that mean and sorry externals disgrace not the elevated post which he hath confided to us; that we are responsible to the sovereign, to the state, and to ourselves, before being so to individuals; and that public property is then superior to the particular rule.
Thus, the law of God enjoins us to tear out the eye which giveth offence, and to cast it from us; to separate ourselves from an object which, in all times, hath been the rock of our innocence, and near to which we can never be in safety. Nevertheless, the noise which a rupture would make, the suspicions which it might awaken in the public mind, the ties of society, of relationship, of friendship, which seem to render the separation impossible without eclat, persuade us that it is not then commanded, and that a danger, become as if necessary, becomes a security to us.
Thus, the law of God commands us to render glory to the truth; not to betray our conscience by iniquitously withholding it; that is to say, not to dissemble it, through human interests, from those to whom our duty obliges us to announce it. Nevertheless we persuade ourselves that truths, which would be unavailing, ought to be suppressed; and that a liberty, of which the only fruit would be that of risking our fortune, and of rendering ourselves hated, without rendering those better to whom we owe the truth, would rather be an indiscretion than a law of charity and of justice.
Thus, the law of God prescribes to us to have in view, in public cares, only the utility of the people, for whom alone the authority is intrusted to us; to consider ourselves as charged with the interests of the multitude, as the avengers of injustice, the refuge against oppression and poverty. Nevertheless, we believe ourselves to be situated in conjunctures in which it is necessary to shut our eyes upon iniquity, to support abuses which we know to be untenable; to sacrifice conscience and duty to the necessity of the times, and, without scruple, to violate the clearest rules, because the inconveniencies, which would arise from their observance, seem to render their transgression necessary. Lastly, human pretexts, interests, and inconveniencies, always make the balance to turn to their side; and duty, and the law of God, always yield to conjunctures and to the necessity of the times.
Now, my brethren, I do not tell you, in the first place, that the interest of salvation is the greatest of all interests; that fortune, life, reputation, the whole world itself, put in comparison with your soul, ought to be reckoned as nothing; and that though heaven and the earth should change, that the whole world should perish, and every evil should burst upon our head, these inconveniencies should always be infinitely less than the transgression of the law of God.
Secondly. I do not tell you that the law hath always, at least, security in its favour against the pretext, because the obligation of the law is clear and precise, in place of which, the pretext, which introduces the exception, is always doubtful; and, that, consequently, to prefer the pretext to the law, is to leave a safe way,
