that is to say, in the desire and in the hope of eternal riches; and that the Christian is not of this world. Decide thereupon the difficulty yourselves.
You demand, if continual gaming, amusing, theatres, and so many other pleasures, so innocent in the eyes of the world, ought to be banished from the Christian life. You are there told, that blessed are they who weep now; but woe unto those who laugh, and who receive their consolation in this world. Follow the spirit of this rule, and see to what it leads.
You inquire, if, having to live in the world, you ought to live like the world; if we would wish to condemn almost all men who live like you; and if, in order to serve God, it be necessary to affect singularities which excite the ridicule of other men. You are there told, that we are not to conform to this corrupted age; that it is impossible to please men and to be the servant of Jesus Christ; and that the multitude is always the party of the reprobate. You have now to say whether the answer be explicit.
You doubt, if, having pardoned your enemy, you be also obliged to see him, to serve him, to assist him with your wealth and credit; and if it be not more equitable to reserve your favours and preferences for your friends. You are there told, do good to those who have wished evil to you; speak well of those who calumniate you; love those who hate you. Enter into the spirit of this pre cept, and say if it doth not shed a light over your doubt, which instantly clears it up, and dissipates it.
Lastly, propose as many doubts as you please, upon duties, and it will be easy for you to decide them by the spirit of the law, if the letter say nothing of them; for the letter kills me, says the apostle: that is to say, to stop there, to look upon as duty only what is literally marked, to stop at the rude limits, and to enter no farther into the principle and into the spirit which vivifies it, is to be a Jew, and to be willing to be self-deceived. No longer tell us, then, my brethren, when we condemn so many abuses, which you, without scruple, allow yourselves, " But the Gospel says nothing of them." Ah! the Gospel says every thing to those who wish to understand it: the Gospel leaves nothing undecided to whoever loves the law of God: the Gospel is competent to all, to whoever searches it only for instruction; and it goes on much the farther, and says so much the more, as that, without stopping to regulate a particular detail, it regulates the passions themselves; that, without detailing all the actions, it goes to repress those inclinations which are the sources of them; and that, without confining itself to certain external circumstances of the manners, it proposes to us, as rules of duty, only self-denial, hatred of the world, love of sufferance, contempt for whatever takes place, and the whole extent of its crucifying maxims. — First reflection.
I say, in the second place, that it is not the obscurity of the law, but our passions, still dear, which give rise to all our doubts upon the duties; that the worldly souls are those who find most difficulty and most obscurity in the rules of the manners; that nothing
