vidual exercise of religion, is it not done away by devoting the remainder of the day to indolent and worldly pursuits? You sometimes correct your inclinations; you perhaps bear with an injury; you undertake the discharge of some pious obligation; but these are individual and insulated exertions, out of the common track, and which are never followed by any regular consequences; you will be unable to produce, before the Lord, a single instance of these in your favour, without the enemy having it at the same time in his power to reckon a thousand against you; salvation occupies your intervals alone; the world has, as I may say, the foundation and the principal: The moments are for God, our entire life is for our

selves.

I know, my brethren, that with regard to this, you feel sensibly the injustice and the danger of your own conduct. You confess, that the agitations of the world, of business, and of pleasures, almost entirely occupy you; and that a very little time, indeed, remains for you to reflect upon salvation: But, in order to tranquillize yourselves, you say, that some future day, when you shall be more at ease; when affairs of a certain nature shall be terminated; when particular embarrassments shall be at an end; and, in a word, when certain circumstances shall no longer exist, you will then think seriously upon your salvation, and the business of eternity will then become your principal occupation: But, alas! what has deceived you is this, that you regard salvation as incompatible with the occupations attached to the station in which Providence has placed you. For, cannot you employ that station as the means of your sanctification? Can you not exercise in it all the Christian virtues? Penitence,

should these occupations be painful and distressingClemency, pity, justice, if they establish you in authority over your fellow creatures-Submission to the will of Heaven, if the success does not correspond sometimes with your expectations- A generous forgiveness of injuries, if you suffer oppression or calumny in that station-Confidence in God alone, if in it you experience the injustice or the inconstancy of your superiors? Do not many individuals of your rank and station, in the same predicament with yourselves, lead a pure and Christian life? You know well, that God is to be found every where; for, in those happy moments when you have sometimes been touched with grace, is it not true, that every thing recalled you to God? That even the dangers of your station became the vehicles of instruction, and means of cure for you? that the world disgusted you even with the world? that you found continually and every where, the opportunity of offering up a thousand invisible sacrifices to the Almighty, and of making your most hurried and tumultuous occupations the sources of holy reflection, or of salutary example? Why do you not cultivate these impressions of grace and salvation? It is not your situation in life, it is your infidelity and weakness, which have extinguished them in your heart.

Joseph was charged with the management of a great kingdom; he alone supported the whole weight of the government; nevertheless, did he forget the Lord, who had broken asunder his chains, and justified his innocence? Or, in order to serve the God of his fathers, did he delay till a successor should come and restore that tranquility to him of which his new dignities had necessarily deprived him? On the contrary, he knew how to Vol. I.

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render serviceable towards the consolation of his brethren, and the happiness of the people of God, a prosperity which he acknowledged to hold only of His Almighty hand. That officer of the Queen of Ethiopia, who is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, had the sole government of her immense riches; the distribution of tributes and subsidies, and the administration of all the public revenues, were entrusted to his fidelity; now, this abyss of cares and embarrassments did not deprive him of leisure to seek, in the prophecies of Isaiah, the salvation he expected, and the words of eternal life. Place yourselves in the most agitated stations, you will find examples of upright souls, who in them have wrought their sanctification: The Court may become the asylum of virtue, as well as the cloister; places and employments may be the aids, as well as the quicksands of piety; and when, in order to return to God, we delay till a change of station shall take place, it is a sure proof that we do not as yet wish to change our heart. Besides, when we say that salvation ought to be your sole employment, we do not pretend that you should renounce all other pursuits; for you would then depart from the order of God; we only wish you to connect them with your salvation; that piety may sanctify your occupations; that faith may regulate them; that religion may animate them; that the fear of the Lord may moderate them: In a word, that`salvation may be as the centre to which they all tend. For, to wait till you shall be in a more tranquil situation, and more free from worldly perplexities, is not only an illusion which Satan employs to delay your repentance, but it is also an outrage upon the religion of Jesus Christ; you thereby justify the reproaches formerly made against it

by the enemies of the Christians; it would seem that you look upon it as incompatible with the duties of prince, courtier, publick character, and father of a family; like them, you seem to believe, that the gospel proposes only maxims unfortunate and inimical to society; and that, were it believed and strictly observed, it would be necessary to quit all; to exclude ourselves from the world; to renounce all public concerns; to break all the ties of duty, of humanity, of authority, which unite us to the rest of mankind; and to live as if we were alone upon the earth; in place of which, it is the gospel alone which makes us fulfil all these duties as they ought to be fulfilled; it is the religion of Jesus Christ which can alone form pious princes, incorruptible magistrates, mild and gentle masters, and faithful subjects; and maintain, in a just harmony, that variety of stations and conditions, upon which depend the peace and tranquillity of the people, and the safety of empires.

But, in order to impress more sensibly upon you the illusion of this pretext; when you shall be free from embarrassment, and disengaged from those external cares which at present detach your thoughts from salvation, will your heart be free from passions? Will those iniquitous and invisible bonds which now stop you, be broken asunder? Will you be restored to yourselves? Will you be more humble, more patient, more moderate, more virtuous, more mortified? Alas! It is not external agitation which checks you, it is the disorder within; it is the tumultuous ardour of the passions: it is not from the cares of fortune, and the embarrassments of events and business, says the holy Chrysostom, that confusion and trouble proceed; it is from the irregular desires of the

soul; a heart in which God reigns is tranquil every where. Your cares for the world are only incompatible with salvation, because the affections which attach you to it are criminal. It is not your stations, but your inclinations, which become quicksands for you; now, from these inclinations you will never be able to free yourselves with the same facility as from your cares and embarrassments; they will afterwards be even more lively, more unconquerable than ever: Besides this fund of weakness which they draw from your corruption, they will have that force and strength acquired by habit through time and years. You think, that in attaining rest, every thing will be accomplished; and you will feel, that your passions, more lively in proportion as they no longer find external resources to employ them, will turn all their violence against yourselves; and you will then be surprised to find, in your own hearts, the same obstacles which you now believe to be only in what sur rounds you. This leprosy, if I may venture so to speak, is not attached to your clothes, to your duties, to the walls of your palaces, so that, by quitting them, you may rid yourselves of it; it has gained root in your flesh; it is not by renouncing your cares, therefore, that you must labour towards your cure; it is by purifying yourselves that you must sanctify your occupations. Every thing is pure to those who are pure: otherwise your wound will follow you, even into the leisure of your solitude; like that king of Judea mentioned in the book of Kings, who in vain abdicated his throne, delivered up all the insignia, as well as the cares of royalty, into the hands of his son, and withdrew himself into the interiour of his palace; he carried with him the leprosy with which the