Abernathy - Houston-Packer Collection BX9178.A33 S4 1748 v.1

'oo The Path of the tuft, SE x M. the meafure of íhining, not apparent, but XII. real genuine virtue here, fo (hall the future t"v"' felicity be ; he that foweth fparingly Jhall reap alto fparingly, and he that foweth bounti- fidly fhall reap 416 hountif filly *. But there is an appointed flandard of vir- tue, towards which we fhould always afpire, which is its moll: complete hate, reprefent- ed here under the notion of the perfec`l day. I do not mean that there is a precife limit fet to intelleaual and moral attainments, and p4leafures, beyond which they cannot pafs, even in the future hate; the inequality of the heavenly glory, plainly declared in fcrip- ture, and compared to the unequal bright - nefs of the firmament, and of particular fparkling flars in it, or luminous ones, and to the difference between the flats them - felves ; this, I fay, leads us rather to fup- pofe the contrary : And, indeed, our rati- onal nature and powers, infinitely fhort of abfolute perfefion, feem by their conftitu- tion to be always capable of progrefs: But what I mean, is, that there is a perfet day to come, a hate fo far of confummate vir- tue and righteoufnefs, as to be free of all moral blemifhes, and to exclude all finful 2 Cor. ix. 6. failures,

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