examine it, and to make the truth of it incontestably appear. We
shall find it is founded on the most solid principles, nay, the most
evident, of natural reason, experience, and religion. Mind this, I
beseech you : for I am bold enough to affirm, that it is the essen-
tial point on which all Christian morality depends. In truth, to
see the calamities of the righteous upon earth, and the prosperity
of sinners, (which to us seems irregular,) is one of the strongest
and most obvious arguments, to convince us — that there is another
life besides this, and that our souls die not with the body ; that
there is a reward, a glory, a salvation, to be hoped for hereafter ;
that all our pretensions are not limited to the present life ; and
that Almighty God reserves for us something better and greater.
This is Avhat is taught us by reason ; I say more : it shows us that
Jesus Christ, our head, in whom we put our trust, is faithful to
Q2
^3G ON ADVERSITY AND PROSPERITY.
his word, that his predictions are time, that he hath not deceived
us, and that we may safely rely on his promises, inasmuch as they
are already accomplished. This is what is taught us by experience :
finally, it is evident, because nothing is more conformable to the
sacred order which God hath established in the predestination of
men, than the sufferings of the righteous, and the temporal advan-
tages and prosperity of sinners : this is what is taught us by
religion. Now I ask you, if these are not three very powerful
considerations toward the supporting of our confidence ? I know
there is a future life to which I am called ; a life of blessedness
which is prepared for me, and this my reason dictates to me. I
know that whatever the Son of God hath foretold will happen ;
whether to the righteous or to sinners, will come to pass : I may,
therefore, depend upon whatever he hath promised me, and the
proof I have of it is from my own experience. I know, and per-
ceive, that whatever God hath regulated and ordained as to our
predestination, begins to be fulfilled. When these three
things are made to appear to us, can any one's faith to be so weak
and wavering as not to be strengthened, roused, and inspirited ?
Now this, I repeat it again, is what evidently follows from the
state of pains and afflictions in which we see the righteous, while
we see the sinners live in ease, opulence, and pleasure. Let us
recapitulate, and place in a clearer point of view, these three
reflections :
1st. There is no libertine, whether in morals or belief, who
would not quit his evil courses, were he but persuaded that there
is another life. His libertinism is owing to his not believing, or
not believing but by halves, that there is something real and true
in all that is told about a future life, to which we aspire as to the
term of our career, and the final object of our hope. Whatever
he may think of it, (for it is not to him I now address myself,
neither is it on his account I speak) — I, for my part, who believe
in God, the Creator of the universe, to encourage myself, and
always maintain a lively faith and firm confidence in my heart,
make use of this strange diversity of conditions, in which I behold
the good and the impious, in the following manner. I say within
myself: virtue is generally oppressed in the world : vice holds an
uncontrolled dominion and sway. The righteous are destitute of
every thing, and miserable ; the true friends of God are persecuted ;
the saints are despised, overlooked, and abandoned. What infe-
ON ADVERSITY AND PROSPERITY. 237
rencc ought I to draw from this ? That therefore there arc more
substantial blessings to be hoped for by the righteous after the
present life, than the visible and perishable things that are now
withheld from them. This is the inference which the fathers of the
church always drew, and the grand proof which they always
employed against those heretics who admitted indeed the existence
of a God, but yet would question the immortality of our souls.
Read what William of Paris hath written upon this subject ; or,
rather, hearken to the short abstract I am going to give of it.
You grant (says he) that there is a first Being ; you acknow-
ledge a God : but, answer me this : doth this same God love
those who serve him, and who make it their only business to
please him ? If he loves them not, and hath not their real welfare
at heart, what is become of his wisdom and goodness ? If he doth
love them, when doth he show it ? Not in this life, because he
suffers them to remain in affliction ; not in the next, because you
pretend there is no such thing. You may rack your imagination,
(adds this holy bishop,) and torture your brain in search of sub-
tilties, you never will be able to remove this difficulty, but by
admitting the immortality of the soul, and confessing with me,
that after death there is a state of life, in which the Almighty
recompences every one according to his merits. For this God, as
God, being necessarily perfect in all his attributes, must have a
perfect justice. Now a perfect justice necessarily brings with it a
perfect judgment. This perfect judgment is not fulfilled in the
present world. By consequence it must be fulfilled in the next ;
and there is a world to come, winch is that which we expect.
