Quesnel: Moral Reflections on the Gospels Vol 1

326 ST. MATTHEW.
" 28. % But what think ye ? A certain man
had two sons; and he came to the first, and said,
Son, go work to-day in my vineyard."
Labour is the universal penance, imposed on all
the children of Adam, and yet all the world declines
it. Our soul is not our own. It is the vineyard
of God, which we ought to cultivate, by fulfilling his
commands; and this not out of self-love, but for the
love of him. That which would have been the de-
light of man in innocency, is become a painful work
to him since his fall.
" 29. He answered and said, I will not; but
afterwards he repented, and went."
The just perceive at first the opposition of nature
to obedience ; but grace remains victorious. How
happy is it for a man to receive the gift of repen-
tance, when he has been so unhappy as to transgress
the divine law in the first years of his life ! There
are very few Christians who have not lost their in-
nocence by disobeying God ; and very few sinners,
who, touched with true remorse, " bring forth fruits
meet for repentance."
" 30. And he came to the second, and said like-
wise. And he answered and said, I go, Sir; and
went not."
The pretended just man is full of presumption,
and very eager to embrace the good proposed to him ;
he promises every thing, and performs nothing.
Christian righteousness consists not in making osten-
tation of a great zeal for God's law, or of great ap-
plication to every thing which contributes to make it
more understood, nor in appearing always ready to
fulfil it; but in fulfilling it with humility, exactness,