Lord would, every day, pour out new blessings upon us, were he to proportion his favors to the abundance and the excess of our love for our sovereigns.

God therefore, in striking him, designed to punish solely our want of fidelity to Himself: it is our crimes alone that commonly occasion all the misfortunes of our rulers; they alone it was, that in those days of mourning, of which the memory is still fresh, snatched from us together so many princes, at once the pillars of the throne and the hope of the monarchy. The succession of the reigning line has never failed amongst us, except in those times when the corruption of the court, and the inundation of the public vices, drew down the wrath of heaven upon the nation: the royal stem ceased then to shoot, and the blood of the monarchy flowed not from the father to his children; God abandoned the nobility and the people to the spirit of dissension and revolt; the public disorganization expiated the public crimes; surely the sad example of past ages, should become a lesson of instruction to ours. God always punishes the iniquities of kingdoms, by depriving them of good kings, or by sending them bad ones in his anger; he has therefore saved

his people, by preserving to us our beloved monarch: Egressus es in salutem populi tui, in salutem cum Christo tuo;* let then the sincerity of our thanksgiving, correspond to the intensity of our past fears..

But let us be mindful that fidelity to God is the only gratitude which he demands, and which he will accept. For a long period his hand has been upon us, and we every day complain of the duration and severity of his chastisements; he has poured out upon us all the scourges of his wrath, in succession; he has lately shown us the last and the most dreadful, which remained for his justice to inflict on us, by menacing the life of the King. Let us expect no end to our miseries, till we shall be converted from our crimes. The signal interpositions by which he has conducted our young monarch to the throne, bespeak singular designs of mercy towards us. He is like a second Moses, saved alone by miraculous interference from the total wreck of his august race, one day to deliver his people from the heavy yoke of oppression and suffering. Already, like the holy king

*Habac. c. iii. v. 13.

of Judah, his eyes are seeking virtuous and faithful men, to seat them near his person and around this throne: Oculi mei ad fidelis terræ ut sedeant mecum :* he intends, that the wise governor of his childhood, should also be the guide of his reign; that the same principles of humanity, of justice and of religion, which have shaped his early morals, should constitute the rules of his government; and that the same hands which pointed out to him, the perils and the dangers of the crown, should also assist him to sustain it, for the glory and happiness of France. Let us, my dear brethren, not render those happy presages unavailing, nor turn against ourselves, by continuing to irritate the Almighty, the splendid blessings which they promise.

For these reasons, &c.

*Psalm. 100. v. 6.

XIII. A MANDATE

(Feb. 3, 1727.)

FOR THE PUBLICATION OF THE JUBILEE OF THE HOLY YEAR.

We always proclaim to you, my dear brethren, with new joy, the graces and remedies which the church is never weary of proffering to our weakness; nothing would be wanting to our consolation, were the benefits which you ought to derive from them, to correspond to our vows and to your own necessities.

You awaited this time of indulgence and propitiation, with impatience, and viewed with a holy jealousy those kingdoms and churches where it had already begun. The salvation which you desired my dear brethren, has at length arrived: The grace of God our Saviour

hath appeared to all men, instructing us that denying ungodliness and worldly desires, we should live soberly and justly, and godly in this world, that our lives may bring no reproach on the sanctity of our vocation.

*

Under the law of Moses, in the great jubilary year, which the church calls holy, the lands were suffered to repose; slaves recovered their liberty; families regained their alienated possessions; all debts were cancelled; and each one returned to his first condition. These things, my dear brethren, were but shadows of the future the repose of the lands, prefigured that eternal rest where we shall be freed from all the anxieties of this world, and after which, we ought to sigh unceasingly. The slaves who recovered their liberty, represented us, who having been hitherto under the servitude of the devil and of the world, are now about to re-enter into the liberty of the children of God. The alienated possessions which returned to their former masters, are those possessions of grace, which we have alienated or forfeited; the virtue and justice which we had lost; the inheri

*1. Tit. c. 2. vv. 11. 12.