Quesnel: Moral Reflections on the Gospels Vol 1

CHAPTER XXVI. 413
cies with its enemies. Thus all heresies and schisms
spring from the passions of men.
" 15. And said unto them, What will ye give
me, and I will deliver him unto you ? And they
covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver.'*
For a man to accuse Christ of nothing, and not to
complain of him while he hetrays him, is to justify
him and to condemn himself. He who nourishes
any passion in his heart, is in great danger of deliv-
ering up Christ and the church to their enemies upon
every temptation. When a man hopes for any thing
from the world, he ought to fear every thing from
himself. He who treats and bargains with it, leaves
his conscience very often in pawn, if he do not en-
tirely resign it up thereto. There is nothing which
we have not reason to fear from avarice, since it stoops
so low as to sell Jesus Christ at so vile a price.
" 16. And from that time he sought opportunity
to betray him."
Men seldom leave a crime imperfect. Unhappy
he who engages himself therein for want of resisting
the smallest beginnings ! We are but too faithful to
the world, and generally keep our word with it, at
the expense of all. What has God done to us, that
he is the only person with whom we break it ? Opportunities
of finishing sin are seldom wanting when
a man seeks them. The devil is too vijjilant not to
present them. Would to God that men were as
diligent and faithful in seeking and embracing op-
portunities to disengage themselves from sin, to break
off all familiarity with the wicked, and to renounce
every dangerous conversation.
" 17. ^ Now the first day of the feast of unleav-