scandal. Secondly, he persecutes it by endeavouring to corrupt the priests, and even by laying snares for the piety of the magi; and this is what I call a persecution of seduction. Lastly, he persecutes it by shedding innocent blood; and this is a persecution of power and violence. Now, my brethren, if the brevity of a Discourse permitted me to examine these three descriptions of persecution of the truth, there is not perhaps one of them of which you would not find yourselves culpable.
For, first, who can flatter himself with not being among the number of the persecutors of truth, under the description of scandals? I even speak not of those disorderly souls who have erected the standard of guilt and licentiousness, and who pay little, if indeed any, attention to the public opinion: the most notorious scandals are not always those which are most to be dreaded; and avowed debauchery, when carried to a certain degree, occasions, in general, more censures upon our conduct than imitations of our excesses. I speak of those souls delivered up to the pleasures, to the vanities, and to all the abuses of the age, and whose conduct, in other respects regular, is not only irreproachable in the sight of the world, but attracts even the praises and the esteem of men; and I say that they persecute the truth through their sole examples; that they undo, as much as in them lies, the maxims of the Gospel in every heart; that they cry out to all men, that shunning of pleasure is a needless precaution; that love of the world and the love of virtue are not at all incompatible; that a taste for theatres, for dress, and for all public amusements, is entirely innocent; and that it is easy to lead a good life even while living like the rest of the world. This worldly regularity is therefore a continual persecution of the truth; and; and so much the more dangerous, as it is an authorized persecution which has nothing odious in it, and against which no precaution is taken; which attacks the truth without violence, without effusion of blood, under the smiling image of peace and society: and which, through these means, occasions more deserters from the truth than ever all tyrants and tortures formerly did.
I speak even of those good characters who only imperfectly fulfil the duties of piety, who still retain, too, public remains of the passions of the world and of its maxims: and I say, that they persecute the truth through these unfortunate remains of infidelity and weakness; that they are the occasion of its being blasphemed bv the impious and other sinners; that they authorize the senseless discourses of the world against the piety of the servants of God; that they are the cause of souls being disgusted with virtue, who might otherwise feel themselves disposed to it; that they confirm, in the path of error, those who seek pretexts to remain in it: in a word, that they render virtue either suspicious or ridiculous. Thus, still every day, as the Lord formerly complained, through his prophet Jeremiah, the backsliding Israel, that is to say, the world, justifies herself more than treacherous Judah, that is to say, the weaknesses of the good: I mean to say, that the world thinks itself secure when it sees that those souls, who profess piety, join in its
