflection
which cannot take up your thoughts too much. It must needs be
that my faith save me, or that my faith damn me. There is no
medium. If my faith be not the origin of my justification, it will
infallibly be the cause of my reprobation. It depends upon myself
to make it the means of my salvation, because it depends upon
myself to make use of it in the manner in which I ought, and
which God requires. But if it should not, through my own fault, be
the means of my salvation, or if I should render such means unpro-
fitable, it is out of my power to liinder it from being the means of
my damnation, because it is a talent put into my hands by God
himself, a talent for which I am accountable to him, and which I
am bound to turn to the advantage he expected. It would, there-
fore, be a great and fatal mistake, to class my faith with indif-
ferent things, wMch can do no harm when they do no good. If
my faith bring me not to the supreme good, it will plunge me into
the greatest of all evils. It lies at my option to take which I
please ; but I must of necessity choose this or that. What do I
say ? Is there room to deliberate ? Can I hesitate a moment,
inasmuch as to fence against a woful eternity, and to gain the
fruition of a sovereign felicity, is the point in question ?
Ah ! Christians, let us often ruminate on the heavy charges
which faith will bring against us, and the galling reproaches with
134 ON FAITH.
which it will load us, before God's tribunal. Scarce do we now
bestow a thought upon them ; but so soon as the pageantry of the
world shall vanish, and faith stand forth in opposition to us, in the
presence of God, what answer shall we make ? For this crisis,
beloved hearers, we should make preparation every day of our life.
It will cost you, it is true, some trouble, some subjection, some
violence, some efforts ; but a temporal constraint is much more
eligible, than to run the risk of never-ending woes. For, allow
me to repeat what I cannot explain with too much minuteness,
nor you can hear with too great attention : if ever you be lost, it
is faith that will administer your greatest torment. No longer
shall you enjoy the glorious benefit of this supernatural and divine
faith, which is one of the most precious gifts of heaven. Of that
favour will God divest you. But you will still have the remem-
brance and character of it, and the knowledge which it used to
communicate to you ; and all this will be your greatest punish-
ment. I say, you will have the remembrance of the faith that
taught you such solid truths, which you despised ; that gave you
such sacred rules of conduct, which you did not put in practice ;
that promised you such great and everlasting rewards, which you
neglected to merit : and this remembrance will give you greater
anguish than all the fire of hell together. You will wear the cha-
racter of tliis faith, that is, the character of baptism, which will be
a sign for the ministers of God's justice, the infernal spirits, thereby
to discern you, among myriads of the reprobate, and to exercise
over you, with greater violence, the fulness of their rage. You
will still have the knowledge which this faith gave you ; and that
knowledge will make up for the deficiency of this faith : insomuch
that you will believe as the devils believe ; that you will tremble
like them, and despair like them, that for you, as for them,
your belief will be the cause of your eternal shame.
It were, therefore, more desirable to have never had faith.
Yes, my brethren, it were more advantageous to have never had
faith, than to have profaned and tarnished it by a criminal life.
But even to do that will be out of your power ; for, it will, in spite
of you, be eternally true, that you had been a Christian ; and you
will be forced, eternally, to undergo punishment, for having been
one nominally and theoretically only, devoid of morals, and without
good works.
But in order to prevent this stinging reproach, and this dreadful
ON FAITH. 135
chastiseme^;, you ask : to what resolution must we come ? To
none other than to keep the faith, and to live conformably to its
documents. It instructs us in things repugnant to the senses ;
but we must submit to them. It tells us that the world is our
greatest enemy ; let us, therefore, shun it. It lays on us an obli-
gation of hating and denying ourselves ; let us labour to acquire
this self-denial, and put it in practice, as much as is needful. It
commands us to mortify the flesh by the spirit, and to curb its
desires ; let us generously and constantly struggle against it. It
warns us to be humble in the height of greatness, to be poor in
affluence, to be mortified in the midst of ease and conveniencies ;
let us use our endeavours toward carrying all this into execution.
In the assistance of grace, and in the motives of faith, we shall
find wherewithal to animate and strengthen us, and make all things
easy to us Let us beg this assistance of God with confidence,
and he will grant it liberally. Let us place these motives conti-
nually before our eyes, and they will ever uphold us. Then shall
we deserve to hear from the mouth of our Lord and Saviour, the
words addressed to the centurion in the gospel : " As thou hast
believed, so be it done unto thee." The talent with which I
entrusted you, you have turned to good account, and have made
your faith active, and productive of good works : come, and enjoy
your reward. You have walked in the path which it pointed out
to you, with steadiness and perseverance : come, and take posses-
sion of my heavenly kingdom, to which it invited you, and in
which you shall enjoy everlasting felicity.
