laughter to live under his laws, and according to his maxims. An infidel or a favage might fuppofe that we, who 'ferve and who worship him, are under delufion; he might pity our credulity and weakness when he fees us facrificing the prefent to a futurity, and an hope which, in his eyes, might appear fabulous and chimerical, but he would be forced at least, to confefs that, if we do not deceive ourfelves, and if our faith be justly grounded, we are the wifeft and the moft eftimable of all men. But for you, who would not dare to ftart a doubt of the certitude of faith, and of the hope which is in Jefus Chrift, with what eyes, with what aftonishment would that infidel regard the cenfures which you fo plentifully beftow upon his fervants? You proftrate yourselves before his cross, he would fay to you, as before the pledge of your falvation; and you laugh at those who bear it in their heart, and who ground their whole hope and expectation in it! You worfhip him as your Judge; and you contemn and load with ridicule those who dread him, and who anxioufly labour to render him favourable to their interefts? You believe him to be fincere and faithful in his word; and you look upon, as weak minds, thofe who place their trust in him, and who facrifice every thing to the grandeur and to the certainty of his promises! O man, fo aftonishing, fo full of contradictions, fo little in unifon with thy felf, would the infidel exclaim, how great and how holy muft the God of the Chriftians therefore be, feeing that, among all those who know him, he hath no enemies but fuch as are of thy description!

Let us, therefore, respect virtue, my brethren; let us honour in his fervants, the gifts of God, and the wonders of his grace. Let us merit, by our deference and our esteem for piety, the bleffing of piety itfelf. Let us regard

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the worthy and pious as the fouls who alone continue to draw down the favours of Heaven upon the earth, as refources established to reconcile us one day with God, as bleffed figns, which prove to us that the Lord ftill looketh upon men with pity, and continueth his mercies upon his church. Let us encourage by our praises, if we cannot ftrengthen by our example, the fouls who return to him: let us applaud their change, if we think it impoffible, as yet, to change ourselves : let us glory in defending them, if our paffions will not, as yet, permit us to imitate them. Let us reverence and esteem virtue. Let us have no friends but the friends of God: let us count upon the fidelity of men only in proportion as they are faithful to their Master and Creator: let us confide our forrows and our fufferings only to those who can present them to him, who alone can confole them let us believe to be in our real interests only those who are in the interefts of our falvation. Let us smooth the way to our converfion : let us, by our respect for the juft, prepare the world to behold us one day, without surprise, just ourselves. Let us not by our derisions and cenfures, raife up an invincible ftumbling-block of human refpect, which fhall for ever prevent us from declaring ourselves difciples of that piety which we have fo loudly and fo publicly decried. Let us render glory to the truth; and, in order that it may deliver us, let us religiously receive it, like the magi, from the moment that it is manifefted to us: let us not diffemble it, like the priests, when we owe it to our brethren: let us not declare against it, like Herod, when we can no longer diffemble it ourfelves, in order that, after having walked in the ways of truth upon the earth, we may all together one day be fanctified in truth and perfected in charity.

SERMON

SERMON XII.

THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST.

LUKE ii. 21.

His name was called Jefus, which was fo named of the angel.

A Gon lowering himself so far as even to become man,

aftonishes and confounds reafon; 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 wifdom concealed under the apparent abfurdity of the myftery of a Man-God? Thus, in all times, this fundamental point of our holy religion, I mean the divinity of Jefus Christ, hath been the object most exposed to the foolish oppofitions of the human mind. Men, full of pride, whofe 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 infulted him, by vomiting forth the most impious blafphemies against that adorable Son. Full of blindness, who have not feen that the fole name of Jefus, which is given to him on this day, that name which he at firft receives in heaven, and which an angel conveys to the earth, to Mary and Jofeph, is the inconteftible proof of his divinity. That facred name establishes him the Saviour of mankind; Saviour, in that, through the effufion of blood, which becomes our ransom,

he

he delivers us from, and from the confequences infeparable from it, viz. the tyranny of the demon and of hell: Saviour, in that, attracting upon his own head the chaftisement due to our prevarications, he reconciles us with God, and opens to us afresh the entry of the eternal fanctuary, which fin had fhut against us. But, my brethren, if the Son of Mary be but a mere man, of what value, in the eyes God, will be the oblation of his blood? If Je. fus Chrift be not God, how will his meditation 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 ftop the mouth of the ungodly, and confound his impiety, if I undertook to fhew them in all their light, and to give an extenfion 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 affemble, to enter into conteftation, as if I spake in the prefence of his enemies, or, to make the apology of the mystery of the Man-God, before a believing people, and a fovereign whofe moft illuftrious and moft cherished title is that of Chriftian. It is not, therefore, to combat thefe ungodly, that, on this day, I confecrate my difcourfe to the divinity and to the eternal glory of Jefus, Son of the living God; I come for the fole purpose of confoling our faith, while recounting the wonders of him who is its Author and Perfecter; and to reanimate our piety in expofing to you the glory and the divinity of our Mediator who is its object and its sweetest hope.

It is even proper to renew, from time to time, these grand truths in the minds of the great and of the princes

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of the people, in order to ftrengthen them against thofe difcourses of infidelity which they, in general, are only too much in the way of hearing; and it is expedient fometimes to raise up the veil which covers the fanctuary, that they may have a view of thofe hidden beauties which religion only holds out to their respect and to their homages.

Now, the divinity of the Mediator can only be proven by his ministry; his titles can appear only in his functions: and, in order to know whether he be defcended from heaven, and equal with the most High, it requires only to relate the purposes for which he came upon the earth. He came, my brethren, to form an holy and a believing people; a believing people, who fubject their reafon to the facred yoke of faith; an holy people, whofe converfation is in heaven, and who are no longer responsible to the flesh, to live according to the flesh: fuch is the general defign of his temporal mission.

The luftre of his miniftry is the firmeft foundation of our faith the fpirit of his miniftry, the fole rule of our morals. Now, if he was only a man commiffioned of God, the luftre of his miniftry would be the inevitable occafion of our fuperftition and idolatry; the spirit of his ministry would be the fatal fnare to entrap our innocence. Thus, whether we confider the luftre or the spirit of his ministry, the glory of his divinity remains equally and invincibly eftablished.

O Jefus, fole Lord of all, accept this public homage of our confeffion and of our faith! While impiety blafphemes in fecret, and under the shades of darkness against thy glory, allow us the confolation of publishing it with the voice of VOL. II. U u

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