morality? More should then be exacted of him who owes less. The transgressions of the law should then dispense from its severity those who violate it. It would suffice to have passions, to be entitled to gratify them. The way of heaven would be rendered easy to sinners, while all its roughness would be kept for the just. And the more vices men should have, the less should they have occasion for virtues.
Again, allow me, my brethren, to add, in the last place, if the change of manners could change the rules, if customs could justify abuses, the eternal law of God should then accommodate itself to the inconstancy of the times, and to the ridiculous taste of men; a Gospel would then be necessary for every age and for every nation; for our customs were not established in the times of our fathers, and undoubtedly they shall not pass to our last descendants; they are not common to all the nations, who, like us, worship Jesus Christ. Therefore, these customs cannot either become our rule or change it, for the rule is of all times and of all places; therefore, new manners do not form a new Gospel, seeing we should anathematize even an angel who should come to announce to us a new one; and that the Gospel would be no longer but a human and little-to-be-trusted law for men, if it could change with men; therefore, the rules and duties are not to be judged by manners and customs, but the manners and customs are to be judged by the duties and rules; therefore, it is the law of God which ought to be the constant rule of the times, and not the variation of times to become even the rule of the law of God.
No longer tell us, then, my brethren, that the times are no longer the same; but the law of God, is it not? That you cannot reform manners universally established: but you are not charged with the reformation of the universe: change yourself; save your own soul with which you are intrusted: behold all that is exacted of you. Lastly, that the Christians of the primitive times had either more force or more grace than we; ah! they had more faith, more constancy, more love for Jesus Christ, more contempt for the world: behold all that distinguished them from us.
Have we not the same sources of grace as they, the same ministry, the same altar, the same victim? Do the mercies of the Lord not flow with the same abundance upon his church? Have we not still among us pure and holy souls, who renew the fervour and faith of the primitive times, and who are living proofs of the possibility of the duties, and of the mercies of the Lord upon his people? u Tell us no longer, then/5 says the Spirit of God, " that the former days were better than these; for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this." To follow Jesus Christ, sufferance must always be required. In all ages, it hath been necessary to bear his cross, not to conform to the corrupted age, and to live as strangers upon the earth: in all times, the holy have had the same passions as we to resist, the same abuses to shun, the same snares to dread, the same obstacles to surmount: and if there be any difference here, it is, that, in former times, it was not merely arbitrary customs which