136
SERMON VII.
ON THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
" Certain of the Scribes and of the Pharisees answered him,
saying : Master, we would see a sign from thee. Who answering,
said to them : An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a
sign ; and there shall be no sign given them, but the sign of the
prophet Jonas." Matt. xii.
It was curiosity, but a presumptuous, a captious, a malignant
curiosity, that prompted the Pharisees to put this question to the
Saviour of the world. A presumptuous curiosity, as, instead of
prevailing with the Son of God, by an humble supplication, to
grant as a favour that which they petitioned, they seem to insist
upon it, as if showing their desire gave them a right sufficient to
obtain their will : " Master, we would.'' A captious curiosity, as
by what we read in another gospel, they proposed this question
with a view to tempt him, and lay a snare in his way : " Others
tempting him, sought of him a sign from heaven." Luke xL A
malignant curiosity, as their sole design was thereby to ruin him,
being determined to turn even his miracles against him, for which
they impeached him as for so many crimes, and which at last they
made use of, in order to load him with calumnies, and crush him.
For, hence it is, that our blessed Saviour made answer with a zeal
full of wisdom on one hand, and indignation on the other ; that he
satisfied their curiosity, only to reproach them, at the same time,
with their hardness of belief; that he treated them as an evil and
adulterous generation ; in fine, that he cited them to the bar of
heaven, because he foresaw that the prodigy which he should
show them, but to which they would pay no manner of regard,
would but serve to embarrass them : " The men of Nineve shall
rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn
it." Matt. xii.
Tliis, beloved hearers, is the whole purport of that passage from
which my text is taken ; and this example of that hypocritical set
ON THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 137
of people, is nothing more than what daily happens between God
and ourselves.
My meaning is this : we want that God would make us see
miracles, to confirm us in the faith ; and he shows us such as we
profit not by, such as we are utterly insensible to : miracles, 'which
render, by the use we make of them, our hardness of heart the
more criminal, as they are voluntary, and proceed, like that of the
Pharisees, from the perversity of our own will, and the corruption
of our own hearts. Now this is that which our Divine Master con-
demns in these supposed freethinkers of Judaism ; and for this he
will likewise condemn us, if we fall into the like track of infidelity.
I find in Tertullian a noble saying, and perfectly characteristic
of the Christian profession : " That since the promulgation of the
evangelical law, curiosity is impertinent, and can, for the future,
be of no utility ; much less can it be necessary, as nothing remains
but to believe in the word, and submit our reason to the dictates
of faith." Thus he explains himself. But for my part, Clnistians,
I am bold enough to carry it still farther, and to add, that though
it were allowable in the Christian religion to make new researches,
and to argue upon topics relating to faith, and upon the mysteries
it reveals, we should find in Jesus Christ, and in his holy gospel,
not only wherewithal to convince our understanding, but to satisfy
our curiosity in every manner. The reason is, that Christ our
Lord hath shown us in his person such shining prodigies, which
display such evidence, that no reasonable mind can question them ;
and because, if we be not affected with them, it must arise only
from our ill disposition, for which we shall answer, and which will
draw down upon us all the rigour of God's judgment.
This, beloved Christians, is the important matter I purpose to
speak to in this discourse. Give me leave to address myself to the
divine Spirit, most humbly beseeching him, that through the inter-
cession of the Mother of God, he would deign to grant me the
necessary knowledge and illumination.
It was not without reason, that the Pharisees, with a view of
finding out if Christ were the Son of God, desired of him a pro-
digy which should come from himself: " Master, we would see a
sign from thee." For, it must be allowed (as St. Augustin
:es) that there are two different kinds of prodigies. Some
coi:j from God, others from man. Some raise admiration, being
le testimonies of the absolute power and will of the Creator ;
K
138 ON THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
others cause horror, being the melancholy effects of the viciousness
of the creature. Those we revere, and denominate miracles ; these
we deem monsters, in the order of grace. Let us see a prodigy
(say the Pharisees to Jesus) which comes from yourself. But what
doth this adorable Saviour do ? Be attentive, I pray you ; for
herein is placed the ground- work on which this instruction is raised.
