Quesnel: Moral Reflections on the Gospels Vol 1

CHAPTER II.
first lessons given to the first Christians, that they
must obey God rather than man. We can never
return to heaven, but by a road different from that
which has carried us away from it. It is the greatest
of all delusions, to pretend to be converted without
changing our lives, and to go to heaven by that way
which was leading us to hell.
Sect. II.— The Flight into Egypt. The Murchr
of the Infants,
" 13. f And when they were departed, behold,
the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream,
saying, Arise, and take the young child and his
mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until
I bring thee word : for Herod will seek the young
child to destroy him."
The rigour of God's conduct towards his own
Son, is the consolation of those whom he obliges to
walk through rugged and grievous ways, without
showing them their journey's end. He makes his
escape by flight, who could have preserved himself
by his own power; to teach us, that we must go to
God by the lowest ways, that we must be humbled
under the reputation and power of his adversaries, to
triumph over them with advantage ; and that of all oiiir
enemies, pride is the most dangerous. The world
seeks Christ for no other end but to destroy him.
Let my heart, O Jesus ! be the Egypt of thy re-
fuge from the persecution of the world. Live there,
reign there, stifle and suppress whatever thou shalt
find there of the spirit of Herod.
" 14. When he arose, he took the young child
and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt ;"
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