and practised by those who stand least in need of them. For who
have the greatest occasion for them ? Not the ecclesiastic, nor the
recluse, who, conformably to his profession, leads a regular life.
Who then ? That man of business, whose conscience is loaded
with a thousand injustices, which he will never behold in a proper
light, but in retirement ; that retainer to the court, who will never,
but in retirement, think seriously of his salvation ; that woman of
the world, who is immersed in wickedness, and entangled in cor-
ruption, from which nothing but retirement is capable to extricate
her. These are they, for whom spiritual exercises and retreats
are needful. For others, they are of counsel, but for these, they
are oftentimes of strict obligation ; because, according to the natural
order of grace, and the usual ways of divine Providence, they be
come, for them, the onlv means of saving their souls.
n2
188 OK THE CHRISTIAN'S CHARACTER.
These, beloved hearers, are the outlines of Christianity. Let us
leave the world, before the world leaves us ; for leave it we must,
either by choice, and from virtuous motives, or by compulsion, and
of necessity. Now, were it not more eligible, that this should be
done by the attractives of grace, than by the violence of death ?
Let us leave the world, while it is in our power to bear this testi-
mony in our own behalf, and in the presence of God ; that we
leave it for his, and for righteousness' sake. For what honour do we
pay to God, by betaking ourselves to him, because we can no
longer relish the world, or, to speak more properly, because we
can no longer be relished by the world ? What glory accrues to
him from the amendment of our lives, an amendment arising not
from an effort to abandon creatures, but from a secret despair, for
that creatures abandon us ? Let us leave the world in the man-
ner in which, at the judgment of God, we should wish to have
left it ; and as (according to St. Augustin) the judgment of God,
with regard to the righteous, will not be a punishment, but a mere
separation, let us anticipate, in this life, the effect of that judg-
ment. Let us now do that, which God will do then ; let us show
ourselves now in the rank in which we shall then appear : that is,
let us appear distinguished from the ungodly and the reprobated ;
let us not procrastinate, nor wait till the coming of Christ our
Lord ; let us so conduct ourselves, that at whatever time he shall
come to judge us, finding us disengaged in this perfect manner,
there will only need his ratification. Let us separate from the
world, that God may not separate us from his chosen servants.
For as there is (according to the scripture doctrine) a separation
of mercy and a separation of grace, so is there also of rigour and
justice ; and the strongest imprecation which the inspired psalmist
uttered against his enemies (which were always the enemies of
God) was, " Lord, divide them from the few." Ps. xvi. Separate
them from the elect, from the small number whom you have
chosen, and whom you beheld in your divine foreknowledge from
all eternity.
Above all things, Christians, beware of imagining that the relin-
quishing of the world is a dismal undertaking, a melancholy situa-
tion. What though it were such, considering how salutary and
necessary it is, you should make it the object of your love and
desire. But I fear not to affirm, that if you be faithful to God in
this, he will make your souls overflow with delights, infinitely pre-
ON THE CHRISTIAN'S CHARACTER. 189
ferable to all the joys and pleasures of the senses. In fact, there
are none, among all mankind, more happy than they who have no
kind of intercourse with the rest of mankind. The truth of this is
universally allowed. Strange, that we should fear to enjoy that
which we know constitutes the happiness of others. And yet such,
beloved hearers, is the infatuation of our minds, and the inordina-
tion of our lives ; enamoured with the world, though convinced of
its inanity ; always disgusted with it, but never disengaged from
it. However, my brethren, the first characteristic of a Christian
is, to be separated from the world. But we must not stop there.
The second is, to be consecrated to God, as I am going to set forth
in the second part.
Part. II. The service of the great, with respect to kings, bear
a resemblance to the service of the saints in relation to God. For
as sovereigns confer upon persons of high rank and merit the super-
intendence of their household, so may we conceive that the Lord
of heaven and earth confers grace and sanctity on men who bear
the character of consecration, are found good and faithful servants,
and worthy to be of his household. All men (says St. Gregory)
are essentially subject to the power of God ; but all men are not,
therefore, consecrated to him. This consecration is produced by
a grace peculiar to Christianity. In order to examine this doctrine
in a profound manner, be pleased to take with you three things
worthy of your reflection ; tilings capable to fill the heart with the
noblest sentiments, and the head with the most sublime ideas of
faith. The excellence of what I call the consecration of a Chris-
tian ; the indispensable obligation of a holy life, which this conse-
cration imposes upon a Christian ; the peculiar stain, which, by
woful necessity, and inconsequence of this consecration, is inherent
in every sin of a Christian. Should I be so happy, beloved hear-
ers, as to make you comprehend these three articles, I may expect
from you everything that is good and great.
