God than those of common believers: first, the example; secondly, the authority. And this, my brethren, is a truth highly consoling to you, who are placed by providence in an exalted station, and well calculated to animate you to serve God, and to render virtue lovely to you. For it is a mistake to consider the rank to which you are born as an obstacle to salvation, and to the duties imposed upon us by religion. The rocks are more dangerous there, I confess, than in an obscure lot, the temptations stronger and more frequent; and, while pointing out the advantages, with regard to salvation, of high rank, I do not pretend to conceal those dangers which Jesus Christ himself hath pointed out to us in the gospel, as being attached to it.

I wish only to establish this truth, that you may do more for God than the lower orders; that infinitely more advantages accrue to religion from the piety of a single person of distinction, than from that of almost a whole people of believers: and that in proportion to your culpability in neglecting God, will be the glory that will accrue to him from your fidelity, and the consequence of your virtues upon believers.

The first is the example. Among the people, one who fears God, glorifies him only in his own heart: he is a child of light, who walks, as I may say, amid darkness: he pays his own homage, but he attracts no others to him: shut up in the obscurity of his fortune, he lives under the eye of God alone: he wishes that his name should be glorified, and, by these desires, he renders him that glory which he cannot do by his example: his virtues tend to his own salvation; but they lead not to the salvation of his brethren: he is here

below as a treasure hidden in the earth, which the vineyard of Jesus Christ beareth unwittingly, and of which he maketh no use.

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But you, my brethren, who live exposed to the view of the public, whose eyes are always upon you, your virtuous examples become equally shining as your names: you spread the good savour of Jesus Christ wherever that of your rank and titles is spread: you make the name of the Lord glorified wherever your own is known the same elevation which makes you known upon the earth, likewise informs all men what you do for heaven: the wonders of grace are every where seen in your natural advantages: the people, the city, the country, all who are continually hearing your names repeated, feel, awakened at the same time, that idea of virtue which your examples have attached to them. You make piety honoured in the opinion of the public you preach it to those whom you know not: you become, says the prophet, like a signal of virtue raised up amid the people: a whole kingdom has its eyes upon you, and speaks of your examples, and even abroad your piety becomes equally known as your birth.

Now, with what attractions is not virtue invested in the eyes of the people by this eclat! In the first place, great models are more striking; and, when countenanced by the great, piety becomes as it were fashionable with the people. 2dly, That idea of weakness commonly attached to virtue, is dissipated from the moment that you ennoble it, as I may say, with your names, and that examples can be produced in honour of it. 3dly, The rest of mankind no longer blush at

modesty and frugality, when they see, in your instance, that modesty is perfectly compatible with greatness ; and that to shun luxury and profusion is so far from being a subject of shame to any rank whatever, that, on the contrary, it adds lustre and dignity to the highest rank and birth. 4thly, How many weak souls, who would blush at virtue, are confirmed by your example, are no longer afraid of acting as you act, and even pride themselves in following your steps! 5thly, How many souls, still much too attached to worldly interests, would dread lest piety should be an obstacle to their advancement, and perhaps find, in this temptation, an effectual bar to all their penitential desires, if they were not taught, in seeing you, that piety is useful to all, and that, while attracting the favours of Heaven, they do not prevent those of earth! 6thly, Your inferiors, your dependants, and all who look up to you, view virtue in a much more amiable light, since it is become a certain way of pleasing you, and since their progress, in your confidence and esteem, depends upon their progress in piety.

Lastly, How much is religion exalted, when, in your persons, she proves that she is still capable of existing among those who despise honours, dignities, and riches; who live amidst prosperity without being dazzled by it; who enjoy the highest rank, without losing sight of eternal riches; who possess all, as though possessing nothing; who are greater than the whole world, and yet consider as dirt all the advantages of the earth, whenever they become an obstacle to the promises which faith shews them in heaven! How are the wicked confounded to see you treading the paths of salva.

tion amidst every human prosperity; to find that virtue is not the resource of despair; that they vainly endeavour to persuade themselves, that recourse is had to God only when forsaken by the world, since you fail not, though loaded with all the favours of the world, to love the opprobrium of Jesus Christ! What consolation, even for our ministry, to be enabled to employ your examples in these Christian pulpits, in overthrowing sinners of a more obscure lot; to cite your virtues in order to make them blush at their vices; to cover with shame all their vain excuses, by proving your fidelity to the law of God; that their dangers are not greater than yours; that the objects of their passions are less seductive; that more charms, and more illusions, are not held out by the world to them than to you; that if grace can raise up faithful hearts even in the palaces of kings, it must be equally able to form them under the roof of the citizen, and of the magistrate, and, consequently, that salvation is open to all, and that our station becomes a favourable pretext to our passions, only when the corruption of our hearts is the true reason which authorizes them.

Yes, my brethren, I repeat, that, in serving God, you give a new force to our ministry; more weight to the truths announced by us to the people; more confidence to our zeal; more dignity to the word of Jesus Christ; more credit to our censures; more consolation to our toils; and, in observing your conduct, the world is convinced of truths which it had before disputed. What benefits then accrue from your examples! You exalt piety, and honour religion in the minds of the people; you animate the righteous of every station; you console the servants

of God; you spread throughout a whole kingdom a sanctity that overthrows vice and countenances virtue ; you support the rules of the gospel against the maxims of the world; you are cited in the cities and in the most distant provinces to encourage the weak, and to aggrandize the kingdom of Jesus Christ; fathers teach your names to their children, to animate them to virtue; and, without knowing it, you become the model of the people, the conversation of the lower orders, the edification of families, the example of every station and of every class. Scarcely had the heads of the tribes in the desert, and the most distinguished women, brought to Moses their most precious ornaments for the construction of the tabernacle, when all the people, incited by their example, presented themselves in crowds to offer their gifts and their presents; and Moses was even under the necessity of placing bounds to their pious alacrity, and of moderating the excess of their liberalities.

Ah! my brethren, what good, I repeat, may not your example alone do among the people! Public dissipation discredited from the moment that you cease to countenance it; indecent fashions proscribed whenever you neglect them; dangerous customs antiquated as soon as you forsake them; the source of almost all disorders dried up from the moment that you live according to God. And how many souls thereby saved! What evils prevented! What crimes checked! What misfortunes bindered! How much does religion gain in a single person of rank, who lives according to faith! What a present doth God make to the earth, to a kingdom, to a people, when he bestoweth a nobility who