no sooner is he risen, than he begins to accomplish them: and, if the miracle of his resurrection may be said to certify the truth of his promises, it may, likewise, be said, that the accomplishment of his promises is a most decisive. proof of the miracle of his resurrection.

Here, then, is a plentiful source of instruction. When we entered upon a new life, by virtue of the sacraments, we made many promises to God. If it be asked, whether we shall fulfil them, what answer will it be proper to give to such a question? Will it be said of us, as of our Saviour, that the miracle of our resurrection has proved the sincerity of our promises; and that the accomplishment of our promises is the most certain testimony of the miracle, and of the reality of our resurrection? Would to God that no other testimony may be given of any individual in this assembly.

But what were our promises? We acknowledged before God the emptiness and vanity of the world; and we engaged to withdraw our affections from it, and to fix them upon him. We confessed the injuries and affronts we had offered to his sacred person, and we promised never to repeat them for the time to come. We declared that we had abused his graces and inspirations; and we promised that we would correspond with them in a proper manner for the future. We took a review of all our failings, and we were determined to correct them. We engaged to strengthen ourselves against future temptations, by a more assiduous attention to prayer, by a more frequent participation of the sacraments, and by more than ordinary works of mortification and penance. Impressed with the most lively sense of the mercies, of the patience, and of the forbearance of God, we made repeated protestations

of fidelity, and we sealed them with our sighs and tears.

These promises, however, have not hitherto (for we have frequently made them during the course of our lives) these promises have not hitherto extended beyond the imagination in which they were formed. Like the specious projects, which amuse the leisure hours of a trifling mind, they pleased us by their novelty. We supposed that we should observe them with ease, because we made them without difficulty; and that we should love the reality, because we loved the idea. Perhaps, indeed, we observed them for a short time: the shame of violating such solemn promises the moment after we had sworn to observe them before the altar of God, perhaps restrained us for a few days. But our fidelity went no farther. By degrees we persuaded ourselves that our resolutions were scruples; that we had im

posed on ourselves an unnecessary. yoke; and that it was weakness of mind to make duties where none existed; that salvation did not depend on minute observances; that the zeal which inspired us was laudable, but that we had a very imperfect knowledge of ourselves, to suppose that it would continue long; that there is no trifling. with God; and that the person who. attempts too much, is sure to do nothing in the end. Thus were our resolutions forgotten, and our promises broken; and we considered this renewed state of infidelity as a deliverance from a yoke, which was becoming burthensome, and as the recovery of a liberty, of which we had indiscreetly deprived ourselves.

This, my beloved, was the primary cause of all your former relapses; because, in the first place, your resolutions were adapted to the nature of your spiritual disorders, and were

the only specific remedies for effectFor instance; you

ing their cure.

made the resolution to devote certain stated times to prayer; and you selected this remedy, because you perceived that, without such an extraordinary aid, your hearts would be overpowered by their depraved appetites, their attachments to the world increased, their piety diminished, and that in the time of temptation they would soon fall away: you imposed on yourselves additional acts of mortification and penance; and your reason was, because experience had taught you, that, by the unrestrained indulgence of pleasure and self-gratification, your dispositions were more prone to evil, your tepidity augmented, and your desires of being united to God in this world, as well as in the next, either considerably lessened, or totally annihilated. Your other resolutions, in the same manner, were directed.