in a life more regular and more retired, in the opinion of men, you shall still have preserved all your self-love, your attachment to the flesh, all the niceties of sensuality; and, in a word, all the sins of the most worldly souls.
I will search, even to the bottom, that pretended zeal for my glory which made you so deeply lament over the scandals of which you were a spectator, which led you to condemn them with such confidence and pride, and to blaze out, with such warmth, against the irregularities and weaknesses of your brethren; and, perhaps, shall that zeal be no longer in my sight but a natural severity of temper, a malignity of disposition, an inclination toward censure and upbraiding, an indiscreet warmth, a vain, ostentatious zeal; far from finding you full of zeal for my glory, and for the salvation of your brethren, you shall no longer appear before me, but unjust, obstinate, malicious, and rash.
I will demand an account from you of those splendid talents which, it would appear, you employed only for my glory and for the instruction of believers; and which had drawn upon you the blessings of the just and the acclamations even of the worldly; and, perhaps, that continual attention to, and gratification of your own pride, the desire of surpassing others, and your sensibility of human applause, will prove the prominent features of your works to be only the works of man and the fruits of pride; and that I shall curse those labours which had sprung from so impure a source.
Great God! what works, upon which I had so firmly depended, shall then be found dead in thine eyes! How terrible shall be that discrimination! And, of all the actions which we have performed even for heaven, how few wilt thou acknowledge as thine, and which thou wilt deem worthy of reward!
Do not from thence conclude, my brethren, that it is then needless to labour for salvation, seeing that just Judge shall seek only the condemnation of men. Only their condemnation! My brethren, he is come solely to save them, and his mercies will far surpass even his justice. But behold the conclusion which you ought rather to draw. Those righteous souls whom you so frequently accuse of excess, of scrupulosity in the practice of the duties of a Christian life, as though they carried things too far; these souls, exposed to the light of God, shall appear lukewarm, sensual, imperfect, and perhaps criminal: and you, who live in the dangers and pleasures of the world; you, who devote to religion and your salvation only the most idle moments of your life; you, who scarcely mingle a single work of piety with an entire year of dissipation and inutility, in what situation shall you then be, my dear hearer? If those who shall have only laudable works to present shall yet be in danger of rejection, what shall be your destiny, — you, who have only a life entirely worldly to offer? If the tree full of blossoms be treated with such rigour, what shall become of the withered and barren tree? And, if the just be even with difficulty saved, — I speak not of the sinner, for he is already judged,
