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even at the bottom of that sea of dissipation into which you had cast yourselves to avoid it; which side, think you, would preponderate, and which kick the beam? I doubt not that, in certain moments of excess and madness, you may have said to yourselves what the disciples of our Lord said to their Master (but on a very different occasion), "It is good for us to be here.”*

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But this was a fit of intoxication, it was a drunkenness of the mind; and the very instant which followed discovered the delusion, plunged you afresh into your first disquietudes. Even now that I address you, ask your hearts, are you calm? Is nothing wanted to complete your happiness? Do you dread nothing? Do you wish for nothing? Do you never feel that God is not with you? Would you wish to die such as you are? Are you contented to have your portion of happiness in this life? Are you unfaithful to the Author of your being without remorse? And have you hitherto succeeded in stilling your agitations of mind? Searing (to use the expression of the apostle) your conscience?"+ Is it not true, on the contrary, that, intruding oft with unwelcome impertinence, the busy visitant holds up the mirror to your conduct, to the solicitations of passion, opposes the obligation of duty, and in the very midst of your unhallowed pleasures and abundance, when you are carousing at the feast, reposing in the lap of luxury, or rioting in the spoils of innocence, interposes her hoarse alarms, and renders you superlatively wretched? "The spirit of a man (says Solomon) upholdeth his infirmity, but a spirit that is easily angered (that is wounded) who can bear?" What pangs so grievous as the pangs of a guilty conscience!

* Matt. xvii. 4. + Tim. iv. 2.

Prov. xviii. 14.

What wretches so miserable, as those who are awakened to its reproaches! Stretched on the tortures of the mind, how often do the unhappy victims have recourse to death for consolation! How often do they fly to the knife, the opiate, or the pistol, as if the anguish of the soul could be extinguished with the feelings of the body!

You excuse yourselves from obeying the laws of God, by pleading the infirmities of nature, and the perverseness of the human heart. But where is your excuse, if, in the very tempest of your impetuous desires and violent temptations, the Lord should say to you-To accomplish my will would for you indeed be difficult, but you shall not act alone; I will co-operate with you; it is I who shall lead you to the field, arm you for the struggle, and, in conjunction with your endeavours, combat all those vicious inclinations which oppose your happiness? Should he address you in this manner, would not your complaints of human weakness be at an end? Yet, has he not used this method of address to every Christian present, and on a thousand occasions used it? Is it not to you he speaks when he promies, by the mouth of the Prophet Ezechiel, "I will take away the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh. ?"* Says he not in effect the same, when he speaks of his law as of a yoke? A yoke is not borne by one but by two in conjunction. The yoke of Jesus, which himself has declared to "be easy," associates us with the Saviour, and unites his omnipotence with our weakness. If we exert therefore our utmost efforts, God will assist us; and, as the Apostle says, "if God be for us, who is against us?" What was the answer which St. Paul

Ezech. xi. 19. + Matt. xi. 30.

Rom. viii. 31.

received from the Lord, when he "besought him thrice for the relief of that sting in the flesh, that angel of Satan sent to buffet him? "My grace is sufficient for thee, for power is made perfect in infirmity.”*

You complain of the importunity of a passion, and you pay no attention to the holy importunities of God in the ordinary dispensations of his providence and grace. How often does he lead you into awakening reflections on the subject of your darling vice, when you hear his word, when you approach his altar, when you have witnessed any tragical event or sudden death, when you have suffered a reverse of fortune, or been afflicted in your family and friends? How often also in secret has he convinced and confounded you by the example of others? How frequently has an internal voice whispered into your ears, what God formerly said to Abraham, "Take thy only begotten son Isaac whom thou lovest, and offer him as an holocaust."+ The victim which I demand of thee is that beloved passion, that darling sin, which thine heart has_nourished with such tenderness and assiduity. Every other sacrifice is indifferent to me. It is thine

heart of which I claim the possession, thine heart, at present absorbed by another. Let that dagon fall prostrate before my ark, and less than this I am determined not to accept, for I will not be served with that which costs thee nothing. The torrents of divine grace have ever flowed, and shall continue to flow, till time be lost in vast eternity; and would we but turn the current, and divert it into the channel of our hearts, we change our weakness for an invincible strength, cease to grovel on this spot of earth. I shall + Gen. xx. 2.

* 2 Cor. xii. 7. 9.

conclude this discourse by a short paraphrase on the prayer which Judith addressed to God, to encourage her to cut off the head of Holofernes, who was the chief of the enemies of Israel: "Lord God of Israel, (said this pious female) strengthen me at this hour."* In a strain of similar devotion let us supplicate his assistance in the slaughter of our spiritual Holofernes, that master vice, which, though but one in species, produces and cherishes many more. All-invigorating God, do thou aid us; do thou support us : do thou animate us with thy Spirit; do thou confirm and strengthen our staggering virtue. Enable us to combat with success during life, and at death to receive the crown of glory, the reward of all thy faithful persevering servants through the ages of eternity! Amen.

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SERMON XVIII.

FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT

A Charity Sermon from the Gospel of the Day.

And Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed to them that were sat down: in like manner also of the fishes, as much as they would. John vi. 11.

In this day's Gospel, my brethren, you behold your divine Redeemer pointing out your duty towards the poor, by nothing less than a miracle which he wrought, multiplying the loaves, and distributing the miraculous food among a people pressed with hunger and want. He performed this prodigy, to accustom his faithful followers to compassion and liberality towards the unfortunate, establishing them thereby the ministers of his providence, and multiplying the riches of the earth in their hands, for the sole purpose of being distributed from thence among the multitude of their unfortunate fellow-creatures which surrounds them. He no doubt might continue still to support with an invisible hand these creatures, who bear his image, without your interference, as he miraculously nourished the five thousand men mentioned in this day's gospel; but

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