1st. What is baptismal unction, by virtue of which we are de-
nominated Christians ? It is (says St. Cyprian) a solemn conse-
cration of our persons to God, in which it should seem that he had
collected together, to make it the more precious, all the riches of
his grace. For (adds this father) we are consecrated by baptism,
I know not how many ways, all which should inspire us with a
respect for ourselves. By it we are consecrated as kings, as priests,
as temples of God, as children of God, and as members of God.
190 ON THE CHRISTIAN'S CHARACTER.
All ! beloved hearers, let us find ourselves out, let ue know what
we are, and let us be ashamed, if we are not what so many con-
curring motives should make us.
By baptism, we are consecrated as kings and priests. So the
apostle St. Peter declares, when speaking to the Christians, in
his first epistle ; he ascribes to them these two qualities, by calling
them "a kingly priesthood." 1 Peter ii. In like manner, the
beloved disciple makes the blessing of redemption to consist partly
in this : that Christ our Lord, who is the sovereign Redeemer,
"hath made us to our God a kingdom and priests." Apoc. v. And,
indeed, as Christians, we are destined to reign ; nor is it exagger-
ation, or a figurative expression, to say, that in baptism we are con-
secrated to possess a kingdom — the kingdom of heaven ; that in it
we receive the investiture of a crown — the crown of heaven ; and,
that when the grace of this sacrament is conferred on us, we are
legally entitled to claim the throne which the Son of God hath
prepared for us in. heaven.
As Christians, we are also consecrated priests of the living God.
For the baptismal ointment not only empowers, but obliges the
Christian to offer up continual sacrifices to God : the sacrifice of
his mind by faith ; of his body, by penitence ; of his property, by
alms-deeds ; of his resentment, by charity ; of his ambition by hu-
mility ; all oblations (says St. Paul) by which Almighty God is
made propitious to us, and without which, Christianity is but the
shadow of religion, "for by such sacrifices God's favour is ob-
tained." Heb. xiii. I say more : because, in quality of Christians,
we have it in our power to offer up, every day, the greatest of
sacrifices, which is that of the body and blood of Christ Jesus.
For, you offer, my brethren, laymen as you are, verily, and con-
jointly with the minister of the Lord, this divine sacrifice. And,
hence, St. Leo rightly inferred, that the laity should deem them-
selves associates to the priests, and copartners and sharers in the
priestly function. Now you cannot offer up this sacrifice with the
priests, without being, in one sense, as priests yourselves. Whence
it follows, that the character of a Christian makes you, in some
sort, partake of the sacerdotal unction.
Further : in virtue of this character, you are made sacred, and
devoted to God as his temples. No doctrine in the works of St.
Paul more common than this. It is not, my brethren, (says this
great apostle,) in temples made by the hands of men, but in those
ON the christian's character. 101
which he hath himself erected in us, that our God abides ; for,
yourselves are the temples of the omnipotent God. Wherefore,
beloved hearers, observe that the quality of being God's temples,
is annexed solely, and in the strict sense, to the grace of baptism ;
and no grace but that of baptism, although it were as eminent as
that of the angels, imparts the quality of being God's temples.
The reason is this : we are not, properly, the temples of God, but
inasmuch as we are capable, by partaking of his body, to receive
this God of goodness and majesty, who makes so many sanctuaries
and tabernacles of our breasts. Now, how are we enabled to receive
in this manner, this God-man ? By baptism. For although I
had the sanctity of the glorified spirits, I could not, without the
sacred character of baptism, appear at the table of our Saviour
Christ, or partake of his sacrament. It is baptism, therefore, that
first consecrates us temples to God ; or rather, it is by baptism,
and by the character it confers on us, that we are made and deno~
minated the temples of God.
