Quesnel: Moral Reflections on the Gospels Vol 1

CHAPTER VII. 107
cause they do not perform his will ! It is better to
be and to do nothing, than to be or do what God
would not have us.
" 23. And then will I profess unto them, I never
knew you : depart from me, ye that work iniquity."
Dreadful separation indeed, which we do not
dear will the vain pleasure
enough consider ! How
of sin, of worldly splendour, of a transient reputation,
cost those who forget God ! Grant. O Lord,
that I may discover and avoid all those snares which
are laid for us by the devil, the world, and our own
self-love !—that so thou mayest know and accept
me in that great day. Terrible alteration for those
among the clergy, who are so eager to be known in
the world, and to make their fortune in it, by the
functions of the sacred ministry ! Christ knows
them not ; whereby is meant, that he regards and
treats them as he does the world, to which they have
given themselves up, and for which he has not vouch-
safed to pray; and that he strikes them, as well as
the world, with this eternal anathema, "Depart from
me!" 8ic.
*' 24. ^ Therefore, whosoever heareth these say-
ings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto
a wise man, which built his house upon a rock ;"
We must build upon the rock, which is Jesus
Christ, doing that good by charity which we know
by faith. True wisdom consists in working on the
building of our salvation, in making it firm by keep-
ing close to the word and the maxims of the gospel,
and in conforming our lives thereto. And when, in
order to this, we lean upon nothing but the grace of
Christ, we then build upon a solid rock.