And canst thou refuse her thy esteem, thy rever. ence, O man, O christian, who hast yet any sentiment of what is venerable and excellent? No; beware of stifling this sentiment of truth in thy heart! Let virtue be the object of thy estesm and reverence, more than any thing else that lays claim to thy esteem and reverence. In honoring virtue, thou honorest God. Esteem and revere her, then, wherever thou find her, under whatever aspect, in whatever garb she appears, in what language soever she speaks to. thee, by what actions soever she makes herself known! Do justice to her not only in general, but in every particular person whom she animates and governs. Virtue, in the general, is no more than an idea, a representation of our mind: She actually exists only in particular beings. In these we must esteem and revere her. He that despises any poor and low, but virtuous man, despises virtue herself; and if thou despise virtue, O man! thou despisest all that is beautiful, that is great, that is venerable; thou despisest God, the fountain of all perfection.

But dost thou esteem her as she deserves? Oh then hesitate not a moment, on what thou hast to do, which thou hast to choose, when thou art to determine between her and riches, between her and the honor of men, between her and sensual or intellectual delights. Rather let them all be lost to thee, than forsake or violate her. Dost thou still refuse to sacrifice all that militates with her disposition and inclinations? dost thou still make anxious efforts to lose nothing on either hand? Does every trifling loss thou sufferest for her sake, still give thee pain? Oh then, say not that thou art virtuous !

No; wilt thou be so ? Be so without reserve.Think not to put asunder what God and the nature of things have joined in close indissoluble bands.

Here it may be said with propriety, All or nothing! Here no compromise can be made !-So long as thou endeavorest to compare and to connect virtue with vice-the two most contradictory and incompatible things in nature-with one another, thou art doubly wretched. Thou enjoyest not the bliss of virtue, and only in part even the fleeting and transient pleasures of vice, not with a tranquil mind, not without secret anguish and remose. Wouldst

thou be happy and continue happy, and be ever improving thy happiness? Oh then decide totally and firmly and irrevocably for Virtue! Let her inform and animate thy soul, convert thee as it were into a new creature, let her accompany and guide thee in all times and in all places; be the moving spirit of thy whole behavior! Then wilt thou perceive and experience how great, how unspeakably great her value is; what dignity and strength she imparts to man, what serenity and bliss she procures him; and then wilt thou secure to thyself the possession of her forever and ever!

SERMON XIII.

The Superior Value of Chiristian Virtue

OG

GOD! who art the creator and father of us and of all mankind, how eminently hast thou favored us, thy children, by having called us to christianity; Though thou hast left none of thy rational creatures entirely destitute of all means and incitements to become wise and good and happy, leading them all gradually to the perfection of which they are capable; yet hast thou granted us the best means, the most powerful incentives thereto, by pointing out to us the straitest, the surest the nearest way to perfection. By thy son Jesus thou hast plainly and authentically discovered to us thy will; in him given us the best, the truest guide and precursor on the path of virtue, the most exalted pattern for our imitation; by him opened to us the fairest the most glorious prospects in a better world, in a superior, an everlasting life! Yes, thou hast amply offered to us all, and dost amply still offer to us all that we want for life and godliness, all that can render us virtuous and godly in a superior degree. Praise be to thee for thy kind and liberal bounty, O merciful father! Oh that it might inspire us all with pure gratitude and joy! Oh that we could all think of it without shame and confusion! Oh that we were all as wise, as good, as devout, as christians might and ought to be! But perhaps only few of us are so! Perhaps

christian virtue and christian happiness are too rare and strange, even among christians! Do thou, alas, have pity on us, O gracious father! Let us no longer merely bear the name of christians, but really be and constantly more completely become so. Enlarge and confirm among us the kingdom of thy son Jesus, our lord and king, by the farther and farther revelation of the divine energy of his doctrine among us. To that end, let us now so convincingly perceive and feel the true nature of christian virtue and the excellency of it, that we may sincerely revere it, cordially imbibe it, and be entirely ruled and govered by it. This unspeakable blessing we ask of thee as the votaries and followers of Jesus, addressing thee farther, in firm reliance on his promises, as, Our father, &c.

II. PETER i. 3,

Aecording as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue.

VIRTUE has, and ever retains a certain value, be it as defective and imperfect as it may, in whatever person it is exhibited, and in whatever manner it is displayed. Truth will ever be truth, and order be always order; And he that thinks and acts consistently with the relations in which he stands towards God and his connexion with all within his sphere, thinks and acts consistently with truth and the order of things; and this, in all times and places, must be right and good. Indeed, the principles VOL. I. Р

on which a man performs what is right and good and, the views wherein he does so, may weaken and obscure the value of these actions, the value of virtue; but even this cannot wholly destroy it. The gold that is not yet purified from its dross, does not on that account cease to be gold. We should therefore be afraid of incurring the just imputation of an insult upon virtue were we to pronounce, with some ancient christian teachers, all the virtues of the heathens or such as were not christians to be splendid sins. Many of their famous exploits may well have been so; as at present so many seemingly good; very good--actions of christians are in reality nothingless than good. But we are not, on that account, to condemn them all, and declare all the truly great, noble, public spirited actions they performed, to be merely the fruit of mean self interest, and the basest passions. No man is altogether insensible to truth, or totally incapable of thinking and acting in conformity to it; and whoever can do so, can be also more or less virtuous, and act accordingly. The stronger, and more prevalent this sensibility is, the more universal and active will virtue be. If, then, sensibility be not exclusively the peculiar property of any nation, or of any man, so neither can virtue be.

But it is with christian virtue as with a hundred other matters. Mankind are prone to extol some one thing of undoubted excellence, and then to think they cannot do better than to vilify not only what is at variance, but likewise whatever has most resemblance and most affinity with it, what comes the nearest to it, in such a manner as to allow it no value at all. So one virtue is often extolled at the expense of another; and so, in particular, the christian virtue at the expense of the not christian. But may not, then, two things be good or excellent, and