Otherwise, (continues the same father,) the righteous might be
said to be fools and madmen, and the ungodly, men of true wis-
dom. The reason is this : the ungodly, by seeking the good things
of this life, would seek true happiness ; whereas the righteous
would undergo much, and pine away with toil and labour, in a
fond expectation of an imaginary good. Thus, beloved Christians,
this holy bishop drew an invincible argument to prove and estab-
lish the faith of an eternal life and glory.
The same is St. Augustin's way of discoursing, in his exposition
of the ninety-first psalm, when, speaking of a Christian, disturbed
at the dispositions wliich appear in the economy of the world, he
alleges this same reason, in order to inspire him with courage
against the worst events. Would you have (says he) all the Ion-
238 ON ADVERSITY AND PROSPERITY.
ganimity of the saints, consider the eternal duration of God. Then
the worst of accidents, far from casting a damp on your spirits,
will be so many motives to a more constant faith and hope than
ever. For when you are uneasy, because virtue is disregarded
and spurned at upon earth, and vice is honoured, you do not reason
upon a good principle, but are in an error. You consider but a
small number of days which compose your life, as if in that small
number of days the whole designs of God upon men were to be
fulfilled. That is, you would wish, from this moment, to see all
the righteous crowned and rewarded, and the wicked stricken with
all the scourges of divine vengeance ; and that God would not
postpone liis vengeance, but carry both into execution in the
small number of your years. But this is a thing you should not
ask. God will do both in good season, although neither in your
time. Eternity is the time of God, and yours is the mortal life.
Your time is short, but God's is infinite. Now nothing obliges
God to do all things in your time : it is enough that he does them
in liis own. And therefore it is that I say, if you mean to corro-
borate your faith, and support your hope, you need but continually
revolve in your mind the eternity of God. The reason is, that
being witness to the seeming injustice with which he treats some,
during their short abode npon earth, so rigorous to his friends, and
so unfavourable to his enemies, you would draw this consequence,
that therefore he prepares for the one and the other, an eternity
in which he will render them all the justice due to them. All this
is taken from St. Augustin ; and I do no more than give you his
words.
It was this same prospect into eternity, that made the saints of
God invincible to every the most violent temptations. When did
Job speak of a future and immortal life with most certainty and
greatest faith ? When, deprived of property, house, and family,
he lay extended upon a dunghill; " I know," says he, " that my
Kedeemer liveth ;" (Job xix. ;) and that I shall live with him
eternally. I know it not only by an obscure revelation, but by a
kind of evidence and demonstration. And whence did he learn
it ? From his veiy sufferings, and from all the calamities with
which he was afflicted. When had holy David the clearest and
most distinct conception of the eternal good things of the Lord,
and discoursed upon them as though heaven were open before his
eyes ? "I believe to see the good things of the Lord in the land
ON ADVERSITY AND PROSPERITY. 239
of the living." Ps. xxix. When Saul persecuted him with greatest
fury, I behold already (says he) the glory which God hath pre-
pared for his elect, and it seems to appear to me in all its splendor.
But, O holy prophet, how dost thou behold it ? Thou art beset
on all sides with afflictions and ills of every kind, and yet thou
declarest to see, in the midst of all that, the good tilings of the
Lord. But in that it was, (replies St. Chrysostom,) in the ills
with which he was beset, that ho found a certain pledge and surety,
for the life to come, of possessing the good things of the Lord.
For, his reason alone suggested to him, in the bottom of his soul,
that as the ills which he had to suffer on the part of Saul, were
against justice, the divine Providence must have preordained a
future state, in which Ins innocence should be made manifest, and
and his patience glorified. And this was his meaning, and the
idea he meant to convey, when he said, " I believe to see the good
things of the Lord in the land of the living."
