reward all that we do and suffer for his sake with an eternal weight of glory, 2 Cor. c. 4. He does not make sanctity and salvation depend solely on extraordinary and heroic exploits ; he does not say in the Gospel, you cannot be partakers of my glory unless you renounce entirely to the world; unless you distribute all your substance to the poor; unless you retire into the desert and practice the greatest austerities; unless you suffer martyrdom and spill your blood for my sake, It is true we should be in a disposition of mind to do all this, if he required it; but he takes the most easy of all virtues, and as he produced all things out of nothing, he knows how to draw the greatest merits from the most trivial services, and is willing to sanctify the smallest of our actions by his grace, and render them rewardable in his sight. The Gospel assures us, that he rewards not only those who offer their treasures, but likewise, those who contribute their mites; it expressly declares the acceptance of the widow's mite, and says that he who gives a cup of cold water in his name and for his sake, shall be recompensed. O, my brethren, what a pleasure, what a comfort, what a happiness is it to have so merciful a God, so good a Father, so bountiful a Master to deal with, who leaves nothing unrewarded that is done for his sake and with a view of pleasing him? Though of ourselves we are unprofitable servants to him, even after doing all that is com manded, as the Scripture speaks, Luke, c. xvii. v. 10. yet we may become profitable servants to ourselves at a very easy rate, There is not an action, of itself so inconsiderable, but we may render available to our salvation, by undertaking it in God's name and referring it to his honour and glory. Even the most ordinary actions of human life, such as eating and drinking, may by this means be changed into Christian virtues, and entitled to a reward. Hence the Apostle gives us the following advice: Whether ye eat or drink, or whatever else ye do in word or in work, do all things for the glory of God, and in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Coloss. c. iii. v. 17. To act thus in his name, to unite in spirit with him, and to have his glory and honour at heart in all that we do, is the surest and shortest way to store up valuable treasures for our souls in the kingdom of Heaven upon the most easy terms. There is not a day, nor an hour in the day, but we may, in our respective states, offer up pleasing sacrifices to God, and discharge the functions of the holy and royal priesthood, which belongs to all the faithful according to these words of St. Peter, 1 Ep. c. ii. v. 5. You are an holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. The ecclesiastic in discharging the duties of his ministry, the master in his family, the artist and tradesman in their shop, the servant and labourer at their work, meet with a thousand opportunities of merit, and have it in their power to offer constant sacrifices of their own will, their own liberty, their

own ease, their own repose and convenience. Did they but avail themselves of the daily occasions they have to practice the excellent virtues of humility, patience, charity, justice, fidelity, obedience and submission to the will of God, who placed them in the station they fill, what a fund of merit would they acquire, what an ample provision would they lay up for a happy eternity? How easily would they enhance the value of the ordinary actions and employments of each day? How speedily would they enrich their souls, and purchase a seat of glory hereafter? The pains they undergo, the hardships and difficulties they have to encounter, the losses and crosses, the mortifications, contradictions and disappointments they meet at home and abroad, would become pledges of immortality and so many seeds of life everlasting, were they borne with patience and resignation, and duly offered to God in the spirit of penance; but for want of being referred thus to him they often remain fruitless, and resemble a hidden treasure, that turns to little or no account to the owner for want of a little care and good management on his part.

As to servants, workmen and the laborious poor, who compose the bulk and generality of mankind, nothing but a supine neglect of their salvation can hinder them from practising this easy and beneficial method of sanctifying their servile works and toilsome employments. Great numbers of them are slaves and drudges from the cradle to the coffin; their life in itself is more painful and more austere than the life of many who are shut up in cloisters; they are ill fed, poorly clothed, and exposed to the inclemency of the weather and to the rigours of the seasons; they work hard and labour in the sweat of their brow for the subsistence of a short life in this world, without partaking of any considerable share of its comforts and conveniencies. The hardships they undergo, and the fatigues, distresses, afflictions and poverty they endure, are capable of being sanctified and made means to obtain life everlasting; and yet they often turn to no account or advantage to their souls, for want of being offered to God and borne patiently in the spirit of penance; so that labouring hard the whole year, they have all they can expect here when they receive their poor wages, and they are entitled to no recompense hereafter, because they spend their sweat and spirits in labouring without any reference to God, and act only out of custom, human respect, and principles merely natural. They have sowed much, says the Prophet Aggæus, and brought in little, c. i. v. 6. They labour all night and take nothing, or reap no spiritual advantage from their labour, because they neither labour for God nor with God; nay, what is still more deplorable, many of them have reason to apprehend, that after having had a kind of purgatory here on earth they will have a hell hereafter, on account of the detestable · habits of cursing, swearing, blaspheming, drunkenness, filch

ing and stealing, to which the lower orders are unhappily addicted, and which they will not suffer themselves to be prevailed on to renounce.

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What a melancholy reflection is this, my brethren? Is it not a pity that Christians, created for Heaven, shall thus lose the merit of all their hardships, toils and fatigues, and run the risk of becoming slaves to Satan in flames for all eternity after having been poor slaves and drudges in this life? By regulating their conduct, and bearing the sufferings and distresses annexed to their state with patience, due reference and submission to the will of God, who after the fall of Adam enjoined labour on mankind as a penance due to sin, they would make a virtue of necessity, and bid fair for a more exalted seat in the kingdom of Heaven than will fall to the lot of those who are placed in a more exalted station in this world. Their hardships would be sweetened, their pains would be doubly rewarded, and whilst their hands are employed at their daily labour, and earning an honest livelihood for the support of their bodies, they would earn a never-fading Crown of Glory for their souls. O almighty and eternal God, give us grace to serve thee in our respective states with zeal and fidelity, and to improve the time of our mortal pilgrimage in this vale of misery to the best advantage, that our days may be filled with good works when the night of death comes, in which no one can labour. Grant, we beseech thee, that through the infinite merits of our blessed Redeemer we may then find acceptance with thee, and be entitled to hear these words of comfort, Well done thou good and faithful servant; because thou hast been faithful over few things, I will place thee over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord, Matt. c. xxv. v. 23. Which I wish you all, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST.