But what are these qualities all together, if compared with the
titles, the glorious titles, of children of God, and members of God ?
For,' these are directly the terms and expressions of the sacred pen-
men. Of us it is that St. John speaks, when he says, that all
those who have been united in baptism, by the waters of regenera-
tion, with our Lord Jesus Christ, and all those who have believed
in him, and in his holy name, have acquired, from that moment,
an incontestable right of being called, as they are, the children of
God : " As many as received him, he gave them power to be made
the sons of God, to them that believe in his name." John i. To
the Corinthians it was that St. Paul said, " You are the body of
Christ, and members of member." 1 Cor. iL In short, beloved
hearers, to set forth in this place the gifts descending from the
heavenly Father, and by him communicated to the Christian soul,
were an endless task, for which whole discourses would be insuffi-
cient. Let us pass on, therefore, to our obligation of holiness, an
obligation arising from such holy qualities ; and let us gather from
thence a motive of shame, in the view of making • it, at the same
time, conducive to our edification.
2ndly. This, my brethren, as I said before, is what we are, and
these are the respectable, the august characters, which his grace,
in proportion to our state of life, imprints on our souls. But there
must, moreover, an inference be drawn from these positions. Ob-
192 ON THE CHRISTIAN'S CHARACTER.
serve then the charity which the love of God ought to kindle in
our breasts ; how strict an obligation of fervour and zeal it lays
us under ; what integrity of manners is necessary to keep up the
degree of glory to which grace hath raised us. Is it too much to
require that we be perfect Christians, and that we fill up, not the
extent, but in some shape, the immensity of this duty ? In a word,
can what is commanded by the divine law, how heroical soever, be
too exalted for the children of God ? Ah ! my Lord, (cries St.
Ambrose,) can we be thought deserving this great name, if, by an
ungenerous, unseemly conduct, we degenerate and fall from the
noble sentiments which the spirit of Christianity always inspires,
and indulge the meannesses and sordid views which the spirit of
the world never fails to suggest ? And should we not for ever
renounce the honour of belonging to you, if we were to content
ourselves with moderate virtues, and pretend to confine them
within narrow limits ?
Thus it was, Christians, that the fathers of the church conceived
this matter ; and it was on this foundation that the apostle raised
the strongest remonstrances which he made to the faithful. In
his addresses to them, he used no appellation but that of saints ;
and when he wrote to the churches committed to his care, these
were the inscriptions his epistles bore : " To the saints of the
church at Corinth :" " To the saints who are at Ephesus;" for he
supposed that the one could not be without the other, and that as
to be consecrated to Almighty God was the essence of a Christian,
so to be a Christian by profession was to be a saint. Wherefore
he mostly made use of this argument, to induce the Christians to
an inviolable purity both of body and mind, a purity by which he
would have them be distinguished from the rest of mankind.
"Know you not, my brethren, (says he,) that (by baptism) you
are become the temple of God ?" Now the temple of God should
be clean and holy, and whoever profanes it, him God will undo.
Upon this passage, Zeno of Verona makes a remark equally
solid and judicious. If this temple of God (says he) were perfect
and finished in us who reside in these earthly abodes, such as it is
in the blessed who inhabit the heavenly mansions, we should not
need be at any pains for our sanctification. But because this
structure, as long as we live, must be always increasing, but never
completed, it is incumbent on us, in order to answer the views of
God, who is the principal architect, to raise it continually, and
ON the christian's character. 193
without interruption. This St. Paul hath nobly expressed in the
following words : " In whom all the building, being framed toge-
ther, groweth up into an holy temple in the Lord." Ephes. ii.
For he says not, that Christ is the groundwork on which we are
built and constructed, but on which we build and construct our-
selves, in order to be a temple consecrated to the Lord. Now
this temple cannot be edified, that is, erected, but by the holiness
of life ; and therefore a holy life, and an edifying life, are, in com-
mon use, synonymous terms, and of equal import. And the wonder
is, that, if we be righteous, the temple of God is, at every instant,
built and erected to our God in our persons.