2ndly. A stronger argument, beloved Christians, than any
hitherto adduced, may be drawn from the predictions of Jesus
Christ, which our own experience makes us see fulfilled in the
sufferings of the righteous, and prosperity of sinners. This, too,
is worthy of your reflection. If the Son of God had said in the
gospel, that those who should follow him, and walk in his foot-
steps, should be exempt in this world from all pain, should be
screened from all disgrace, should wallow in wealth, should pass
their days in joy and pleasure, and that the portion of the ungodly
should be vexation and crosses, our faith, 1 own, might in that
case waver at the sight of the worthy man in indigence, humili-
ation, and sorrow, and of the libertine in the enjoyment of fortune,
authority, and elevation. I should find it hard to resist the senti-
ments of diffidence, which would naturally rise in my heart, because
I should imagine that Jesus Christ himself had imposed upon me,
and should find, upon trial, the direct contrary to that which he
had promised me. But when I consult the sacred oracles which
flowed from the mouth of this saving God, and see them thoroughly
and openly fulfilled by the secret dispensations of divine Provi-
dence ; when I hear this adorable Saviour tell his disciples clearly
and without equivocation, " The world shall rejoice, but ye shall
be sorrowful ;" (John xvi. ;) when I hear him declare in the most
express terms, that they shall be exposed to the persecutions of men,
number up the crosses they shall be obliged to carry, and all the
240 ON ADVERSITY AND PROSPERITY.
ill treatment they must undergo, point out all the circumstances
attending these matters, and^ conclude with admonishing them :
" He hath said these things, that they may not be scandalized, but
that when the time shall come, they may remember he mentioned
them ;" (John xvi. ;) when all this, I say, is present to my mind,
and done before my eyes ; when I ruminate upon it, and examine
into it, and have plain and obvious instances of it, is it possible
that my confidence should not revive, acquire fresh strength, and
considerably increase ? If I were to see all sinners in wretched-
ness, and the righteous arrived to the height of human felicity, I
should be struck with amazement, because I should not see the
word of Jesus Christ fulfilled. But so long as persons of worth
are in misery, and ungodly persons have all the advantages the
world can afford, 1 shall fear nothing : I shall comfort myself, and
bear up in the hope of what is to come ; for thus I may reason :
the same Son of God who tells the righteous, you shall be in
affliction, tells them at the same time, that "their sadness
shall be turned into joy." John xvi. The same who foretells them
their sufferings and adversities, hath promised them his kingdom,
and in his kingdom a perfect happiness. Now he is equally infalli-
ble in the one and in the other, his veracity being the same, when
he announces good, and when he announces evil, inasmuch as he
is himself the eternal Truth. As, therefore, the event hath justi-
fied, and doth justify every day, what he hath foretold concerning
the afflictions of his chosen servants, the same may be said with
respect to the everlasting glory of which he hath given them
hopes. Accordingly, I enter into the spirit of the great apostle,
and I say with him : I suffer, but it is without complaining,
neither am I disheartened, or made uneasy, for I know in whom
and in whose word I place my confidence. I know, and I am
certain, not only that he can do for me whatever he hath promised to
do, but that he will do it, forasmuch as he hath promised to do
it for me, and for all those who care to prepare, in silence and
submission, for the happy day in which he will come to acknow-
ledge his elect and crown their affiance.
