with which that vice had afflicted the human race. It became itself an inexhaustible source of troubles and anxieties to the man who then gave himself up to a boundless gratification of it: it held out peace and pleasure; but jealousy, excess, frenzy, disgust, inconstancy, and black chagrin, continually walked in its steps; till then, that the laws, the religion, and the common example authorizing it, the sole love of ease, even in these ages of darkness and corruption, kept free from it a small number of sages.
But that motive was too feeble to check its impetuous course, and to extinguish its fires in the heart of men; a more powerful remedy was required, and that is the birth of the Deliverer, who comes to draw men out of that abyss of corruption in order to render them pure and without stain; to break asunder those shameful bonds, and to give peace to their hearts, by restoring to them that freedom and innocence, of which the slavery and tyranny of that vice had deprived them. He is born of a virgin-mother, and the purest of all created beings: he thereby gives estimation and honour to a virtue unknown to the world, and which even his people considered as a reproach. Besides, in uniting himself with us, he becomes our head, incorporates us with himself, makes us become members of his mystical body, of that body which no longer receives life and influence but from him, of that body whose every ministry is holy, which is to be seated at the right hand of the living God, and to glorify him for ever.
Behold, my brethren, to what height of honour Jesus Christ, in this mystery, exalts our flesh; he makes of it the temple of God, the sanctuary of the Holy Spirit, the portion of a body in which the fulness of the Divinity resides, the object of the kindness and the love of his Father. But do we not still profane this holy temple? Do we not still turn to shame the members of Jesus Christ? Do we, in a higher degree, respect our flesh since it is become a holy portion of his mystical body? Does that shameful passion not still exercise the same tyranny over Christians, that is to say, over the children of sanctity and liberty? Does it not still disturb the peace of the universe, the tranquillity of empires, the harmony of families, the order of society, the confidence of marriage, the innocence of social intercourse, the lot of every individual? Are not the most tragical spectacles still every day furnished to the world by it? Does it respect the most sacred ties and the most respectable character? Does it not reckon as nothing every duty? Does it pay attention even to decency? And does it not turn all society into a frightful confusion, where custom has effaced every rule? Even you, who listen to me, from whence have arisen all the miseries and unhappinesses of your life? Is it not from that deplorable passion? Is it not that which has overturned your fortune, which has cast trouble and dissension through the heart of your family, which has swallowed up the patrimony of your fathers, which has dishonoured your name, which has ruined your health, and now makes you to drag on a gloomy and disgraceful life on the earth? Is it not, at least, that which actually rends your heart, at present filled with it? What goes on within you but a tumultuous
