Quesnel: Moral Reflections on the Gospels Vol 1

XXIV
This is excellent in the highest degree : but mark
with what point he turns and addresses mothers
" Unhappy mother, who exposes her daughter to the
shipwreck which herself has suffered, and makes her
the instrument of her passion and revenge, and the
murderer of a saint !"
And then notice the solemnity of the caution he
subjoins " : God grant that many mothers may take
warning by this example, and have it before their
eyes, when they are about to introduce their daughters
at court !"
Thus he pursues the world in other passages
which we need not cite. Nor will we quote places
which prove his skill in exposing the human heart.
He shows it to be nothing by nature, but falsehood
and sin. He declares that whatever good it has,
must proceed from another source. He breaks out
continually into prayer, for the cleansing virtues of
Jesus Christ.
The false professor of Christianity is dealt with
in a manner equally faithful. Could any Protestant
write better than he does on Matt, xxiii. 23. " To
be exact in little things, and to omit such as are es-
sential to religion and piety, what is this but to de-
ceive ourselves?—Unhappy is that man who rests
secure in a vain and conceited exactness about the
niceties of devotion, instead of applying himself to
his proper duties, to the reformation of his heart, and
to the faithful observation of justice and charity to-
wards his neighbour, &c. ; this is a kind of delusion
more dangerous to some souls, than an open temp-
tation to sin."
5. But we proceed to notice another characteris-