" What think ye ?" This subject will be more moral, more pro-
fitable, and more affecting. By it you will learn what you are, or
rather say, what you should be, and what you are not.
Whatever the meaning of St. Jerom might have been, to me it
appears, that in his proposition there is judgment and justness, when
he says, that to be really, and not seemingly, a Christian, is great.
And this is one reason which he alleges for it : that whereas
Christianity is a profession of humility, and whereas humility doth
not try to display its own excellence, it follows, that the greatness
of a Christian is, to be, and not seem to be, what he really is ; as
it often happens that his perfection consists, at least in part, in his
seeming not to be what he really is. This brings me naturally to
my design ; and in order to convey to you a distinct notion, and
impress you with an adequate idea of a Christian, I take it from
its principle and model, Christ Jesus, agreeably to two particular
characteristics which he attributes to himself, when speaking to the
Jews, to make himself known to them, he said, " I am not of this
world;" (John viii. ;) and again, "lam from above." John viii.
I come from heaven, and yet I remain immutably united with
God my Father. These two characteristics I purpose to lay
before you, which will delineate the Christian in the completest
manner. What, think ye, is a Christian ?
First : a man, by his profession, separated from the world.
Secondly : a man, by his profession, consecrated to God.
Both the one and the other, though of no significancy in the
eyes of men, are replete themselves with glory and virtue. For,
who is more insignificant in the eyes of men, than the man who
withdraws from the noise of the world ? But who hath more in-
ternal and latent virtues, than the man whose life is consecrated to
God ? Now this hidden mystery I take upon me to unfold. A
separation from the world, which raises the Christian above the
world, will be seen in the first part ; a consecration to God, which
ON THE CHRISTIAN'S CHARACTER. 179
raises the Christian up to God, will be seen in the second. This
shall be the division of the present discourse.
Part I. That you may the more easily comprehend my mean-
ing, and that my arguments may rest on the principles of theology,
relatively to the subject which I purpose to treat of, it ought to be
premised, that two things (according to St. Thomas) are essen-
tially requisite to make a true Christian : grace, or vocation, on the
part of God, and a faithful correspondence with this grace, or vo-
cation, on the part of man. Now both the one and the other,
considered attentively, have no characteristic more suitable and
more proper, than retirement from the world. So that to be
effectually separated from the world, is to be effectually a Chris-
tian. And this is the whole scope of this first part.
What is grace, I say the first of all graces, the call to Chris-
tianity ? Divines and the fathers have greatly exerted themselves,
and laboured hard, to give us a sublime and perfect idea of it.
But none, as 1 take it, is equally accurate and solid with St.
Augustin, when he tells us, in short, that it is the grace of voca-
tion. Would you wish to know, beloved brethren, (says this holy
doctor,) who are the elect, called like the apostle, according to the
decree, but the favourable decree of Almighty God? Those
whom he hath distinguished, whom he hath withdrawn from the
corrupt mass of the world ; whom he hath withdrawn by the
virtue and grace of their vocation. It is actually, therefore, in
this separation, that the attractive, the impulse, and the particular
impression of grace consists. Hence St. Paul,^ to express the
impulse gift of grace, which had been conferred on him in the
miraculous vocation which followed his conversion, a vocation
pregnant with the greatest prodigies, made use of no other terms
but these : " Who separated me from my mother's womb, r and
called me by his grace." Whatever I am, I am by the mercy of my
God who called me. And how hath he called me ? By separating
me from my mother's womb : that is, (according to the explication
of St. Ambrose,) by fixing upon me to live separate from the cor-
ruption of the world. Hence, as we read in the Acts of the
Apostles, when the Spirit of God diffused his visible and abundant
graces among Christ's disciples — graces that raised them to the
most sacred ministrations, it was always by ordering ^that those
whom he had chosen for that purpose/ should be separated from
the rest, nay, the rest of the faithful : " Separate me Saul and
180 "on the christian's character.
