science, a thousand daily transgressions, of which he knows not the wickedness, bears always an uneasy and suspicious conscience; and being no longer sustained by love for his duties, nor the peace and testimony of his conscience, this state of agitation and weariness soon terminates in the miserable peace of sin.
The last reason is, that the disgusts of the faithful Christian being only trials, to which, for his purification, God exposes him, he supplies, in a thousand ways, the sensible consolations of virtue which he refuses him; he replaces them by a more powerful protection, by a merciful attention to remove every danger which might seduce him, and by more abundant succours of grace; for the Almighty wishes neither to lose nor discourage him; he wishes only to prove him, and make him expiate, by the afflictions and hardships of virtue, the unjust pleasures of sin. But the disgusts of an infidel soul are not trials, — they are punishments: it is not a merciful God who suspends the consolations of grace, without suspending grace itself; it is not a tender father, who supplies, by the solidity of his tenderness, and by effectual assistances, the apparent rigours he is under the necessity of using: it is a severe judge, who only begins to deprive the criminal of a thousand indulgences, because the sentence of death is prepared for him. The hardships of virtue find a thousand resources in virtue itself: those of lukewarmness can find them only in the deceitful pleasures of vice.
Such, my brethren, is the inevitable lot of lukewarmness in the ways of God, — the misery of losing righteousness. Will you tell us, after this, that you wish to practise only a degree of virtue which may continue; that these great exertions of zeal cannot be supported; that it is much better not to begin so high, and by these means to accomplish the end; and that they never go far who exhaust themselves at the beginning of their journey?
I know that every excess, even in piety, comes not from the Spirit of God, which is a spirit of wisdom and discretion; that the zeal which overturns the order of our state and duties, is not the piety which comes from above, but an illusion born in ourselves; that indiscretion is a source of false virtues; and that we often give to vanity what we think is given to truth.
But I tell you from God, that, to persevere in his ways, we must give ourselves up to him without reserve; that, in order to support the fidelity due to the essential parts of our duty, we must unceasingly endeavour to weaken the passions which oppose it; and that keeping terms with these passions, under the pretext of not going too far, is to dig for ourselves a grave. I tell you, that it is only the faithful and fervent Christians, who, not contented with shunning sin, shun also every thing which can lead to it; that it is these alone who persevere, who sustain themselves, who honour piety by a supported, equal, and uniform conduct; and, on the contrary, it is lukewarm and relaxed souls, who have begun their penitence by limiting their piety, and accommodating it to the pleasures and maxims of the world; it is these souls who draw
