Lastly. If their virtue, inspired by a divine fire, no longer keep measures with the world, and leave nothing to be alleged against either their intentions or their works, then you exercise yourselves in vague discourses and unfounded reproaches against even their zeal and piety.
Now, suffer me, my brethren, for once to stand up against an abuse so disgraceful to religion, so injurious to that Being who forms the holy, so scandalous among Christians, so likely to draw down upon us those lasting curses which formerly turned the inheritance of the Lord into a deserted and forsaken land, and so worthy of the zeal of our ministry.
You attack the intentions, when you have nothing to say against the works of the godly; and that is a temerity. You exaggerate their weaknesses, and you make a crime to them of the slightest imperfections; and that is an inhumanity. You turn even their zeal and fervour into ridicule; and that is an impiety. And behold, my brethren, the three descriptions of the world's injustice toward the pious: — an injustice of temerity, which always suspects their intentions; an injustice of inhumanity, which gives no palliation to the slightest imperfections; an injustice of impiety, which, of their zeal and sanctity, makes a subject of contempt and derision. May these truths, O my God! render to virtue that honour and glory which are due to it, and force the world itself to respect the pious characters whom it is unworthy to possess!
Part I. — Nothing is more sublime, or more worthy of veneration on the earth, than true virtue: the world itself is forced to acknowledge this truth. The elevation of sentiment, the nobility of motive, the empire over the passions, the patience under adversity, the gentleness under injuries, the contempt of one's self under praise, the courage under difficulties, the austerity in pleasures, the fidelity in duties, the equality of temper in all events with which philosophy hath decked out its imaginary sage, find their reality only in the disciple of the gospel. The more our manners are even corrupted, the more our times are dissolute, the more doth a just soul, who, in the midst of the general corruption, know how to preserve his righteousness and his innocence, merit the public admiration; and if the Pagans themselves so highly respected Christians, in a time when all Christians were holy, with much greater reason are those Christians, who act up to the name of Christian, worthy of our veneration and respect, at this period, when sanctity is become so rare among believers.
How melancholy then for our ministry, that the corruption of manners should oblige us to do here what the first defenders of faith formerly did with so much dignity before the Pagan tribunals; that is to say, to make the apology of the servants of Jesus Christ; and that it should be necessary to teach Christians to honour those who profess themselves such! Yet true it is; for derision and censure against piety seem at present to be the most dominant language of the world. I confess, that the world ideally
