tear from our bofoms thefe precious lights of duty, and treafures of our hopes.

If you feek wifdom, draw it from thefe divine fountains-if you cultivate virtue, here you find its perfect law-if you would attain to immortal felicity and glory, from them you imbibe the fpirit of Heaven.

O young man! take heed to thy ways according to his holy word. Seek not for companions whofe example will encourage thee in vice-whofe ftudy it is to prevent reflection, or to furnish to reflection only falfe and criminal principles to defend a criminal practice. Let not thy paffions govern thee in this ardent and inconfiderate period of life, when they require to be kept under a continual rein-let not pleasure intoxicate thee, and impofe her illufions on thy reason for truth-hunt not after those pernicious writers whofe object it is to inflame the imagination and corrupt the heart. Take heed to thy way-paufe in thy courfedeliberate-reflect. Examine and weigh thy principles. Bring thy conduct to the telt of the divine law. Never wilt thou be prepared for the pure manfions of Heaven

till thy virtue, or to speak a language more conformable to the gospel, till thy holiness of heart and life, has reached the perfection of this ftandard.

O God! in thy mercy arreft the profligacy of this age! Make thy word quick and powerful! Let it penetrate with deep and effectual conviction the confcience of fecure guilt, and destroy thofe deceitful maxims which the hearts of finners frame only to justify their crimes! Let it triumph over the pernicious principles of a false philofophy, the offspring of our degenerate

manners!

AMEN!

DISCOURSE IX.

THE FORGIVENESS OF INJURIES.

FIRST DICOURSE-THE NATURE AND EXTENT OF THE DUTY.

LUKE VI. 37.

Forgive, and you fhall be forgiven.

I's

F you love them that love you, faith the Saviour, what reward have you ?"* There is a natural propenfity in the human heart to requite with kindness the favors we have received, and to fympathize with the pleasures and the pains of those with whom we are connected by friendfhip and esteem. "But I fay unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curfe you, do good to them that hate and you, for them that de

pray

fpitefully ufe you and perfecute you."+ This is the fublime of charity. Pride, re

*Matt. v. 46.

Matt. v. 44. Luke vi. 28.

fentment, and all the most violent emotions of the breaft are ready to rife against thofe who have treated us with injuftice, cruelty, or fcorn. When a good man is enabled to forgive the malignity of his enemies, much more will he be difpofed to discharge all other offices of benevolence and humanity towards the reft of mankind.

be

pe

This virtue has jufily been faid to culiar to the chriftian fyflem. For, although there are illuftricus examples of moderation, and forbearance among the great men of pagan antiquity, which approach to the meeknefs and felf-denial of apostles and martyrs, yet are they rare; and the philofophers in general, who ftudied to cultivate this virtue, aimed rather at the contempt than the forgiveness of injuries--at a fuperiority of foul that foared above their enemies, than at that meeknefs and charity that floops to embrace them with fraternal affection. But whatever approaches a few of the difciples of reafon have made towards a doctrine and a practice fo fublime and holy, fhe had, plainly, not authority fufficient to impofe it on the pride, and the paffions of mankind as an univerfal law of

duty. This was the office of a divine legiflator-of the teacher fent from God. And, among the many precepts that raise his gofpel far above all other systems of morals or religion that have appeared in the world, that of the forgiveness of injuries, holds a diftinguished place. He has enforced it, likewife, by the highest fanction—" For, if ye forgive not men their trefpaffes, neither will your father who is in Heaven forgive your trefpaffes."*

The revengeful and the proud are apt to regard this virtue in two oppofite lights, either as a perfection above human nature, or as a meanness below it-as implying an elevation of mind and felf-command almoft divine, or manifefting a pufillanimity unworthy of man. These ideas, I truft, will appear in the progrefs of this fubject, to be equally groundlefs, in which I fhall

I. Point out the extent of the duty-and

II. Illuftrate its excellence and reafonableness as a principle of conduct.

*Matt. vi. 15.