like the fhining Light. 281 The righteous is more excellent than his neigh- S F R M. boar; he is wifer, he is better, and he is XII. happier, and in the end he fhall appear much more dil'cinguifhed in all thefe refpects. The text reprefents virtue in this imperfect view, as practifed by weak and frail mortals, and therefore as far below that confummate moral excellence, which fhines in fome finite beings, not to fpeak of the f ipreme ; nay, far below what our own nature is ca- pable of, and what the fpirits of juft men made perfef have actually attained. Our goodnefs here, the goodnefs of the fincere, is not like the morning cloud that paj/ith a- way, but it is like the morning dawn which is weak in its beginning, but gradually in- çreafes in brightnefs, till it arifes to its me- ridian glory. The path of the juft, even the imperfectly juft, has a real, fubftantial ex- cellence whereby it is effentially diftinguifhed from the path of the wicked ; they differ as light and darknefs, which are the molt oppo- jite to each other, and their difference is a common proverbial defcription of things moll directly contrary, which can never be reconciled or confit together, and which in their kinds and qualities fet againft each other, are the belt and the wort, at leat, very,.
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