On the Difference between True and False Virtue.

Nisi abundaverit Justitia vestra plusquam Scribarum et Pharisæorum, non intrabitis in Regnum Cœlorum. Mat. c. v. v. 20.

Unless your Justice abounds more than that of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of Heaven. Mat. c. v. v. 20.

NOTHING is more dangerous than to disguise the venom of a false doctrine, and the disorders of a criminal conduct, under

the outward appearance of truth and the veil of an eminent sanctity. Our Divine Redeemer has taken care to caution us both against the one and the other; he bids us to beware of false prophets, who come under the clothing of sheep, but inwardly are ravenous wolves, intent only on the seduction and ruin of the flock. They intrude themselves into the ministry without any lawful mission, and endeavour, under the specious pretext of retrenching abuses, to surprize the simple and the unwary by their captious speeches, and to impose on them by their fallacious appearances. By their fruits ye shall know them, says our Blessed Saviour, Mat. c. vii. v. 15. In the Gospel of this day he also forewarns us against the false justice and hypocrisy of those dissemblers, who, like unto the Scribes and Pharisees conceal a depraved heart under the cloak of piety, and wish to pass in the eyes of the world for what they really are not in the sight of God. The Scribes were Doctors of the Jewish Law; they sat on the chair of Moses, and therefore Christ ordered the people to follow their doctrine and to do as they said, but not to follow their example or do as they did, Mat. c. xxiii. The Pharisees were so called, as St. Epiphanius remarks, from dividing or separating themselves from the rest of the people, and pretending to observe the Law with greater exactness; nothing was more reserved or composed than their exterior; one would be apt to imagine that they might be proposed as models of piety and patterns of virtue, if the all-seeing Searcher of hearts had not pronounced the sentence of their condemnation, and expressly declared that unless you be more just, more perfect and more virtuous than they were, you shall be excluded from the kingdom of Heaven. Your eternal salvation, therefore, depending hereon, it is highly incumbent on you to know in what particulars the virtues of the Scribes and Pharisees were defective, and in what degree of justice and perfection you are obliged to surpass them, that you may carefully avoid the rocks on which they unhappily split, and abound in the justice wherein they failed. This is the important subject which I intend to lay before you in the following discourse, wherein I shall briefly point out the difference between true and false virtue, and endeavour to excite you to the love and pursuit of the one, and to a dislike and aversion to the other. Let us previously invoke the light of the Holy Ghost, through the intercession of the blessed Virgin, greeting her for this purpose with the words of the Arch-angel Gabriel. Ave Maria.

As the most brilliant gold is not always the most pure, so in like manner, the most shining virtue is not always the most perfect, nor the most acceptable in the sight of God, who regards our hearts, and the inward dispositions of our souls, more than our outward works and actions. He often condemns the hearts of those, whose actions the world admires, and reproves as false justice and disguised pride those very virtues which seem brightest in the eyes of men. Whatever exterior homage

we pay unto him must be enlivened by the interior spirit, and accompanied with the inward affections and worship of the heart; for if the heart does not concur, and join in the interior sentiments and worship with the exterior performance, instead. of being a true homage, it is to be deemed no better than an empty sign and shadow of religion, like unto the external performances of the Scribes and Pharisees, who were apparently zealous in the service of God, and regular in the observance of the outward practices of religion, but neglected the interior and more essential duties. Hence our Blessed Saviour reproved all this outward show and glittering appearance of virtue as false, counterfeit and defective. You hypocrites, said he to them, Mat. c. xv. v. 7. Well did Isaias proghesy of you, saying this people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. His charity and zeal for the conversion of their souls, prompted him to reprehend them severely for their defects, and to inveigh constantly against their false virtues in order to make them enter into themselves, and hinder them from seducing others. He has left nothing painted in more lively colours in the Gospel than the picture he has drawn of them in St. Matthew, c. xxiii. where he exhibits a frightful view of their spiritual disorders for our instruction, that by way of contrast, true virtue may appear in its genuine beauty, and be the more easily distinguished and reduced to practice, without giving into the impressions of a mistaken piety, or the wild imaginations of a false devotion.

It is evident from the character that Christ our Lord has given of these pretended saints and false devouts, that hypocrisy, or a dissimulation and sanctity, was one of their capital faults; they recited long prayers, observed rigorous fasts, gave alms in abundance, and practised many excellent acts of virtue in outward appearance. Were we as exemplary and edifying in our deportment and exterior conduct, as liberal in the distribution of alms, as addicted to prayer and as observant of our other religious duties as they were, we would be apt to think ourselves sure of our salvation; and yet it is certain, that unless we surpass them in virtue we shall not enter into the kingdom of Heaven. It is not sufficient to do what is good in itself, but it must be done with a good intention; for it is the intention that generally stamps the character of virtue or vice on our actions. Had the Scribes and Pharisees acted upon proper motives and with a pure intention, the good works they performed might have entitled them to an eternal reward, but they acted upon selfish motives of human respect, and with a view of being esteemed and applauded by the world, and therefore Christ told them that they received their desired reward in this life, and they were entitled to no other recompense in the next life but that of hypocrites, weeping and gnashing of teeth. The sin of hypocrisy, which is the unhappy offspring of pride and vainglory, ran universally through all their actions, and tainted