DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.71556#0214
174 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO.
Joseph might have enjoyed great delights and plea-
sures, and not have been imprisoned, yet he chose
to renounce them all, and to be incarcerated rather
than to sin ; in like manner, the just man suffers
adversity even unto death, rather than to wander
from God into the ways of sin. By the path of
tribulation Joseph was advanced to a temporal
kingdom; by the same path the just man reaches
the kingdom of heaven.
" So infinite are the perfections of God, that He
ought to be loved by His creatures for His own
sake, without reference to mercenary motives. All
creatures are imperfect and finite. God is perfect
and infinite. He, and only He, can adequately fill
and satisfy the capacities of our immortal nature.
To know, and love, and serve Him, and faithfully
to adhere to Him, is the proper aim and end of our
being."
Substance of pp. 469. and 473., 18t/i Sermon.
" Ask the martyrs whether it was good for them
thus to adhere unto God. Had not their faith and
constancy been sustained by His grace, they could
not have endured their inconceivable sufferings.
This it was which rendered them proof against the
nails, the rack, the gridiron, and the flames. Since
it proved thus good for them to adhere to God, it
must be equally so for you and for me. Thou,
Lord, art my Supreme good, without admixture of
Joseph might have enjoyed great delights and plea-
sures, and not have been imprisoned, yet he chose
to renounce them all, and to be incarcerated rather
than to sin ; in like manner, the just man suffers
adversity even unto death, rather than to wander
from God into the ways of sin. By the path of
tribulation Joseph was advanced to a temporal
kingdom; by the same path the just man reaches
the kingdom of heaven.
" So infinite are the perfections of God, that He
ought to be loved by His creatures for His own
sake, without reference to mercenary motives. All
creatures are imperfect and finite. God is perfect
and infinite. He, and only He, can adequately fill
and satisfy the capacities of our immortal nature.
To know, and love, and serve Him, and faithfully
to adhere to Him, is the proper aim and end of our
being."
Substance of pp. 469. and 473., 18t/i Sermon.
" Ask the martyrs whether it was good for them
thus to adhere unto God. Had not their faith and
constancy been sustained by His grace, they could
not have endured their inconceivable sufferings.
This it was which rendered them proof against the
nails, the rack, the gridiron, and the flames. Since
it proved thus good for them to adhere to God, it
must be equally so for you and for me. Thou,
Lord, art my Supreme good, without admixture of