Barnabas," (Acts xiii.) for the important work to which I have
called them. As if this separation (subjoins St. Chrysostom) had
been a kind of sacrament, by which the grace of divine vocation
was to have been abundantly communicated to them. Hence it
arises, that the Saviour of the world, to signify that he was come
to call the sons of men to evangelical perfection, loudly de-
clared, that he was " come to separate a man from his father,
and the daughter from her mother ;" (Matt. x. ;) reducing
the whole grace of that perfection to this spirit only of se-
paration from the world. Hence the apostle, when he would
make us comprehend the transcendent and infinite grace, arising
from the sanctity of Christ Jesus, comprised the whole mys-
tery of it in these few words, " Separated from sinners." Heb.
vii. God hath given us a high priest, who, by the celestial
unction with which he was replenished, was to all intents and pur-
poses separated from the mass of sinners. Now you know that
the sanctity of Christ our Lord is the pattern of ours ; and that
ours, to please God, must resemble his. As this God-man, there-
fore, was sanctified by a grace which separated him from the world
in the most perfect manner, so also the grace by which we are
sanctified, must produce in us, proportionably, the like effect. In
consequence of which the Lord may say to us, as he said to the
Israelites : you are my select people, and I look upon you as such ;
but to what purpose, and in what manner ? Because I have sepa-
rated you from all the other people who inhabit the globe ; people
bewildered in the darksome mazes of idolatry and infidelity. This
is the characteristic of Christian vocation, or the* grace of Chris-
tianity. Now hence it is, that I draw the proof of my first propo-
sition ; and proportioning, (according to St. Bernard's rule,) by
the^divine operation, our obligation to the Deity, I enter upon a
topic, the most edifying that this subject is capable of furnishing.
Christian vocation, as it proceeds from God, and is inspired by
him, is a grace of separation. Therefore the correspondence which
it requires, and which is due to it, and which properly makes up
the duty of a Christian, is a correspondence of t separation on the
part of man, because the correspondence with divine grace must
be referred to the end to which the grace is referred. For as
" there are diversities of graces" (1 Cor. xii.) and inspirations, so
it must be acknowledged, that " there are diversities of opera-
tions" (1 Cor. xii.) and duties in man. That is, with every kind
ON THE CHRISTIANS CHARACTER. 181
of grace, every kind of duty is not correspondent. My meaning is
this : God gives me a grace to resist and guard against a passion
that prompts me to commit sin. With this grace I cannot correspond,
but by resisting and guarding against the passion that prompts
me. On the other hand, he gives a grace to avoid the occasion of
sin. To this grace I cannot be faithful but by flight and retire-
ment ; because (says St. Prosper) my business is to follow the
impulse of grace, and not the business of grace, to be ruled by my
impulse. As, therefore, the grace by which Almighty God hath
called me to Christianity, or to the profession and practice of
Christianity, is nothing but a grace of separation from the world,
whatever I do, I shall never fulfil the duties of Christianity, with-
out separating from the world, and doing that for God which God
first did for me.
For, God to no purpose, by pre-ordaining me to be a Christian,
separates me from the world, if I separate not from it of my own
accord, by executing the decree, and co-operating with the grace
that makes me a Christian. These two separations, if I may be
permitted so to speak, must concur together, and that of God
must be seconded by mine, as that of God is the sacred
origin from which mine flows. Do you conceive this verity ?
This, in substance, is all the divinity necessary for a Christian, all
in which he ought to put his trust and confidence. For, some
consequences may be thence deduced, which each of us, this day,
should apply to himself, as so many rules whereby to recognise,
and judge of his conduct in the presence of God. Let nothing, I
beseech you, of what I am going to advance, escape you.
The first consequence : no more is requisite than your being a
Christian, to bring on you an obligation of living in this spirit of
separation from the world ? But what mean we by the world ?
We mean the false pleasures, the profane joys, the criminal intri-
gues, the luxury, the pastimes, the folly, the customs, or rather
the evil practices ; in a word, all that foments and nourishes the
corruption and dissoluteness of the world. We mean whatever
the beloved disciple understood, when he forebade us "to love the
world, or those things which are in the world." John ii. We mean
what he explained himself more largely, when he added, that "all
that is in the world, is the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the
eyes, and the pride of life." John ii. We mean what he com-
manded us to detest and shun, when he concluded, that "the whole
182 ON THE CHRISTIANAS CHARACTER.
world was set in wickedness." 1 John v. The being, I say, a
Christian, is sufficient, alone, to lay on us an obligation, by our
profession and state, of separating from it ; and for that there needs
only the being a Christian, forasmuch, as we renounce it the mo-
ment that we are regenerated by the grace of Christianity. This
you all know, beloved hearers ; and unless you disclaim what the
church hath solemnly transacted in your name, and what you since
have ratified a thousand times, you cannot disown it.
