dark and dangerous road of vice! No, this is our ftate of difcipline, here we are to learn the proper ufe of our faculties and to think and act upon the principles of virtue: and then fhall we hereafter perform more with our well-trained powers, and employ our good aptitudes with lefs moleftation and greater fuccefs. This our hope refts on the infalli ble fecurity of thy parental kindness; it is built on the exprefs affurances of him whom thou haft fent us as a teacher and conductor in thy name. Oh grant that this exalted hope may be ever prefent to our mind, and assist us by it to overcome every obstacle and difficulty on the paths of duty and virtue. Blefs to that end our reflections on thefe important doctrines that they may diffufe light into our minds and impregnate our hearts with fincere affection for whatever is right and becoming. We are emboldened to pray to thee for these benefits as the votąries of Jefus, and address thee further in his name: Our father, &c.

I CORINTH. xiii. 10.

But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part fhall be done away.

WHAT the apostle afferts in our text in regard

to knowledge, may with equal propriety be affirmed concerning virtue. Our virtue at present as well as our knowledge, is but a medley of scraps, extremely defective, extremely incomplete: when

VOL. II.

G G

however

however that which is perfect is come, when the state of perfection is arrived, then the incoherence fhall ceafe. The fame advantages that we expect to reap in a fuperior life from the former, from knowledge, we may likewife promife ourselves from the latter, from virtue. Virtue no lefs effentially and in fome fort more effentially pertains to human happiness than knowledge. The former is far more immutable, far more felf-fubfiftent than the latter. It is as eternal, as immutable as God, as the eternal laws of truth and order. Superior happiness may far more eafily be conceived without greater knowledge than without greater virtue. From this the former derives its whole worth: without this it is frequently more prejudicial than profitable, more a fource of trouble and grief, than of fatisfaction and pleasure. -And what is virtue? It is the beft, the worthieft application of our feveral capacities and powers, of our advantages and endowments; it is the steady profecution of the rules of truth and juftice, the precepts of order and of moral beauty in all that we think and fay and do; it is the predominant inclination and the conftant readiness to accomplish every duty, and always to do that which is right and proper and in every inftance the best; it is a temper and difpofition thoroughly imbued with love towards God and man, and a conduct in perfect harmony with it. And what are now the advantages of virtue? In what does its perfection confift? The more univerfal; the more voluntary;

the

the more pure and generous; the more active and efficacious; the more conftant and undaunted our virtue the more perfect it is. In all these refpects will our virtue in the future world have confiderable advantages over that which we acquire in the present state. Let us now proceed to take a nearer view of these advantages arifing from fuperior virtue in the future world.

The more univerfal therefore first our virtue, the more perfect it is. Our virtue is univerfal when it extends to and embraces all that is right and fit, that is agreeable to the will of God and to the laws of truth and perfection. Here, my pious hearers, in the present life this univerfality is but too often deficient. Whether it be owing to the want of knowledge and fagacity, whether to the want of tendernefs of heart, or whether to outward circumstances and connections. But too often the difference be tween what is right and wrong, what is good and better, what in each particular cafe is the beft, appears to us only in a faint and feeble light; the remoter confequences of our actions elude our attention ; and the laws of fuperior perfection do not always prefent themselves to our mind as the paramount principles of our conduct. we idly and fondly endeavour to

But too often do unite the demands

of our lufts and paffions with the demands of virtue, and afford the latter no more than a divided, extremely defective obedience, in order that we may indulge the former and spare ourselves the laborious

conflict, without which we can never hope to controul them. But too often example and a variety of fickle circumftances are of more account with us than the eternal immutable laws of truth and juftice; we pursue the path of integrity and virtue, only fo long as we fee others walk it, and frequently neglect to do much good, because perhaps we must do it without example, and therefore be ftigmatifed for fingularity. Thus our virtue remains always partial and incomplete. Thus is it univerfal with but very few. Thus do we often arbitrarily disjoin, what in its very nature is infeparable. We ftudy to acquire fuch or fuch particular virtues, we exercise ourselves in fuch or fuch good fentiments and actions, we perform feveral detached works of justice, of equity, of humanity, of piety. One diftinguishes himself by his temperance, another by modefty, a third by beneficence, a fourth by veracity and fidelity, another by diligence and industry, but feldom is our affection for all that is true and right and proper, and our endeavour to think and act always agreeably to it, as univerfal and unbounded as it ought to be, and as we ourselves in the calm and retired hours of life fincerely wish that it were. Yes, even the best of us is at times fenfible, that the accomplishment of every duty is not equally eafy to him, that he does not practife every virtue with the fame readiness and aptitude. The greater however our knowledge, the more juft our conceptions in the future life; the lefs authority fenfuality will

there

there have over our determinations and actions; the more favourable outward circumftances and connections will there be to us; the more good and exemplary instances of probity that will there encourage and confirm us: the more univerfal will alfo our virtue be. Truth, order, perfection will present themselves to us in a brighter radiance, caufe us to feel their divine beauty with deeper emotion, and reign over their votaries with unlimited fway. In the fociety of the wife and good we fhall certainly not be ashamed of any kind, generous fentiment and action, and be indifferent to nothing that promotes human dignity and happiness, that brings us nearer to the deity. Yes, then shall we, agreeably to the precept of the apostle, but in a far loftier fenfe than is poffible here, think upon all, and ftrive after all that is confonant with the laws of rectitude, that relates to purity and innocence of heart and life, that brings us true honour and lasting fame.

The more unaffected and voluntary farther the practice of virtue, the more perfect it is. A quality in which it is but too often defective in this life, even among well-meaning people, among fuch as fhew a fincere deference to her precepts. How long fometimes do we remain in doubt, how long do we fometimes hesitate between our private interest and the general welfare, between deference for the laws of God and truth and deference for the opinions of mankind, ere we can refolve upon the good, the