True it is, (says the great apostle in another place,) as Chris-
tians you participate in the priesthood of Christ, and in the mi-
nistry of the priests ; but, for that same reason, I conjure you to
make an offering to God of your bodies, as so many sacrifices, holy
and living, and agreeable in his eyes. For if the priests of the old
law were obliged to be holy, because they were deputed to offer
bread and incense ; you, who in consequence of your call to Chris-
tianity, offer victims to God infinitely more noble ; you, who every
day offer him in the unbloody sacrifice of the altar, the body and
blood of the immaculate Lamb ; you, who offer him, if the scrip-
tural argument be supposed consequential, the heart and affections,
and every power of the soul : what ought you to be in his divine
presence? " They offer the burnt-offering of the Lord, and the
bread of their God, and therefore they shall be holy." Levit. xxi.
To what doth this manner of reasoning extend, in our regard ?
And what necessity doth it not lay us under of leading an un-
spotted and chaste life ; a life disengaged from the corruption of the
world ?
3rdly. This, beloved hearers, is enough for your encourage-
ment ; and yet this shoidd make your blood run cold, if you arc
not affected with what I have advanced. For, the third article,
with which I shall close this discourse, is, that the sins of Chris-
tians contract a particular malignity and guilt, which is that of
sacrilege, and which renders them the more abominable in the
sight of God. For, sacrilege, according to divines, is the profan-
ation of a thing consecrated to God. Now whatever is in me, is
consecrated to God by the sacrament of baptism ; and all the sins
which I shall commit henceforward, are so many crimes of self-
profanation. Therefore all my sins include a kind of sacrilege of
194 ON THE CHRISTIAN'S CHARACTER.
which I stand guilty. But what is the nature of this sacrilege ?
It is the profanation of a thing not only consecrated to God, but
united and corporated with him, as the Christian is, in consequence
of his baptism, by the principles of his faith. Ah ! my brethren,
(says the great apostle, writing to the Corinthians, and justly ex-
asperated at a similar abuse,) is it possible that I must come to
that extremity? What! "Shall I then take the members of
Christ, and make them the members of an harlot ?" 1 Cor. vi.
What ! shall I corrupt a heart, that should be the abode of my
God — infect it with poison the most mortal, and defile it with
iniquities of every kind ?
However, beloved hearers, this is what we do, when we yield
to the allurements and suggestions of sin ; so that some divines,
by straining the sense of the apostle's words, have doubted that
Christ, how impeccable soever, became a sinner in Christians, and
as many times, too, as they committed sin. I know that the
church hath exploded this impious manner of speaking, so injurious
to the sanctity of a God-man, and branded it as heretical. But
this impious and heretical manner of speaking, is founded in this
certain and indubitable truth, which they perverted : that when-
ever we sin, they are the brothers and members of Christ who sin :
" Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the
members of an harlot ?"
These, my brethren, are no exaggerations ; nor is it one that I
add, deploring the melancholy decay of Christianity, that, notwith-
standing all this, there is nothing in it more common than sin.
When the Almighty beheld the corruption and [wickedness into
which mankind, in the primitive ages of the world, had fallen,
" it repented him," according to the language of scripture, "that he
had made man." Gen. vi. The sight of so many and so great
abominations made him look with horror on his own work, and
resolve to destroy it. "I will destroy man," says he, " whom I have
created." Gen. vi. Alas ! my brethren, were these antediluvians
more vicious than we are ? And in their vices were they more
criminal ? Were they given to more fatal and scandalous doings,
ruled by more sensual and unmanly appetites, subject to more gross
and filthy voluptuousness ? Were they more remarkable for in-
justice, enmity, revenge, perfidy, irregularity, debauchery ? And
were they, in these, or in anything else, more criminal than we
are ? Had they the same advantages by the incarnation of the
ON THE CHRISTIAN'S CHARACTER. 105
Son of God ? Had Christ our Lord appeared before their eyes
in the same flesh ? Had he contracted with the same union, by
the same grace, in the same sacraments ? In a word, were they
Christians like us ? And was not that a solid and conclusive
inference, which was made by Tertullian, and after him by all the
other fathers, that in the new law, the law which unites us so
closely with Christ, which so particularly devotes us to the service
of God, which gives us so intimate a communication with God,
and which makes us partake, in some measure, in the nature of
God, our sins, if we be sinners, makes us much the more culpable
at the divine tribunal, and much the more accountable to the
divine justice ?