And, in fact, when heretofore the fathers dissuaded the faithful
from resorting to certain diversions, diversions of which the world
at all times was passionately fond, and a fondness for which was
a distinctive mark of the man of the world, they used no other
argument than that of their being Christians, and being separated
from the world ; and this was, alone, sufficiently convictive. The
theatre, (says one of them, Tertullian,) which is nothing but an
open scene of lasciviousness, is a boundary that separates the pagans
from us ; for they flock to it, and we abhor it : and the difference
is only a consequence jresul ting from the difference of our religions.
In like manner, when he recommended to the women, modesty
and simplicity in their outward carriage, which, in their regard,
may be deemed the first step toward separating from the world,
how did he address them? You are Christians, (said he,) and, by
consequence, separated from all those things which have relation to
vanity. You have given up theatrical shows and exhibitions ; you
are no longer reckoned in the number of those who frequent public
places, with a view only to see and be seen ; you have bidden fare-
well to that kind of company, in which pride or pageantry, or licen-
tiousness, or incontinence, "maintains the bond of criminal inter-
courses ; in quality of Christians, you are known no longer to
appear in the world, but to perform all the deeds of charity and
devotion ; to visit the poor and infirm who are your brethren ; to
pay your adoration at the divine sacrifice, and to hear the word of
God. All this, however, is directly opposite to that worldly spirit,
that infatuation inherent in your self-love. I own it may be neces-
sary to hold communication with infidel women ; but you are,
therefore, unworthy of the name you bear, if, by your example,
you give them not a notion of what you are, and you be not careful
to appear in the genuine ornaments of your sex, which are a sense
of modesty and a strict decorum. Thus, we see, that Tertullian's
argument was raised on the basis of Christian duty, a convincing
ON THE CHRISTIAN'S CHARACTER. 183
argument to the faithful of those times ; and wo be to us, if we
stubbornly resist and spurn at conviction.
It is a mistake, therefore, a gross and pernicious mistake, to say,
"as I am a man of the world, I cannot refrain from living by its
rules, and conforming to its maxims." For, this is what ruins you ;
this is the source of all your ill conduct. Now, I needs must tell
you, that to speak in this manner is a kind of blasphemy. For
although the Son of God hath, in express terms, declared to you
in the gospel, that you are no longer of this world, yet you sup-
pose that you are, and pretend to be of it in the very same sense
that he declared you were not. We must then invert the propo-
sition, and say : I am no longer of the world, because I am a Chris-
tian ; therefore, 1 am not any longer allowed to live by its rules,
or comform to its maxims. Then will you speak according to the
spirit and grace of your vocation.
But this is too general. The second consequence : in the Chris-
tian religion, the more careful one is to retire from the world, the
more one is a Christian ; and the greater one's engagements and
connexion with it is, (except the connexion which relates to one's
duty, and the engagement one is in by necessity and one's station,)
the less one is a Christian. The reason is this : according to the
measure of these two states, he partakes more or less in the grace
of separation, which constitutes a Christian. This is so evident,
(it is a remark of the holy bishop of Geneva, Francis de Sales,)
that when heretofore the grace of Christianity was observed to
operate with all its virtue, force, and fulness, on the minds of men,
its influence was such as to cause separations, which, in the opinion
of the world itself, amounted to heroism. Arsenius is honoured
and esteemed at court : this grace withdraws him, and transports
him to the wilderness. Melania enjoys all the delights and pomp
of affluence at Rome : this grace disengages her, and makes her
seek the delights of retirement at Bethlehem. Never were there
so many illustrious anchorets, that is, so many illustriously severed
from the world, as in those first ages of the church of Christ, be-
cause there never were so many fervent and perfect Christians.
