Meditations of a devout soul deeply affected with a sense of the enormity of past sin; and at the Adoration of the divine perfections, as manifested in Devout meditations and addresses to God, suitable for a person under affliction, when viewing the Meditations of a saint, when persecuted by enemies, stirring up himself to forbear resentment, and to put his trust in the Lord; and seriously warning those who persecute and injure their fellow men, Serious addresses to God of a saint lamenting the general corruption of the world, and praying for Meditations of a saint who, to strengthen himself in his fidelity to God, celebrates the divine perfections as manifested in the immensity of the heavens,- devoutly acknowledges the excellence, holiness, Thanksgivings rendered by a saint to God, for hav- ing turned him from the ways of sin, and called him to a knowledge of the truth; with a compari- son of his present with his former situation. Meditations of a saint bewailing before God the im- pious derisions to which he finds himself exposed, in consequence of his piety, from those with whom he is obliged to live; and prayer for grace to ena- ble him to continue stedfast in the love and ser- Thanksgiving rendered to God, by a new convert, for that gracious and powerful voice which had so Reflections of a saint reviewing the sinful and mise- p. 298. Sermon I. THE NECESSITY OF ZEAL IN MINISTERS OF THE GOSPEL, AGAINST VICES AND SCANDALS. A SERMON PREACHED TO A SYNOD. BY J. B. MASSILLON. JOHN II. 15. And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple. THE HE first exercise of Jesus Christ's ministry, in Jerusalem, was an exercise of zeal against an abuse which dishonored the glory of his Father and the holiness of his house. That divine mildness, which till then had been displayed in all his actions, was turned into a holy severity; he could not suffer a public scandal which seemed to insult religion, even in its most holy and most respectable asylum. In vain did the false piety of the Pharisees tolerate this; in vain did the avarice of the chief ministers of the temple protect it; in vain did an ancient and public custom seem to authorize it: these very motives animated him with new indignation; and the more difficult and dangerous it appeared to remedy so public an abuse and indecency, the less delay and temporising did he use in removing it from the holy place. Zeal against vices and scandals, which affront the glory of God and dishonor the holiness of religion, B |