Is not his hand alone which hath separated your ancestors from the crowd, and hath placed him at the head of the people? Is it not through his providence alone that you are born of an illustrious blood, and that you enjoy, from your birth, what a whole life of care and toil could never have afforded you reason to expect? What had you in his eyes more than so many unfortunate fellow-creatures whom he leaveth in want? Ah! if he had paid regard only to the natural qualities of the soul, to probity, honesty, modesty, innocence, how many obscure souls, born with all these virtues, might have been preferred, and would now have been occupying your place! — If he had consulted only the use which you were one day to make of his benefits, how many unfortunate souls, had they been placed in your situation, would have been an example to the people, the protectors of virtue, and in their abundance would have glorified God, they who even in their indigence invoke and bless him; while you, on the contrary, are the cause of his name being blasphemed, and your example becomes a seduction for his people!
He chooseth you, however, and rejecteth them; he humble th them and exalteth you; for them he is a hard and severe master, and for you a liberal and bountiful father. What more could he have done to engage you to serve and to be faithful to him? What more powerful attraction, or more likely to secure the homages of hearts than benefits? "Thine, O Lord," said David, at the height of all his prosperity, "is the greatness, and the power, and the glory: both riches and honour come from thee; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all. It is just, then O my God, to glorify thee in thy gifts; to measure what I owe thee upon what thou hast done for me; and to render mine exaltation, my greatness, and all that I am, subservient to thy glory."
Yet, nevertheless, my brethren, the more he hath done for you, the more do you raise yourselves up against him. It is the rich and the powerful who live without other God in this world than their iniquitous pleasures. It is you alone who dispute* the slightest homages to him; who believe yourselves to be dispensed from whatever is irksome or severe in his law; who fancy yourselves born for the sole purpose of enjoying yourselves, of applying his benefits to the gratification of your passions, and who remit to the common people the care of serving him, of returning him thanks, and of religiously observing the ordinances of his holy law.
Thus frequently the people worship, and you insult him; the people appease, and you provoke him; the people invoke, and you neglect him; the people zealously serve him, and you look down upon his servants; the people are continually raising up their hands to him3 and you doubt whether he even exists, you who alone feel the effects of his liberality and of his power; his chastisements form worshippers to him, and his benefits are followed with only derisions and insults.
I say his benefits: for, with regard to you, he hath not confined them to the mere external advantages of fortune. He hath likewise
