296 The Path çf the yuJ1, S E R M. fhown you that the path of the juft, or re- XII. ligious virtue exemplified in human charac- ters, or as pradifed by men having infirmity, is as a fhining light ; it is in itfelf excellent, beautiful and regular, uniformly conducted with wifdom ; and free from that obfcurity, ignorance and confufion, which are infepa- rable characters of a wicked and vicious courfe ; it is accompanied with a conflant inward ferenity and felf- approving joy, and it conveys ufeful infl=ruetions to thofe who behold it. I fhall, in the next place, confider it as an increafing light, and advancing to per- fetion, which the text plainly leads us to ; for the path of the juif is laid to be a Mining light, that fhineth more and more unto the perfeEt day. It is not like a fiery meteor which, having no abiding caufe of light, only makes a blaze, and is extin- guifh'd, nor does it Thine only by refietion with a borrow'd lufire, but like the fpring of day animated by an inward undecaying principle, it rifes in fplendor from its low and more obfcure beginnings, going on gra- dually to perfe ion. Like the natural early dawn, in this refpec`I, is the principle of virtue, or what the fcripture calls the feed 6f
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