dependent upon you, and in intrusting with employments only those whose piety entitles them to the public confidence; by placing dependence upon the fidelity of your inferiors only in proportion as they are faithful to God, and, in men, looking principally for rectitude of heart and innocence of manners, without which all other talents no longer form but an equivocal merit, either injurious to themselves, or useless to the public.
And from thence, what new weal to the public! What happiness for a kingdom in which the godly occupy the first places; where employments are the rewards of virtue; where the public affairs are intrusted only to those who have more the public interest in view than their own, and who consider as nothing the gain of the whole world if they thereby lose their soul!
What advantage for the people when they find their fathers in their judges, — the protectors of their helplessness in the arbiters of their lot, — the consolers of their sufferings in the interpreters of their interests! What abuses prevented! — what tears wiped away! — what crimes avoided!— what harmony in families! — what consolation for the unfortunate! What a compliment even to virtue, when the people are rejoiced to see it in office, and when the world, all worldly as it is, is, however, well pleased to have the godly for its defenders and judges! What an attraction to virtue, when it is seen to have the promise, not only of the life that now is, but of that also which is to come!
And say not, my brethren, that, in rewarding virtue, sinners are not corrected, but only hypocrites multiplied, I know how far men may be carried by a thirst of advancement, and what abuses they are capable of making of religion in order to accomplish their ends: but, at least, you force vice to hide itself; you divets it of that notoriety and security which spread and communicate it; you preserve the externals of religion among the people; you multiply the examples of piety among believers, and if licentiousness be not in reality diminished, at least the scandals are more rare!
Lastly. The holy liberalities of virtue. But I feel that my subject leads me away, and it is time to conclude. Yes, my brethren, what an additional fund of comfort for the people in the Christian and charitable use of your riches! You shelter innocence; you open asylums of penitence for guilt; you render virtue lovely to the unfortunate by the resources which they find in yours; you secure to husbands the fidelity of their wives, — to fathers the salvation of their children, — to pastors the safety of their flock; peace to families, comfort to the afflicted, innocence to the deserted widow, an aid to the orphan, good order to the public, and, to all, the support of their virtue, or the cure of their vices.
And here, my brethren, could you but comprehend the wide-extended fruits of your virtue, and the inexplicable advantages accruing from it to the church, — what scandals avoided! — what crimes prevented! — what public scourges checked! — how many weak preserved! — how many righteous sustained! — how many sinners recalled! — how many souls withdrawn from the precipice! — how
