Page:Sermons by John-Baptist Massillon.djvu/477

This page needs to be proofread.

SERMON XXVIII.

THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST.

"His name was called Jesus, which was so named of the angel." — Luke ii. 21.

A God lowering himself so far as even to become man, astonishes and confounds reason; and into what an abyss of errors is it not plunged, if the light of faith come not speedily to its aid, to discover the depth of the divine wisdom concealed under the apparent absurdity of the mystery of a Man-God! Thus, in all times, this fundamental point of our holy religion, I mean the divinity of Jesus Christ, hath been the object most exposed to the foolish oppositions of the human mind. Men, full of pride, whose mouths ought to be filled with only thanksgivings for the ineffable gift, made to them by the Father of mercies, of his only Son, have continually insulted him, by vomiting forth the most impious blasphemies against that adorable Son; — full of blindness, who have not seen that the sole name of Jesus, which is given to him on this day, that name which he at first receives in heaven, and which an angel conveys to the earth, to Mary and Joseph, is the incontestable proof of his divinity. That sacred name establishes him the Saviour of mankind; Saviour, in that, through the effusion of blood, which becomes our ransom, he delivers us from sin, and from the consequences inseparable from it, namely, the tyranny of the demon and of hell: Saviour, in that, attracting upon his own head the chastisement due to our transgressions, he reconciles us with God, and opens to us afresh the entry of the eternal sanctuary, which sin had shut against us. But, my brethren, if the Son of Mary be but a mere man, of what value, in the eyes of God, will be the oblation of his blood? If Jesus Christ be not God, how will his mediation be accepted, while he would himself have occasion for a mediator to reconcile him with God?

This proof, which I only touch upon here, and so many others with which religion furnishes me, would quickly stop the mouth of the ungodly, and confound his impiety, if I undertook to show them in all their light, and to give an extension in proportion to their importance. But, God forbid that I should come here, into the holy temple, where the altars of our divine Saviour are raised up, where his worshippers assemble, to enter into contestation, as if I spake in the presence of his enemies, or to make the apology of the mystery of the Man-God, before a believing people, and a sovereign whose most illustrious and most cherished title is that of Christian. It is not, therefore, to combat these ungodly, that, on this day, I consecrate my discourse to the divinity, and to the eternal glory of Jesus, Son of the living God; I come for the sole purpose of con-