the essence of Christianity, the soul of piety. If you have not this spirit, you belong not, says the apostle, to Jesus Christ: it is of no consequence, that

1

you are not of the number of the impure and sacrilegious, of whom the apostle speaks, and who will not be admitted into the kingdom of God. You are equally strangers to him; your sentiments are not his; you still live according to nature; you belong not to the grace of our Saviour; you will therefore perish, for it is on him alone, according to the apostle, that he has placed our salvation.

A complaint is sometimes made, that we render piety disgusting and impracticable, by prohibiting many pleasures which the world authorises, But, my beloved friends, what is it we tell you? Allow yourselves all the pleasures which Christ would have allowed himself; faith allows you no other mix with your piety all the

gratifications which Jesus Christ would have mixed in his; the gospel allows no greater indulgence. This is the spirit of piety. If you have not this spirit, your exemption from grosser crimes will not avail you to salvation : you belong not to Christ, and you will have no part in him.

Severe as this doctrine may appear to flesh and blood, the experience of every true Christian assures us that it is rendered easy and agreeable by the most pure, the most enviable consolations. The seat of true pleasures is not in the senses, but in the heart; there it is that the graces of the Lord flow in abundance. Although the just man appear sorrowful and dejected in the eyes of others, an invisible Comforter replenishes his heart with the most chaste delights,-delights, of which the sensual man can form no conception. Oh that the world knew where true happiness was to be found!

3. Lastly, the mystery of the Incarnation is intended to humble the pride of man, by obliging him to captivate his understanding to the belief of an article which surpasses bis comprehension.

The Author of your being has appointed that you should work out your salvation, not by reason, but by faith. The great truths of religion are to be discovered, not by the efforts, but by the submission of the understanding; the secrets of heaven are shewn only in a dark manner, (1 Cor. xiii. 12.) and you must believe in order to understand.

How frequently, nevertheless, do christian philosophers assume to themselves the right of judging concerning the mysteries of faith! They call in question every thing that appears wonderful, or inconceivable. They doubt the existence of those eternal flames. which the divine justice has prepared

:

for the unchaste and the impious: they dare to examine, whether children can inherit the punishment due to the crime of their forefather; and whether our innate corruption be not the offspring of nature, instead of the consequence of sin they doubt whether the gratification of our sensual desires,-desires which seem to be implanted in our very existence, can be imputed to us as crimes, according to the laws of justice. They criticise the wonderful prodigies recorded in the Bible, and attempt to account by natural causes for the facts which the faith of our ancestors attributed solely to the extraordinary interposition of the Omnipotent.

But, my beloved, reflect that you adore a God made man. This alone is sufficient to silence your objections. Professing this belief, it is folly, says an ancient father, to call in question any other mystery, merely because it is

inaccessible to reason.

There is no in

comprehensible mystery which Jesus Christ God-man does not divest of its incredibility. Either, then, renounce Jesus Christ, or acknowledge that God can do more than you can comprehend: either blaspheme with the impious, and say that he is no more than the son of Joseph and Mary, or, if you confess that he is the Christ the Son of God, refuse not your assent to the other mysteries of faith.

Let us rather emulate the docility of Mary, who on this day became the Mother of the Word Incarnate. What could be more incomprehensible to human nature, than that she should be both mother and virgin, and that the child which was to be born of her should be called the Son of the Most High? Nevertheless, no sooner is this mystery announced to her by the heavenly messenger, than, without hesitation, without even asking for a sign