fary to the fupport and well-being of the whole body, whereof none can difpenfe with any of the others without injury. So fhall we all fulfil our duty, all worthily maintain our ftation, and reach the great end of our creation; all learn to love and esteem each other more and more, and each by means of the other become constantly more happy.

SERMON XXXVII.

The Value of more enlightened Times.

GOD, father of lights, whofe glory fills the ethereal throne, from whom all good and only perfect gifts proceed, we likewise are irradiated and cheered by thy light, the light of truth as well as the light of the fun and how much more are we illumined by the former, than fo many other people and nations, who scarcely difcern a few faint emanations of it. Yes, thou haft imparted to us, as men and as chriftians, many eminent means of inftruction, of knowledge, of perpetually increafing illumination and intellectual perfection! Thou haft tranfplanted us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. And how much happier are we thus become, and how much

happier may we still be! How greatly has thy

kindness thus facilitated to us the path of life, alleviated the accomplishment of our duties, the attainment of thy great defigns upon us in the vast eternal scheme involving all! From what tormenting

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folicitudes, from what oppreffive burdens, from what fervile fear, from what terrors has this instance of thy mercy freed us! By having brought us to the light, thou haft called us to liberty, to inward peace, to purer virtue, to higher happiness. If this light be yet not fo generally diffused among us, not fo unclouded, not fo vivid as entirely to difpel the darkness, ftill the dawn allows us to hope for the bright rays of the morning, and then for the meridian blaze. Yes, thanks be to thee, o Father of light, for the genial rifing and the gra dual progress of it! Oh caufe it to fhine ever brighter, to spread ever farther; and grant us by its influence to become ever wifer and better! Grant that none of us may be guilty of shutting their eyes against it; none of us impede its activity and progrefs; none of us abuse it to fin, none of us walk in darknefs! But let each of us zealously firive to advance conftantly farther in the knowledge of the truth, and by the truth to become inceffantly more free, inceffantly more virtuous, and inceffantly more accomplished! May each of us in his place, and according to his ftation, prove a burning and a fhining light enlightening far around him, and promoting the greater intellectual improvement of his brethren as far as he is able! Aflift us powerfully to this end, moft gracious Father! Teach us to recognize our fpecial privilege, and ever more faithfully to use it. Grant that we may all walk before thee as children of light, and thus affert the dignity to which thou haft promoted

us

us as men and as christians. Blefs the reflections we are now about to make on these important objects. Let them awaken in us the fentiments of gratitude and joy for them; let them excite in us a fatisfaction and zeal in the unwearied profecution of our course to the prize of perfection. These our fupplications we offer up unto thee in the name of Jefus Chrift, our lord; and fteadfaftly relying on his promises, addrefs thee further as he prefcribed us: Our father, &c.

EPHES. V. 8.

Now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light.

THE times we live in, my pious hearers, are frequently called enlightened times; and in fact they are not abfolutely undeferving of that epithet. Lefs ignorance in general prevails at prefent, lefs fuperftition and blind credulity, than in the days of our forefathers. At present it must be owned, far more perfons reflect upon moral and religious fubjects than perhaps ever did before. There are now a hundred perfons who employ themselves in reading, and in acquiring fome notions and science, for one that did fo, I will not fay in the days of yore, but even at the commencement of the prefent, and in the courfe of the laft century. Many kinds of knowledge are now diffeminated

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nated amongst all claffes and conditions of men, which were heretofore confined to the learned. In our times a man is afhamed of many errors, many prejudices, many fuperftitions, childish opinions and usages, which formerly were held facred by princes as well as their fubjects, by nobles as well as the vulgar. At prefent the pursuit of truth, and the free investigation of it, are more general than formerly. Accordingly there actually is more intellectual light, there is a greater proportion of knowledge, there are more means and incentives to it among mankind, though neither the one nor the other be near fo great and fo general as numbers pretend. But does this greater intellectual light give our times a real precedence above the foregoing? Are they actually more valuable on that account? On this head the judgments are extremely various, according to the point of view in which the matter is beheld.

Indeed this acceffion of light, particularly at first, and before it be come to a certain degree of perfection, is attended with many evils of various magnitudes. It excites doubt; it makes the faith of

many weak perfons to waver; it puffs up the proud; it often begets fcoffers; it occafions at times fad confusions and disturbances; it is often mifufed by the wicked, for excufing and palliating their vices and follies; in fome respects it promotes or favours a difpofition to luxury and oftentation, too great a propenfity to diffipation and public amusements;