temporal hero and deliverer is received with a tribute of applaufe; every heart beats with admiration, and every tongue is vocal in his praife. Let us alfo celebrate the Prince of Peace, the Redeemer of our fallen race, who delivered us from everlasting wrath, and opened a way to the heavens by the blood of his crofs. Beautified with his falvation, let us rejoice in the Saviour, faying with the Apoftle, "God forbid "that I fhould glory, fave in the cross of Jefus "Chrift." Let us alfo love Him who first loved us. Let us give the chief place in our hearts to that Divine Friend of mankind, whofe affection to us was ftronger than death.

SERMON XXVI.

PROVERBS xii. 26.

The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour.

THE fentiments of men concerning virtue, and their own particular practice, form a very ftrange and ftriking contraft. Notwithstanding their own irregular or imperfect conduct, a general feeling, with regard to morality, pervades the human species. Philofophers have differed about the origin of moral distinctions, and delivered various theories concerning virtue; but the people who judge from their feelings, have no system but one; and whenever right and wrong become the fubje& of decifion, if the fact be fully explained, the voice of mankind is uniform and conftant.

Without this moral fenfe or fentiment, the queftion with regard to virtue had never been started at all, nor exercised the ingenuity of the greatest and best spirits in every age of the world. For, independent of the national religions, men arofe among the heathens who ftrove to improve or reform their countrymen, the lights of one age fhone to another, the great and the good not only left their example, but lifted up their voice to ages which were to come. Religion gives its powerful fanction to the max ims of morality, and this volume was written to republish that law which is engraven on the heart.

The book from which these words are taken, was the work of a great king who fometimes left the throne to adorn it the more, and, retiring from the fplendid follies of a court, confecrated his hours to the benefit of all pofterity. It was addreffed by Solomon to his fon, and contains fuch ideas of religion, and urges fuch motives to virtue, as are most effectu-. al with the young, reprefenting them as the perfection of human nature, and the true excellence of man. "The righteous (fays he) is more excellent than his "neighbour." With great propriety is this picture fet before the young; for the love of excellence is natural to the youthful mind. What is manly, what is generous, what is honorable, are then the objects of admiration and pursuit; fired with noble emulation, each ingenuous disciple afpires to be more excellent than his neighbour.

The objections against a holy life have proceeded on maxims directly contrary to the text. The inducements to vice, which have been powerful in all ages, are the fame that were prefented by the tempter to our first parents. Wisdom was promifed, "Ye shall be wife to know good and evil;" the attractions of ambition were presented, "Ye fhall be "as gods;" the allurements of pleasure were added, and the forbidden fruit recommended as "good for "food and pleasant to the eye." If in oppofition to these it shall be shown, that the righteous man is wifer, and greater, and happier, than his neighbour, the objections against religion will be removed, the ways of Providence will be vindicated, and virtue eftablished upon an everlasting foundation.

In the first place, The righteous man is wifer than. his neighbour.

There is no part of his nature in which man is fo earnest to excel, and fo jealous of a defect, as his understanding. Men will give up any part of their frame fooner than this; they will fubfcribe to many infirmities and errors, they will confefs a want of temper, and the proper government of their paffions, they will even admit deviations with regard to the leffer moralities, but never yield the smallest iota in what refpects their intellectual abilities.

No wonder that man is jealous of his understanding, for it is his prerogative and his glory. This draws the line between the animal and the intellectual world, afcertains our rank in the fcale of being, and not only raises us above inferior creatures, but makes us approach to a nature which is divine. This enters into the foundation of character, for without intellectual abilities, moral qualities cannot fubfift, and a good heart will go wrong without the guidance of a good understanding. Without the direction and the government of wisdom, courage degenerates into rafhnefs, juftice hardens into rigour, and benevolence becomes an indifcriminate good nature, or a blameable facility of manners. Where then is wisdom to be found, and what is the path of understanding? If you will truft the dictates of religion and reafon, to be virtuous is to be wife. The testimony of all who have gone before you, confirms the decifion. In oppofition, however, to the voice of religion, of reason, and of mankind, there are multitudes in every age who reckon themselves more excellent than their neighbours, by trefpaffing against the laws which all ages have counted facred, the younger by the purfuit of criminal gratification, the old by habits of deceit and fraud.

The early period of life is frequently a season of delufion. When youth scatters its blandifhments, and the fong of pleasure is heard, "Let us crown "ourselves with rofe-buds before they are withered, "and let no flower of the spring pass away;" the inexperienced and the unwary liften to the found, and furrender themselves to the enchantment. Not fatisfied with those just and mafculine joys which nature offers and virtue confecrates, they rufh into the exceffes of unlawful pleafure; not fatisfied with those fruits bordering the path of virtue, which they may tafte and live, they put forth their hand to the forbidden tree. One criminal indulgence lays the foundation for another, till finful pleasure becomes a purfuit that employs all the faculties, and absorbs all the time of its votaries.

There is no moderation nor government in vice. Defires that are innocent may be indulged with innocence; pleasures that are pure may be pursued with purity, and the round of guiltless delights may be made without encroaching on the great duties of life. But guilty pleasures become the masters and the tyrants of the mind; when thefe lords acquire dominion, they bring all the thoughts into captivity, and rule with unlimited and defpotic fway.

Look around you. Confider the fate of your equals in age, who have been fwept away, not by the hand of time, but by the fcythe of intemperance, and involved in the fhade of death. Contemplate that cloud which vests the invifible world, where their manfion is fixed for ever. When the fons of the Siren call you to the banquet of vice, stop in the midft of this career, paufe on the brink, look down,