vexation of spirit; and Jesus Christ alone, in bringing the sword and separation, is come to bring peace among men.
O my God! I know only too well that the world and its pleasures make none happy! Come, then, and resume thy influence over a heart which in vain endeavours to fly from thee, and which its own disgusts recall to thee in spite of itself: come to be its Redeemer, its peace, and its light, and pay more regard to its wretchedness than to its crimes.
Behold how the lustre of the ministry of Jesus Christ would operate as an inevitable occasion of idolatry in men, were he only a simple creature. Let us now see how the spirit of his ministry would become the snare of our innocence.
Part II. — The lustre of the ministry of Jesus Christ is not the most august and most magnificent side of it. However dignified he hath appeared, in consequence of all the oracles which have announced him, the works which he hath operated, and the shining circumstances of his mysteries, these are merely the outward appearances, as I may say, of his glory and of his grandeur; and, in order to know all that he is, we must enter into the principle and spirit of his ministry. Now, in the spirit of his ministry are comprised his doctrine, his favours, and his promises. Let us display these in their proper extent, and prove, either that we must deny to Jesus Christ his quality of a righteous man, and of a messenger of the Almighty God, which the enemies of his divinity grant him to have been, or we must admit that he is himself a God manifested in the flesh, and come down upon the earth in order to save mankind.
Yes, my brethren, this is an inevitable alternative: if Jesus Christ be holy, he is God; and if his ministry be not a ministry of deceit and imposition, it is the ministry of Eternal Truth itself, which hath been manifested for our instruction. Now, the enemies of his" divine birth, are forced to admit, that he hath been a man righteous, innocent, and a friend of God: and if the world hath beheld dark and impious minds, who have likewise dared to blaspheme against his innocence, and to confound him with seducers, these have been only some individual monsters who were held in abhorrence by the human race, and whose names, too odious to all nature, are for ever buried in the same darkness from which the horror of their impiety originally came.
In effect, what man, till then, had appeared upon the earth with more incontestable marks of innocence and sanctity than Jesus, Son of the living God? In what philosopher had ever been observed such a love of virtue, so sincere a contempt of the world, so much charity toward men, such indifference for human glory, such zeal for the glory of the Supreme Being, such elevation above whatever is admired or sought after by men? How great is his zeal for the salvation of men! It is to that object that he directs all his discourses, all his cares, all his desires, and all his anxieties. The philosophers criticised only the men, and solely endeavoured