3rdly. This is not all, beloved hearers ; I shall conclude with
an article which seems to me, and should seem to you as well as
to me, the most essential. For in this congregation I address
myself to him, whom God knows to be of all the most righteous,
but to whom, nevertheless, he hath afforded the fewest temporal
ON ADVERSITY AND PROSPERITY. 241
blessings. Let hini hearken to what I say, and let him take my
meaning. True it is, brother, and I know very well, that your
case is hard in the eyes of men, your situation is melancholy, and
your life wretched ; but what conclusion ought you to draw from
thence ? That you bear the mark which the elect bear, which dis-
tinguishes them as elect ; in a word, which Christ himself, their
head and model, bore. Insomuch that you enter, by that means,
in the order of your predestination, and that God begins to cany
the decree which he hath made concerning it, into execution. But
I shall place this mystery of salvation in a clearer light. You
have been often told, in the words of the apostle, and it is a prin-
ciple of our faith, that, our blessed Saviour being a pattern of the
predestinate, to be glorified like him, we must bear a holy resem-
blance to him. For according to the excellent and sublime theology
of the teacher of the Gentiles, it is the indispensable condition
which God requires, in order that we share in the glory of his
elect, and upon these terms it was that he chose them : " Whom
he foreknew and predestinated to be made conformable to the
image of his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ." Horn. viii. Now it is
very evident, that our blessed Saviour lived upon earth in the
same condition, to which Almighty God lets the righteous to be
reduced ; that he walked in the same path ; that he was exposed
to the same insults, the same contempt, and the same contradic-
tions. How deep are the counsels of the divine wisdom ! Tiberius
wielded the imperial sceptre, and the Son of God obeyed his
orders. Pilate was invested with the supreme authority, and the
Son of God submitted to his sentence. Thus God worked, by the
means of his only Son Jesus Christ, the salvation of men ; and
thus, beloved hearers, he works yours, by your own means. He
impresses the characteristics of his Son upon you, and engraves on
you his lineaments. Otherwise you would have great reason to
fear ; but now you have great reason to hope, as thereby are
executed the favourable designs of God upon you, " Whom he
foreknew and predestinated to be made conformable to the image
of his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ."
If objection be made that Ave have seen, and do still see, men of
worth in the world, rich, honoured, and distinguished, I grant it ;
but to this I have a three-fold answer to give. If there were no
righteous, or elect, but the poor and the vulgar, that is, such as by
the obscurity of their condition, or the distress of their affairs, arc
242 OS ADVERSITY AND PROSPERITY.
in the lowest class, all other states would, therefore, be excluded
from the kingdom of God ; would, therefore, of themselves be repro-
bated states ; would, therefore, be such as every one would be
obliged to abandon or avoid. Now, notwithstanding this, it was the
will of Providence to establish in society men of these states, and
it is likewise the will of the same Providence to lend them protec-
tion. * Whence it evidently follows, that God would not annex an
inevitable damnation to these states ; but that, on the contrary, he
must make examples of holiness appear in them, to the end that
those who are engaged in them, may not be cast into an absolute
despair. I proceed further, and I add, that if ever the saints per-
ceived themselves in the state of human prosperity, it made them
tremble, it kept them in a continual diffidence in themselves, it
was a humiliating thought for them, and it put them to confusion
in the presence of God. The reason is this : as they were unable
to perceive the image of their suffering Saviour in their prosperity,
they were afraid that G od had cast them off, and that they should
never reign with their Saviour glorious and triumphant. What
then did they do to make up the deficiency, and to acquire this so
necessary a conformity ? Mind this ; it is my last answer. They
did not, upon that account, relinquish their station, because they
thought themselves called thereunto, and they would obey the
appointment of Almighty God ; but under the specious outside of
an easy and commodious condition, they preserved the proper abne-
gation of a Christian, and bore on their bodies the mortification of
Jesus Christ. Without renouncing their state, or a certain exte-
rior peculiar to their state, they renounced the delights of it ; and,
above all, they renounced themselves. In the midst of abundance,
they found means to feel the inconvenience of poverty. In the
midst of honours* they could entertain sentiments, and exercise acts
of profound humility. In the midst of worldly diversions, in which
they sometimes seemed to bear a part, they did not forget the
duties of penitence, which, on those occasions, they often practised
in its full extent. All this they did, in the view of being num-
bered among those whom the apostle says " he foreknew and pre-
destinated to be made conformable to the image of his Son, our
Lord Jesus Christ."
It is urged that there have been, and that still there are sinners
in the same adversity, and equally afflicted with the righteous.
True ; but without examining all the reasons why Almighty God
ON ADVERSITY AND PROSPERITY. 243
never will, nor does suffer vice to be always prosperous, I shall
give an answer that will be an additional proof of the important
verity I deliver. It is this ; that for those sinners, who, like the
righteous, are harrassed by the unfortunate accidents of life, one of
the most precious and obvious tokens (according to the doctrine of
all the fathers) of God's propitious regard toward them, is to be made
to undergo hardships ; that the greatest of all misfortunes for them
would be, to be always cherished and happy, and never be contra-
dicted in their evil doings ; that the last means by which they may
enter into the way of salvation, and be received into the bosom of
eternal mercy is, that God chastises them in the present life ; that
by chastising them, he corrects them ; that by correcting them,
he reforms them ; and that this renewal and reformation of man-
ners imprints in them afresh the image of his Son, which had been
effaced. And for that reason, we must ever recur to the words of
the great teacher of the Gentiles : " Whom he foreknew and pre-
destinated to be made conformable to the image of his Son, our
Lord Jesus Christ."
