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the practice of religion. On the contrary, this practice strengthens the powers of action. Adding vir tue to virtue is adding strength to strength; and the greater acquifitions we make, we are enabled to make still greater. How pleasant will it be to mark the foul thus moving forward in the brightness of its courfe! In the spring, who does not love to mark the progress of nature; the flower unfolding into beauty, the fruit coming forward to maturity, the fields advancing to the pride of harvest, and the months revolving into the perfect year? Who does not love in the human fpecies, to obferve the progrefs to maturity; the infant by degrees growing up to man; the young idea beginning to fhoot, and the embryo character beginning to unfold? But if these things affect us with delight; if the profpect of external nature in its progress, if the flower unfolding unto beauty, if the fruit coming forward to maturity, if the infant by degrees growing up to man, and the embryo character beginning to unfold, affect us with pleasurable fenfations, how much greater delight will it afford to obferve the progrefs of this new creation, the growth of the foul in the graces of the divine life, good refolutions ripening into good actions, good actions leading to confirmed habits of virtue, and the new nature advancing from the first lineaments of virtue to the full beauty of holiness! These are pleasures that time will not take away. While the animal spirits fail, and the joys which depend upon the liveliness of the paffions decline with years, the folid comforts of a holy life, the delights of virtue and a good confcience, will be a new source of happiness in old age, and have a

charm for the end of life. As the ftream flows pleasantest when it approaches the ocean; as the flowers fend up their sweetest odours at the close of the day; as the fun appears with greatest beauty in his going down; fo at the end of his career, the virtues and graces of a good man's life come before him with the most bleffed remembrance, and impart a joy which he never felt before. Over all the moments of life, religion fcatters her favours, but referves her beft, her choiceft, her divineft bleffings for the laft hour.

In the last place, Let me exhort you to this progreffive state of virtue, from the pleasant confideration that it has no period. There are limits and boundaries fet to all human affairs. There is an ultimate point in the progress, beyond which they never go, and from which they return in a contrary direction. The flower bloffoms but to fade, and all terrestrial glory shines to disappear. Human life has its decline as well as its maturity; from a certain period the external fenfes begin to decay, and the faculties of the mind to be impaired, till duft returns unto duft. Nations have their day. States and kingdoms are mortal like their founders. When they have arrived at the zenith of their glory, from that moment they begin to decline; the bright day is fucceeded by a long night of darkness, ignorance and barbarity. But in the progress of the mind to intellectual and moral perfection, there is no period fet. Beyond these Heavens the perfection and happiness of the juft is carrying on; is carrying on, but fhall never come to a close. God fhall behold his creation for ever beautifying in his eyes; for ever

drawing nearer to himself, yet still infinitely diftant from the fountain of all goodness. There is not in religion a more joyful and triumphant confideration than this perpetual progress which the foul makes to the perfection of its nature, without ever arriving at its ultimate period. Here truth has the advantage of fable. No fiction, however bold, presents to us a conception fo elevating and astonishing, as this inter.minable line of heavenly excellence. To look upon the glorified spirit as going on from ftrength to strength; adding virtue to virtue, and knowledge to knowledge; making approaches to goodness which is infinite; for ever adorning the Heavens with new beauties, and brightening in the fplendours of moral glory through all the ages of eternity, has fomething in it so transcendent and ineffable, as to fatisfy the most unbounded ambition of an immortal spirit. Christian! Does not thy heart glow at the thought, that there is a time marked out in the annals of Heaven, when thou shalt be what the angels now are; when thou shalt shine with that glo. ry in which principalities and powers now appear; and when, in the full communion of the Moft High, thou fhalt fee him as he is!

The oak, whose top afcends unto the heavens, and which covers the mountains with its fhade, was once an acorn, contemptible to the fight; the philofopher, whofe views extend from one end of nature to the other, was once a fpeechlefs infant hanging at the breast; the glorified fpirits, who now stand nearest to the throne of God, were once like you. To you as to them the Heavens are open; the way is marked out; the reward is prepared. On what you do, on what you now do, all depends:

SERMON X..

MATTHEW V. 5.

Bleffed are the meek, for they fhall inherit the earth.

THEY mistake the nature of the chrif

tian religion very much, who confider it as feparate and detached from the commerce of the world. Inftead of forming a diftinct profeffion, it is intimately connected with life; it refpects men as acting in society, and contains regulations for their conduct and behaviour in fuch a state. It takes in the whole of human life, and is intended to influence us when we are in the house, and in the field, as well as when we are in the church or in the closet. It inftru&ts men in their duty to their neighbours, as well as in their duty to God; it is our companion in the scene of business as well as in the House of Prayer; and while it inculcates the weightier matters of the law, faith, judgment, and mercy, it neglects not the ornament of a meek and quiet fpirit, which in the fight of God is of great price. All that refinement which polishes the mind; all that gentleness of manners which fweetens the intercourfe of human fociety, which political philofophers confider as the effects of wife legiflation and good government; all the virtues of domeftic life, are leffons which are taught in the chriftian school. The wifdom that cometh from above is "gentle." The fruit of the Spirit is "meeknefs." As the fun, although he

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regulates the seasons, leads on the year, and dispenses light and life to all the planetary worlds, yet difdains not to raise and to beautify the flower which opens in his beams; fo the christian religion, though chiefly intended to teach us the knowledge of falvation, and be our guide to happiness (on high,) yet alfo regulates our converfation in the world, extends its benign influence to the circle of society, and diffufes its bleffed fruits in the path of domestic life.

In farther treating upon this fubject, I fhall, in the first place, Defcribe to you the character of meeknefs which is here recommended; and, in the fecond place, Show, you, the happiness with which it is attended. I am, in the first place, then, To describe to you, the character of meeknefs which is here recommended.

Every virtue, whether of natural or revealed religion, is fituated between fome vices or defects, which though effentially different, yet bear fome refemblance to the virtue they counterfeit; on account of which resemblance they obtain its name, and impose upon thofe who labour under the want of difcernment. This meeknefs which is here recommended, is not at all the same with that courtesy of manners which is learned in the fchool of the world. That is but a fuperficial accomplishment, and often proceeds from a hollowness of heart. It is alfo quite different from conftitutional facility, that undeciding state of the mind which easily bends to every propofal; that is a weakness, and not a virtue. Neither does it at all resemble that tame and paffive temper which patiently bears infults and fubmits to injuries. That is a want of spirit, and argues a cow

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