Quesnel: Moral Reflections on the Gospels Vol 1

CHAPTER XXV. 40T
them, or who even reject them with contempt or hard
language. This is to feign themselves ignorant
that it is Christ who asks an ahns of them in the
persons of the poor. It is to do that which is the
ground of the condemnation of the reprobate.
" 45. Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily
I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one
of the least of these, ye did it not to me."
Every thing is in common betwixt the head and
the members : but Jesus Christ is chiefly in the poor
and the humble. We at present colour and dis-
guise our negligence or insensibility as we please
but our heart will one day appear such as it really
was in respect of works of mercy. If we are ashamed
to be reproached with covetousness by men ; who
will be able to bear a reproach of this nature from
the mouth of Christ in the day of his fury? He
makes the cause of the poor his own ;
and will resent
any neglect of them, as a neglect of himself.
" 46. And these shall go away into everlasting
punishment: but the righteous into life eternal."
No appeal, no remedy, to all eternity; no end to
the punishment of those whose final impenitence
manifests in them, as it were, an eternal will and de-
sire to sin. By dying in a settled opposition to
God, they cast themselves into a necessity of con-
tinuing in an eternal aversion to him. The eternity
of the torment of the damned, proceeds from the in-
finite dignity of the God who is offended; the eter-
nity of the reward of the elect, from the infinite
goodness of him who confers it on them. O eternal
life, which art nothing but pure life and joy, not the
joy of the world, but that substantial joy of which