And now, beloved hearers, may heaven grant that you may
comprehend well the mystery of grace and sanctification which I
have disclosed to you ; and that in all the misfortunes which shall
befal you, you acknowledge the benign hand of God ! May the
righteous man be not appalled, and may his virtue stand fixed and
immoveable, on the solid basis of hope and patience. May the sin-
ner, dazzled with the vain splendor that surrounds him, and ine-
briated with the false and fleeting happiness that deceives him,
perceive at last the wrong notions he hath conceived of them ; and
may he henceforth wean his affections from them, and settle them
on more deserving objects ! But you, O God, make no change in
the order of things which your holy providence hath disposed.
Act according to your own views, not according to ours. Your
views are infinite, and ours are limited ; your views are pure, and
ours are earthly ; your views have no tendency but to our salva-
tion, and ours have no tendency but to our perdition. If nature
rebel, or if the senses murmur, grant not, O Lord, either to our
precipitate and intractable nature, or to our blind and carnal senses,
that which they desire. Deliver us not up to our perverse propen-
sities, neither hearken to us, as you did in your anger to the Jew-
ish people. But follow uninterruptedly your adorable designs,
and, whatever it may cost us, carry them invariably into execution,
both for your own glory > and pur eternal welfare.
244
SEKMON XII
ON MATRIMONY.
For the Second Sunday after Epiphany.
" There was a wedding in Cana of Galilee ; and the mother
of Jesus was there ; and both Jesus and his disciples ivere in-
vited to the wedding" John ii.
He was not only invited to the wedding, Christians, but assisted
at it, and by assisting at it, he approved of it, honoured it, sancti-
fied it, removed from it all its irregularities, and already took mea-
sures to consecrate it in the church, by the institution of a sacra-
ment. It was not, therefore, undesignedly, and to no end, that
he chose to be invited ; for hence (say the ancient fathers) derives
the holiness of matrimony : and if Jesus Christ be not invited to
it, it is a profane state, as there is nothing to raise it, or give it
dignity. But I say more, and I maintain it is not enough that
Jesus Christ be invited to it by men, if they are not also invited
to it by Jesus Christ. That is, beloved Christians, prayer must
precede the grace of vocation, by which God sanctifies you, in order
to your entering into the marriage state ; and by prayer you must
beg of God to take part in the holy alliance you are going to con-
tract. A useless prayer, unaccompanied by this divine vocation.
But if God calls you first, and then you call God, it is a perfect
model and true idea of a Christian marriage. It is also the subject
upon which I shall enlarge for your present instruction. And as
I am aware that there are rocks unnumbered, against which the
nature of the subject may drive me, it imports me to have imme-
diate recourse to God : I address myself to him in the manner of
the prophet, and beseech him to put a guard to my lips, and pre-
serve my tongue from uttering so much as a single word, on which
the malignity of the times might put an ill construction.
St. Augustin, speaking on the nuptial state, in an excellent tract
composed on that subject, and collecting together in one point of
ON MATRIMONY. 245
view the several advantages arising from it, reduces them to these
three principal ones : to the education of children, which is its end ;
to conjugal fidelity, which is its tie ; and to the quality of the
sacrament, which is, as it were, its essential constituent in the law
of grace. " A three-fold good accrues from matrimony — posterity,
fidelity, a sacrament." These are his words, and they often occur
in the works of that father : " And, indeed, it is a great happiness
for mankind, that Almighty God, by the institution of a sacrament,
hath established connexions and alliances among them ; and that
he hath raised these connexions and alliances to a supernatural
order, by a grace which assists them to obtain these blessings.
Besides which, it is an advantage greatly deserving of esteem, for
a person engaged in the matrimonial state, to think that another