the court, in himself. Every one continually views himself by certain favourable sides, which effectually hinder him from ever knowing himself such as he is. In vain do we mark you, as I may say, in the most pointed manner; you always inwardly find out some softened traits, which alter the resemblance. You whisper to yourself, I am not this man. And, while the public makes application of such striking truths to us, we alone either succeed in being convinced that they are not drawn for us, or we only find in them the defects of our brethren: in our own exactest portraits, we search out foreign likenesses; we are ingenious in turning the blow upon others, which truth hath given to us alone; the malignity of the application is the only fruit which we reap from that picture of our vices made from the pulpit, and we rashly judge our brethren where we ought to have judged only ourselves. And thus it is, O my God! that men become corrupted, misapply every thing, and that even the light of truth seals up their eyes upon their own errors, and opens them only to see in others either what is not, or what it ought to have kept entirely hid from them.
Such are the duties which the authority of the holy word exacts of you. Let us now proceed to those attached to its end. Its end, my brethren, you know, is the conversion of hearts, the establishment of truth, the destruction of error and of sin, and the sanctification of the name of Jesus Christ. All there is grand, elevated, important, and worthy of the most sublime function of the hierarchy; and, consequently, it is from thence to be inferred, that you ought to listen to us with a respectful and religious spirit, which despises not the simplicity of our discourses, and with a spirit of faith which seeks nothing human in it, nothing frivolous, nothing which does not correspond with the excellency and the dignity of its end.
I say, a spirit of religious respect, which despises not the simplicity of our discourses; for, however enlightened you may in other respects be, you ought not, in consequence of your pretended lights, to claim a title to neglect the instructions of the church to believers. The unction of the Spirit will always inform you of something here, of which you would perhaps have remained ignorant. If possessed of that knowledge which is the cause of pride, you will be strengthened in that charity which edifies. If your mind acquire nothing new, your heart shall perhaps be made to feel new things: you will there, at least, learn that your knowledge is nothing, if you be ignorant of the science of salvation; that you are but a cloud without moisture, — elevated, it is true, above other men, by your talents, and by the superiority of your knowledge, but empty of grace, and the sport of every wind and of every passion in the sight of God; and, lastly, that a simple and pure soul shall, in an instant, be taught the whole in the bosom of God, and shall be transformed from light to light; while, on the contrary, that you, after an entire life of watchings and ardent study, and the attainment of a useless mass of knowledge and lights, shall perhaps reap for your portion only eternal darkness.