And why do we suppose that monasteries, at all times, were a
refuge for sanctity, but because sanctity dwells in them quite seques-
tered from the noise of the world ?
What mean we by a fervent and well regulated religion ? Give
car to St. Bernard, and permit me to bear witness to a well known
184 ON THE CHRISTIAN'S CHARACTER.
truth. What mean we by a fervent and well regulated religion,
such as it appears at this present time ? It is a standing represen-
tation of Christianity. It is (says St. Bernard) a particular Chris-
tianity, which, in the destruction of universal Christianity, was
saved, as it were, from shipwreck and ruin, and which Providence
preserved, like that Christianity, which from the beginning was
held in veneration by the very pagans. This, beloved hearers, this
is what renders religion respectable. On the contrary, I learn by
woful experience, that the more a Christian intermeddles in the
affairs and intrigues of the world, the less he is a Christian ; and
as he takes steps and advances in them, the spirit of Christianity
is proportionably impaired and vitiated in him. Insomuch, that
when the fathers speak of solicitations for the things of this world,
or of vanities and pleasures which discover an attachment to them,
they affirm, without difficulty, that all this includes a kind of apos-
tacy. The reason is, that the grace of faith being a principle of
separation with regard to these things, not effectually to renounce
them, is to renounce, in some measure, the grace of faith.
But I proceed further. The third consequence : it is utterly
impossible for a Christian man to be truly reformed, and return to
God, unless he be resolved to bid adieu to the world, differently
from what he hath hitherto done ; and it implies a contradiction,
to desire to be of the world, and as deeply engaged in its follies as
ever, and pretend to the practice of that sincere penitence which
produces salvation. For how, beloved hearers, can these two tilings
be supposed reconcileable ? You grant, yourselves, that it was
the world which destroyed in you the spirit of your religion, and
the spirit of your God. It is, therefore necessary, that to receive
this spirit, you retire from the world, and that instead of continuing
vainly to imagine, that this spirit may be found where it is not,
you seek it where it is. Now what is more evident, than that the
Spirit of God is not to be found in that kind of world of which
we here speak, as, far from finding it there, it was there you lost it ?
And here I cannot help being moved with compassion, seeing
certain souls, with whom we may say that the world abounds, who
although they cannot, once for all, resolve upon this separation
from an alluring world, yet have they their eternal welfare at heart,
and deliberate for ever, but never amend. God inspires their minds,
grace acts within them, they conceive a thousand ardent desires of
obtaining salvation. You would think them quite altered, and
ON THE CHRISTIAN'S CHARACTER. 185
that the charm was broken ; and notwithstanding all this, do but
touch the point of withdrawing from the world. Ah ! Christians,
this is a requisition more affecting than death, a requisition at which
they perpetually recoil. For this reason, they are ingenious at
finding out pretexts and expedients for laying stress on the engage-
ments that keep them in the world, and, in their apologies for it,
exert all their powers, and all their address. Alas ! (say they)
may we not be of the world, and work out our salvation ? Is not
God the author of those stations, which are censured so loudly
under the name of world ? May not we of the world arrive to
perfection, as well as those who are immured in cloisters ? But
when we make answer, that the case relates not to the world in
general ; that we mean a certain world, in which sin hath the vogue,
because it is a world ; in which libertinism passes for agreeable
and harmless, in which detraction is the ground- work of all conver-
sation ; in which all the passions are, as it were, concentrated, and
in their own element ; in which there are rocks without end — rocks
against which conscience must unavoidably split ; that this is the
world which they must studiously shun, if they pretend to list
under the banners of Christ : that, on this head, they must observe
no mean, try no expedient, but proceed steadily, without tergiversa-
tion ; that their conversion depends upon a generous and total defal-
cation of this nature, and a weaning of their affections from superflu-
ous pageantry and forbidden pleasures : if you talk in this strain, yet
hath grace this eternal obstacle to surmount, and rarely surmounts it
in these worldly souls ; because, to disunite them from such a world,
is to divide them from themselves, a thing they will never come into
effectually, because they were only of that mind imperfectly.