Of these two different kinds of prodigies, thus distinguished, he
lets them see one, which could proceed only from the God of
heaven, an evident miracle, the faith of the Ninevites converted by
the preaching of the prophet Jonas ; but at the same time lays
another before them, of an opposite nature, which could not ori-
ginate but in themselves ; the prodigy of their infidelity. Now,
beloved hearers, we need but contemplate these two sorts of pro-
digies, in order to see ourselves in the persons of the Pharisees,
and oblige ourselves, by taking a comparative view of our own
state with theirs, to grant that, perhaps, the reproach of our Saviour
is not less suitable to ourselves, than to these false teachers of the
law ; that in the same sense in which he understood it, we are not,
perhaps, less an evil and adulterous generation than they were ; and
that he might, with equal reason, summon us to appear at that
tremendous bar, to which he cited them in these words : " The
men of Nineve shall rise up in judgment with this generation."
For I maintain, (and in two propositions I shall give you the divi-
sion of this discourse ;) I say, I maintain, first, that Jesus Christ
in the establishment of his religion, hath shown us a more authentic
and convincing miracle, than the conversion of the Ninevites, and
that miracle is, the conversion of the world, and the propagation
of the gospel. Secondly, that day after day, we oppose to this mira-
cle a prodigy of infidelity, much more monstrous, and much more
culpable, than that of the Pharisees.
Both these are prodigies : the one supernatural and wholly di-
vine, and that is the conversion and sanctification of the world by
the preaching of the gospel ; the other but too natural and too
human, but nevertheless a prodigy, and that is our infidelity.
Both these import a right of condemnation, which God, in his
judgment, will produce against us, if we be at no pains to prevent
it by passing judgment on ourselves from this very moment. A
miracle of faith, a prodigy of infidelity. A miracle of faith, which
God hath made plain and obvious to us, and hath placed continu-
ally before our eyes ; a prodigy of infidelity, from whicli to pre-
ON THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 1 3<)
serve yourselves you take no care, but which, on the contrary, you
cherish in your hearts. A miracle of faith, which will cause in
your breasts a kindly shame, by displaying the excellency and
grandeur of your religion ; a prodigy of infidelity, which, after
being the source of your present depravation, will perhaps be the
cause of your eternal reprobation. Both the one and the other
require and deserve particular attention.
Part I. In order, therefore, beloved Christians, to enter into
the spirit of our Saviours words, and to touch the point which I
am going to enlarge upon, w r e must thoroughly comprehend this
mighty miracle of the conversion of the world, and establishment
of Christianity ; which I look upon (with St. Jerom) as the mira-
cle of faith. And because it is indubitable, that this miracle will
be one of the most invincible proofs which God (if ever we should
be reprobated) will make use of against us ; you and I must, this
day, form a just idea of it, capable to awaken the most lively sen-
timents of religion in our hearts. It is a great subject, I ow r n ; it
hath exhausted the eloquence of the fathers of the church, and
exceeded the extent of the human understanding. But let us ad-
here to the simple and unadorned exposition which St. Chrysostom
hath made of it in one of his homilies : and that we may the bet>-
ter comprehend the truth of this matter, let us fonn our judgment
by that w T hich he hath represented as the type, or figure of it ; I
mean the conversion of the people of Nineve, and the prodigious
and miraculous effects resulting from the preaching of Jonas ; and
thus I proceed :
Jonas, a fugitive, but, for all his flight, unable to flee from the
power and will of God, who sends him, overwhelmed with shame,
and touched with repentance, receives, on the part of the Lord, a
fresh order to repair to Nineve. He goes. Though a foreigner
and unknown, he preaches, and declares that he is sent by God.
This great city, and all its inhabitants, he threatens with a total and
impending destruction. No more time allowed than forty days ;
no other proof to ascertain his prediction than his very prediction :
and this people, abandoned to vices of every kind ; this people,
who seemingly disregarded both God and law ; this people, refrac-
tory to the remonstrances and documents of all the other prophets,
relying on his word, and changed by the Almighty hand of the
Most High, hearken to him with respect, enter into themselves,
endeavour to appease the wrath of God, perform the most austere
k 2
140 ON THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
and exemplary penance. Neither age, nor sex, nor estate, is ex-