of an unfortunate wretch, accidentally placed upon the earth, who looks forward to nothing beyond life, whose sweetest hope is that of sinking back to nonentity, who relates to nothing but himself, and is reduced to find his felicity in himself, though he can there find only anxieties and secret terrors! Is this, then, that miserable distinction by which the pride of unbelief is so much flattered? Great God! how glorious to thy truth, to have no enemies but men of this character! For my part, as St. Ambrose formerly said to the unbelievers of his time, I glory in believing truths so honourable to man, and in expecting the fulfilment of promises so consolatory. To refuse belief to them is sorrily to punish one^s self. Ah! if I be deceived in preferring the hope of one day enjoying the eternal society of the righteous in the bosom of God, to the humbling belief of being of the same nature as the beasts, it is an error dear to me, which I delight in, and upon which I wish never to be undeceived.
But if faith be glorious on the side of its promises for the future, it is not less so from the situation in which it places the believer for the present. And here, my brethren, figure to yourselves a truly righteous man, who lives by faith, and you will acknowledge that there is nothing on the earth more sublime. Master of his desires and of all the movements of his heart; exercising a glorious empire over himself; in patience and in equanimity enjoying his soul, and regulating all his passions by the bridle of temperance; humble in prosperity, firm under misfortunes, cheerful in tribulations, peaceful with those who hate peace, callous to injuries, feeling for the afflictions of those who trespass against him, faithful in his promises, religious in his friendships, and unshaken in his duties; little affected with riches, which he contemns; fatigued with honours, which he dreads; greater than the world, which he considers only as a mass of earth — what dignity!
Philosophy conquered one vice only by another. It pompously taught contempt of the world, merely to attract the applauses of the world; it sought more the glory of wisdom than wisdom itself. In destroying the other passions, it continually, upon their ruins, raised up one much more dangerous; I mean to say, pride: like that prince of Babylon who overthrew the altars of the national gods, merely to exalt upon their wrecks his own impious statue, and that monstrous colossus of pride which he wanted the whole earth to worship.
But faith exalts the just man above even his virtue. Through it he is still greater in the secrecy of his heart, and in the eyes of God than before men. He forgives without pride; he is disinterested without show; he suffers without wishing it to be known; he moderates his passions without perceiving it himself; he alone is ignorant of the glory and of the merit of his actions; far from graciously looking upon himself, he is ashamed of his virtues much more than the sinner is of his vices; far from courting applauses, he hides his works from the light, as if they were deeds of darkness; love of duty is the sole source of his virtue; he acts under
