Quesnel: Moral Reflections on the Gospels Vol 1

CHAPTEU XXVII. 439
society of the good, and despised the charitable
hand of Christ. A true pastoral charity is to be
found only in the apostolic church. Those who en-
gage us in a sinful course, seldom trouble themselves
to recover us out of it. It is natural to mercenary
pastors to be unconcerned at the fall of their sheep.
" 5. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the
temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself."
For want of confidence, repentance is false. See
here the miserable and desperate end of a covetous
wretch, gnawed by the remorse of his conscience for
his injustice in acquiring his wealth, and delivered up
to the despair of his own mind. Every thing is
wanting to a sinner, when hope is wanting; and
there can be no hope in God, where there is no love
of God. If nothing but fear of punishment excite
a man to repentance, the more vehement this is, the
more it leads to despair.
" 6. And the chief priests took the silver pieces,
and said. It is not lawful for to put them into the
treasury, because it is the price of blood."
Who would not admire this great care of the
chief priests in not defiling the holy treasury with
profane money, while at the same time they scruple
not to defile their own consciences with the greatest
of crimes, and deliver up the true Temple of God to
profane men? Thus it is that the devil often de-
ludes many, even among the priests, by a false and
superstitious tenderness of conscience in things in-
different, while calumny, envy, oppression of the
innocent, and the most heinous sins, give them no
manner of trouble or disturbance.