tue with vice- the two moft contradictory and incompatible things in nature-with one another, thou art doubly wretched. Thou enjoyest not the blifs of virtue, and only in part even the fleeting and tranfient pleasures of vice, not with a tranquil mind, not without fecret anguifh and remorse. Wouldft 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 foul, 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 fpirit of thy whole behaviour! Then wilt thou perceive and experience how great, how unspeakably great, her value is; what dignity and ftrength fhe imparts to man, what ferenity and blifs fhe procures him; and then wilt thou fecure to thyfelf the poffeffion of her for ever and ever!

SERMON XIII.

The Superior Value of Chriftian Virtue.

GOD! who art the creator and father of us

and of all mankind, how eminently hast thou favoured us, thy children, by having called us to christianity! Though thou haft left none of thy rational creatures entirely destitute of all means and incitements to become wife and good and happy, leading them all gradually to the perfection of which they are capable: yet haft thou granted us the best means, the moft powerful incentives thereto, by pointing out to us the ftraiteft, the fureft, the neareft way to perfection. By thy fon Jefus thou haft plainly and authentically discovered to us thy will; in him given us the best, the truest guide and precurfor on the path of virtue, the most exalted pattern for our imitation; by him opened to us the faireft, the most glorious profpects in a better world, in a fuperior,

an

an everlasting life! Yes, thou haft amply offered to us all, and dost amply still offer to us all that we want for life and godlinefs, all that can render us virtuous and godly in a fuperior degree. Praise be to thee for thy kind and liberal bounty, o merciful father! Oh that it might infpire us all with pure gratitude and joy! Oh that we could all think of it without shame and confufion! Oh that we were all as wife, as good, as devout, as christians might and ought to be! But perhaps only few of us are fo! Perhaps christian virtue and christian happiness are too rare and ftrange even among chriftians! Do thou, alas, have pity on us, o gracious father! Let us no longer merely bear the name of chriftians, but really be and conftantly more completely become fo. Enlarge and confirm among us the kingdom of thy fon Jefus, 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 fo convincingly perceive and feel the true nature of chriftian virtue and the excellency of it, that we may fincerely revere it, cordially imbibe it, and be entirely ruled and governed by it. This unspeakable blessing we ask of thee as the votaries and followers of Jefus, addreffing thee farther, in firm reliance on his promises, às, Our father, &c.

2 PETER i. 3.

According 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 perfon it is exhibited, and in whatever manner it is difplayed. Truth will ever be truth, and order be always order: and he that thinks and acts confiftently with the relations in which he ftands towards God and his connection with all within his fphere, thinks and acts confiftently with truth and the order of things; and this, in all times and places, must be right and good. Indeed, the principles on which a man performs what is right and good, and the views wherein he does fo, may weaken and obfcure the value of thefe actions, the value of virtue; but even this cannot wholly destroy it. The gold that is not yet purified from its drofs, does not on that account ceafe to be gold. We fhould therefore be afraid of incurring the juft imputation of an infult upon virtue, were we to pronounce, with fome antient christian teachers, all the virtues of the heathens, or fuch as were not christians, to be fplendid fins. Many of their famous exploits may well have been

fo;

fo; as, at prefent, fo many feemingly good-very good -actions of chriftians are in reality nothing lefs than good. But, we are not, on that account, to condemn them all, and declare all the truly great, noble, public-fpirited actions they performed, to be merely the fruit of mean felf-intereft and the basest paffions. No man is altogether infenfible to truth, or totally incapable of thinking and acting in conformity to it; and whoever can do fo, can be also more or lefs virtuous, and act accordingly. The ftronger and more prevalent this fenfibility is, the more universal and active will virtue be. If, then, fenfibility be not exclufively the peculiar property any nation, or of any man, so neither can virtue

of

be.

But it is with christian virtue as with a hundred other matters. Mankind are prone to extol fome 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 moft refemblance and most affinity with it, what comes the nearest to it, in fuch a manner as to allow it no value at all.. So one virtue is often extolled at the expence of another; and fo, in particular, the chriftian virtue at the expence of the not-christian. But may not, then, two things be good or excellent, and yet one be better and more excellent than the other? Leave then the not-christian virtue all the value it has; revere goodness of every kind, and revere goodness wherever you find it; do justice to every man,

whether