What then have we not to fear ? May it please kind heaven to
avert the effect of so terrible a menace, and that we may have it
in our power to prevent it ? May it not, to use again the scripture
phrase, repent the Almighty of what he hath done, by honouring
us with so holy and glorious a character ! May he not let his
church, which he hath ransomed with his blood, and quickened
with his Spirit, ever fall to destruction ! What do I say, beloved
hearers ? He will never destroy her, she shall always subsist, she
is built upon a solid and unshaken rock. But, content to single
out some faithful souls, he will destroy the vast number of unwor-
thy persons, who, instead of edification, give her trouble and
affliction. He will exclude them from his kingdom as so many
stumbling-blocks and scandalous nuisances, and will send them
over to another land. He will preserve Christianity, but millions
of Christians he will doom to perdition. He will let the torch of
faith go out among us. Alas ! is it not half extinguished already ?
Doth it not appear from daily experience, that the minds of men
are more and more clouded, and by little and little sink utterly
and irretrievably into the darkness of incredulity ? For, this
is the chastisement which they draw upon themselves from the
hand of God. And how is it possible that faith should subsist,
holy and sanctifying, with so much licentiousness, and should not
clash with so great a perversion of Christian morals ?
What then remains for us, O my God, but to have speedy
recourse to your infinite mercy, and move you to compassion by
resuming a pure and active faith ? Culpable as we are, we are
your children who implore you, and call upon you as their Father ;
we are the living members of your adorable Son, because we are
196 ON THE INTERCOURSE BETWEEN
Christians. If we have but a few faint glimmerings of light to
direct our steps, they may increase to refulgence by the assistance
of your grace. Permit us not, O Lord, to be deprived of this
only source left. Every other vengeance you shall please to exert,
we deserve, and accept it from your paternal hand. But, O my
God, support our faith, increase our faith, enliven our faith. Oh !
reward it with bliss, and crown it with glory to all eternity !
SERMON X.
For the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany ; or the Twenty-sixth after Pentecost.
THE INTERCOURSE BETWEEN THE RIGHTEOUS AND THE WICKED.
" While the men slept, the enemy came and solved tares among
the wheat" Matt. xiii.
It is in the householder's field that these tares are sown among
the good grain ; and it is in the church of God that sinners live
among the righteous, and that the one and the other are con-
founded together. It was in the night-time, and when all were
asleep, that the enemy came to mar the field ; and it is in the course
of this mortal life, wmich, in our regard, is a time of obscurity, and
as it were, a dark night, that the common enemy of mankind com-
mits his ravages, and in the very bosom of the church keeps up
that mixture of the impious and reprobate with God's elect. He
doth not come, while we are upon the watch, have our eyes open,
and are attentive to ourselves ; but he lays hold of the critical
moments, when we are inebriated with the deceitful pleasures of
life, when we are lulled in the false delights and comforts of the
world, when we are deluded by passion, and hindered from per-
ceiving the damages he causes. " While the men slept." Thus it
is, that the guileful spirit insinuates himself, deforms the minds of
men with sin, and fills the Christian world with sinners. " The
enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat." God might
exterminate them all at once, with one motion of his arm ; but he
waits for the time of harvest, that is, the end of time, and his last
THE RIGHTEOUS AND THE WICKED. 197
judgment, when he shall send his harvestmen to separate the tares
from the good grain. But to speak in plain terms ; when he shall
send his angels — executioners of his will, and ministers of his jus-
tice, to make a distinction between the righteous and sinners ; to
place on the right hand, the predestinated righteous, and reprobated
sinners on the left ; to collect those together in his kingdom, and
hurl these headlong into eternal flames : " Gather ye together
the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them ; but gather the
wheat into my barn." Matt. xiii. This time, Christians, is not
yet come ; and we shall live among the ungodly, and the ungodly
will live among us, until this separation is made between us. It
is of the utmost importance, therefore, to know how you ought to
demean yourselves in their regard, and what kind of intercourse
you ought to hold with them.
To search into the secrets of Almighty God, in order to find
out the end for which he suffers the ungodly among the righteous,
w r ould be to try (says St. Augustin) to search into a mystery far