in order to give a great idea of a church, it is said, it hath such and such advantages, so much in cash, so much in small tithes, and so much in great tithes. St. Paul saw the ministry only as a path full of thorns and briars, and he experienced through all the course of his life the truth of that idea, which was given him of his office. Hear the catalogue of his sufferings. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck: a night and a day have I been in the deep. In the journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness, 2 Cor. xi. 24 -27. Good God! What a salary for a minister, hunger, thirst, fasting, nakedness, peril, persecution, death! In our case,we can die but once, and virtue considers the proximity of the crown of righteousness, which, being suspended immediately over the head of the martyr, supports him under the pains of martyrdom: but the ministry of St. Paul was a perpetual martyrdom, his life was a continual death. I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death. For we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men, 1 Cor. iv. 9.

Here we finish the eulogium of our apostle, and, by uniting the parts of this slight sketch, we obtain a just portrait of the man. Do you know a greater than St. Paul? Can you conceive virtue in a more eminent degree? Behold a man fired with zeal, making what he thought the cause of God his own cause, God's enemies his enemies, the in

8

Behold a

terest of God the interest of himself. man, who turns his attention to truth, and, the moment he discovers it, embraces and openly avows it. Behold a man, who not content to be an ordinary christian, and to save himself alone, aspiring at the glory of carrying through the whole world for public advantage that light, which had illuminated himself. Behold a man preaching, writing; what am I saying? Behold a man suffering, dying, and sealing with his own blood the truths he taught. An ardent zealot, a sincere convert, an accomplished minister, a bleeding martyr, learned in his errors, and, if I may be allowed to speak so, regular in his mistakes, and virtuous even in his crimes. Shew me in the modern or primitive church a greater character than St. Paul. Let any man produce a christian, who had more reason to be satisfied with himself, and who had inore right to pretend that he had discharged all his duties. Yet this very man, this Paul forgat those things which were behind! This very Paul was pressing forward! This is the man who feared he should be a cast-away! And you, smoking flax, you bruised reed, you who have hardly taken root in the christian soil, you who have hardly a spark of love to God, do you think your piety sufficient? Are you the man to leave off endeavoring to make new advances?

Perhaps you may say the text is not to be taken literally, it is the language of humility, and re ́sembles what St. Paul says in another place, I am the chief of sinners; agreeably to his own direction, that each christian should esteem another better than himself, and which he calls, very justly, lowliness of mind. No such thing, my brethren, you will be convinced of the contrary by the following reflections.

2. We ground the necessity of progressive religion on the great end of christianity. Form, if it be possible, a just notion of christianity. I say if it be possible; for we have a wonderful reluctance to understand our own religion. We have all a strange propensity to disguise the character of a true christian, and to keep ourselves ignorant of it. We have the holy scriptures, and in them the gospel plan of redemption before our eyes every day, and every day we throw over them a variety of prejudices, which suppress the truth, and prevent us from seeing its beauty. One forms of christianity an idea of indolence and relaxation, and, under pretence that the gospel speaks of mercy and grace, persuades himself that he may give a loose to all his natural evil dispositions. Another imagines the gospel a body of discipline, the principal design of which was to regulate society, so that provided we be pretty good parents, tolerable magistrates, and as good subjects as other people, we ought all to be content with ourselves. A third thinks, to be a christian is to defend with constant heat certain points, which he elevates into capital doctrines, essential to holiness here and to salvation hereafter. A fourth, more unjust than all the rest, supposes the first duty of a christian is to be sure of his own salvation. Each wanders after his own fancy.

It should seem, however, that the more we consult the gospel, the more fully shall we be convinced, that its design is to engage us to aspire at perfection, to transform man, to render him as perfect as he was, when he came out of the hands of his Creator, to renew him after the image of him that created him, to make him approach the nature of glorified saints, and, to say, all in one word, to transform him into the divine nature. This

is christianity. This it is to be a christian, and consequently a christian is a man called to be perfect, as his Father which is in heaven is perfect, to be one with God as Jesus Christ is one with God.

This definition of a christian and of christianity is justified by all we see in the gospel. For why does it every where propose perfection for our end, heaven to our hope, God for our model? Why doth it teach us to consider the good things of the world as evils, and the evils of the world as benefits, human virtues as vices, and what men call vice as virtue? Why all this? All beside the matter, unless the gospel proposes to renew man, to transform him, and to make him approach the perfect being.

From these principles we conclude thus. Since the gospel requires us to endeavor to be perfect as our Father which is in heaven is perfect, we ought never to cease endeavoring till we are as perfect as our Father which is in heaven is perfect. Since the gospel requires us to labor to become, by a transformation of our being, one with God, as Jesus Christ is one with God, we ought never to give over our endeavors till we do become one with God. Moreover, as we shall never in this life carry our virtue to so high a degree as to be perfect as our Father is perfect, holy as God is holy, one with God as Jesus Christ is one with God, it follows to a demonstration, that in no period of our life will our duty be finished; consequently we must make continual progress, if we would answer our engagements; and consequently there is no point fixed in the career of virtue, in which it would be allowable to stop; and consequently St. Paul ought to be understood literally, when he says of himself, I count not myself to have apprehended: I therefore so run, not as uncertainly so fight I,

not as one that beateth the air. But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should be a cast-away, Phil. iii. 13. and consequently of all the excuses, of all the pretexts, of all the sophisms, which were ever invented to palliate that slowness, with which we walk in the way of virtue, there are none more frivolous than these, we are not saints, we cannot be perfect, we cannot put off human nature for it is because you are not saints, it is because you are not perfect, it is because you cannot put off human nature, it is on this account, that you ought to make a continual progress in christian virtue, that the sincerity, and so to speak, the obstinacy of your your efforts may make up for your imperfections.

3. Our third class of proofs is taken from the fatal consequences of a cessation of our efforts, a suspension of our religious endeavors. Were it literally true that we could arrive at that state of perfection, which the gospel requires of us; could we actually finish the morality of religion, it would still follow, that we must make new efforts during our residence in this world, and that without these our past labors would be useless. A man employed in a mechanical art prepares his materials, sets about his work, and carries it on to a certain degree. He suspends his labor for a while; his work doth not advance indeed, but our artist hath at least this advantage over us, when he returns to his labor, he finds his work in the same forwardness, in which he left it. Heavenly exercises are not of this kind. Past labor is often lost for want of perseverence, and, it is a certain maxim in religion, that not to proceed is to draw back.

Vice is closely connected with human propensities. Virtue on the contrary is directly opposite.