Is it possible, (say they,) is it possible to live, and not see the
world ? What should I do, should I openly declare I was no
longer of the world ? To what should I betake myself, in order
to shake off the irksomeness arising from such a retreat? What
would the world think, what would mankind say of me ? For,
these are the difficulties which the spirit of the world is wont to
raise in a soul that begins to treat with the Lord about her con-
version. And I say, Christians, that had you but ever so little
faith, or in other words, had you hearkened but ever so little to
faith, you would blush and be confounded at these sentiments.
No, no, my Lord, (would you say to God,) it is not upon that
my resolution must depend, and I argue like an infidel, when I
180 ON THE CHRISTIAN'S CHARACTER.
speak to that purpose. Whether I find this renouncing of the
world difficult or easy, whether it be productive of grief or joy,
whether it be approved or condemned by the world, because it is
necessary I must yield submission to it. If to forsake the world
be painful to me, I will accept this pain, in satisfaction for my
criminal attachment to it. And how often, my God, have I found
the world intolerably wearisome ? And will it be too much to
suffer all this for you ? The world will blame me ; but, alas !
what avails it, whether it praise or condemn me, as sincerely to
shun it is my fixed resolution ? I cast what will mostly then take
up my time ; and will it be deemed much, or overstraining the
point, to keep a constant eye, and adhere to the duties of my reli-
gion and calling ? Are not these occupations more becoming and
worthy, than those which in the world I made the business of life ?
Occupations that dissipated, but enlarged not my mind, and cor-
rupted my heart, but left it void and unsatisfied.
In the mean time, Christians, do you desire to know what this
relinquishing of the world is ? It is the grand point, the practical
duty which remains to be explained. I speak not here of the vi-
cious and bad qualities attending it. This, indeed, would furnish
many solid reflections, but would not, perhaps, be universally
relished. My utmost endeavours shall not be wanting, to pene-
trate into the utmost recesses of your hearts, in order to gain them
over to the Lord your God.
The manner of quitting the world is two-fold — false and true.
The manner which we, I presume, shall adopt, will be such as it
should be, will be sincere and disinterested, and will proceed from
God. Upon this assumption, I say, that there are two different
ways of quitting the world : one, corporeal and external ; the other,
mental and internal. I say, that both, toward the leading of a
truly Christian life, are necessary ; forasmuch, as the quitting of
the world externally is a mere phantom, if not internally supported
and animated, and that the quitting of it externally cannot hold
or subsist without internal aid. It is a maxim of St. Bernard,
and indeed of all the other fathers. We must quit the world, with
all our heart and with all our mind. To make show of quitting it
by my apparel, my condition, my abode, my function, my conver-
sation, answers no purpose, if I am still attached to it by affection
and inclination. It is by the heart I must begin the separation.
Now, beloved Christians, in the midst of your embarrassments and
ON THE CHRISTIAN'S CHARACTER. 187
worldly concerns, you may fully possess this separation of the
heart, and in the same perfection (if the will be not wanting) as
religious and solitaries, forasmuch as the heart is subordinate to
the will, and at your own disposal.
But this is not all. The separation of the heart must be accom-
panied, or rather, must be upheld by the other, which is external
and corporeal ; because such is the contagion (says St. Gregory)
of the world, that men the most chaste, the most holy, and the
most disengaged from a love and affection to it, are liable to be
ensnared by its deceitful blandishments. These, therefore, we
must weaken from time to time ; of these, we must lessen the im-
pression by retiring, and externally withdrawing from their dan-
gerous influence. We must do like those consuls and princes of
the earth, of whom Job speaks, who, in their very palaces, built
themselves solitudes, wherein they lived in the midst of the world,
as though dissevered from it : " With kings and consuls who built
themselves solitudes." Job vi.
Hence those holy retreats arose, which are so much practised
by the Christian people, and which produce such marvellous effects
of grace. In these retirements, what do they do ? They hear the
voice of God, they converse familiarly and peaceably with him,
they are feelingly affected with his communications, to which they
correspond. O my brethren, the days you shall pass in these pious,
these solitary exercises of devotion, will be properly your days ;
and we may say, that without them, all other days are in a manner
lost to you. What is very deplorable, they are mostly admired