Teaching them to observe all things, whatsoever I have commanded you. Matt. xxiii. 20. THESE, beloved Chris tians, are the last injunctions of our Redeemer to his disciples. After having educated them in his divine school, taught them all the maxims of his heavenly doctrine; after having made them strong and perfect, and prepared them for the reception of the enliven ing spirit of grace and love, he invests them with full authority to preach the gospel, and defines the nature and the extent of their arduous mission: Go ye, therefore, and. teach all nations, baptizing them. teaching them to observe all things, whatsoever I have com manded you and behold I am with you : : all days, even until the consummation of the world. This commission is fraught with much useful instruction on two very important points. From it we learn the extent of the power with which the pastors of the Church, in quality of successors to the apostles, are invested; and the extent of the duties which you, as Christians, are bound to fulfil. From it we learn that we, who are the pastors rightfully ordained, and lawfully sent by the Church, receive our mission and our power from heaven; and that you are obliged to observe all things whatsoever we are commanded to preach in the name of Jesus. The first ought to be a subject of consolation, and induce you to return thanks to God, who has not only traced out the path to life eternal, but has constituted guides,guides enlightened and directed by him, in order that this path might be pointed out to you in the clearest manner, and that there might be a living authority, worthy of your firmest confidence. The second is sufficient to terrify you; for the command is absolute, and exacts from you the observance of all things whatsoever have been commanded. -The first requires no comment: I will, therefore, confine my observations to the second, and will lay before you the extent of the obligations which we are commanded to require of you. 1. According to the rules of justice, the sacrifice of our lives might be demanded of us; because, the moment we sinned, we forfeited our right to existence, and became the victims of death. But the clemency of God has mitigated the sentence; and instead of the sacrifice of our lives, the sacrifice of sensual pleasures is all that He is pleased to call for. This, therefore, is a duty which the sovereign will of God has imposed upon all Christians. This duty we engaged to fulfil at our baptism. These are the victims which we are commanded to immolate, in order to obtain our discharge from the malediction pronounced on all flesh, and to be admitted into the society of the people of God. This is the martyrdom of faith, to which we have devoted ourselves. This is the grand testimony, which we are bound to give to the truths of God. A life of self-denial and penance, therefore, is indispensably required of all who confess the name of Christ. No mitigation of this duty can be pleaded for the precept is absolute, and without exception, and no power on earth can dispense from it. This being the truth, what opinion must we form of the conversion of those sinners who reform only the irregularities of their exterior deportment; who shun the ways of debauchery and excess, because they are wearied in the pursuit of iniquity; who retire from the giddy and clamorous scenes of dissipation, because they wish to enjoy the tranquillity of retirement; who begin again to frequent the sacraments, but neither do penance for their former crimes, nor renounce their criminal attachments; who confess their sins, but continue to indulge their love of sensual gratification in private, and retain all their ambitious projects, their hatreds, their jealousies, their envies, their worldly affections and desires? What opinion, |