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النشر الإلكتروني

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His approbation or censure will be expressed to you, not only before the individuals, who compose this assembly, but before the assembled universe. For "I saw," said the exile of Patmos, "I saw the dead, both small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened, and the dead judged out of the things written in the books."

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ADDRESS,

DELIVERED AT THE COMMENCEMENT IN 1809.

Young Gentlemen,

In your character of members of this seminary, I now address you for the last time; nor, considering the frailty and casualties of human life, is it unreasonable to reflect, that even your small number may never return to this place. If it should, I am not unmindful of another event, which may render communications from me equally impossible.

To possess intellectual natures is your privilege, and perhaps your pride. But there is no privilege which does not imply corresponding obligation. Your rational powers have already been a source both of pleasure and of pain. You have had enjoyments and sufferings, the very existence of which implied intelligence. This rational nature, whether it continue ten years, or ten thousand, will be uniform in rendering its possessor susceptible of happiness or misery.

Man sees a difference in moral actions. He sees that a certain course ought to be pursued, and that deviation from such a course ought to be condemned. It is impossible that perception of right, should not produce uneasiness in him who is conscious of being wrong. Nor is it less impossible, that self-approbation and joy should not arise in the heart, when duty and moral character are perceived to be coincident.

If the difference between right and wrong be clearly discerned by intelligent creatures; much more is it discerned by Him

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who is the source of intelligence. Nor can it be conceived, that while this difference is clearly in the view of our Creator, there should not be a corresponding difference in the treatment, received from him by his rational offspring. Nothing but the want of power, can prevent a being of moral rectitude from manifesting his affection for virtue, and his opposition to vice. A man of real virtue has assurance, therefore, that his Maker views him with complacency; the transgressor must on the same ground, adopt, in regard to himself, a contrary conclusion. Nor can either rationally doubt, that the divine estimation of both will, in some part of their existence, be made public; it being absurd to suppose that He, who is independent, and of power unlimited, should suffer himself to be considered neuter in the grand controversy between virtue and vice. You perceive then, not only that the doctrine of a retribution is consonant with reason, but that reason is irreconcilably hostile to the opposite belief.

We We are not more concerned to know that there will be a retribution, than to ascertain what in human actions will be the subject of commendation or censure. Rational doubt on this subject cannot long be entertained. Besides the intentions, or what Christianity denominates the heart, there can be nothing in human actions, but either modulations of voice, or bodily motions. Is it in any measure questionable, whether virtue can be predicated of the two last? Can virtue be directly concerned whether your limbs move in a straight, or a curve line? Or whether your lungs and organs of speech, be adapted to the producing of one sound, rather than another? If not, morality must consist, agreeably to the Christian doctrine, in purity of heart. Our obligations to the maintenance of this, are neither occasional nor intermitting. They are constant, and eternal. Whatever appearance of rigor there may be in the doctrine, that moral obligation extends to every moment of rational life, it is impossible that any consistent scheme of ethics should be formed, in which this doctrine is not either asserted or implied. If intelligent creatures be obligated to obey the rule of moral rec

titude at one moment, they cannot be at liberty to deviate from it at any other.

These fundamental principles of natural religion, are, by Christianity, confirmed, and placed in a light the most clear and impressive. You are therein taught, not only that the divine estimation of moral actions will hereafter be known, but that a day for revealing the righteous judgments of God is now fixed in the eternal counsels of heaven, when the Most High shall associate with Him, all who are upright in heart, and declare his immutable hatred to the cause and the patrons of vice. Interested as you will be in the decisions of the final judgment, suffer not yourselves to be deceived as to the terms on which your Maker's approbation is to be obtained. Be not content with those ill defined, those shapeless images of virtue, presented to your view, in the language of an immoral, unthinking age. That virtue, which unites her votaries to the divine nature, must imply a resemblance to the divine moral character. You are going forth into the world, at an age in which vice is treated with indulgence and courtesy ; and of course, a very moderate portion of regularity in deportment, will pass for superior virtue. It would, therefore, you perceive, be extremely dangerous to reckon yourselves among the friends of real virtue, because you may not fall short of the common standard, or even should you far exceed it. He, whose object on earth was to bear witness to the truth; He, by whom the eternal destinies of mankind will be decided, has taught us, that the world in general is unfriendly to that moral purity, which he will recognise and reward. Nor can I permit the present opportunity to pass, without reiterating what you have frequently heard, that no dispositions nor actions will appear with honor, in the final result, but those which proceed from inward affections to the Supreme Being: No plants, but those which our heavenly Father has planted, will be transferred to the paradise of God.

Should you be disgusted with the doctrines of Christianity, or terrified at the strictness of its moral requirements; be assured, that nothing can be gained by an attempt to disbelieve it.

If you cultivate habits of thinking, evidences of religion, both natural and revealed, will thicken around you. Should you reject the latter, no advantage would be acquired, even on the score of present comfort. Natural religion has all the severity of revealed, with none of its mercy. Even atheism itself, were it true, would give no security against future sufferings; since the cause, whatever it be, by which we now exist, may continue our existence without limits.

Deliberate discussions of moral subjects, and inquiries concerning them, are much to be encouraged. Truth has nothing to fear from intense scrutiny. But I would advise you never to raise trifling objections, however plausible, against what you believe to be true, lest they should eventually appear to have weight from the circumstance of their being your own. If deceived by others, your loss may be great; but if deceived by yourselves, the loss will be equal, and the guilt greater.

Having made these remarks on the great subject of religion, I would subjoin others, relating to the external course of your future lives.

Our Creator has been pleased to ordain, that nothing valuable should be acquired without effort. Though exhortations to industry are perpetually reiterated, and its importance displayed, it is by no means easy to be convinced of the real extent of its power. Those philosophers, civilians, or professional men, whose fame or writings have long survived them, have not been indebted for their elevation, exclusively to the bounties of nature. Their ardor, industry, and invincible resolution, had no inconsiderable effect in forming their characters. Though the observations of Sir Isaac Newton, and Sir William Jones, as to the mediocrity of their own original abilities, are to be considered rather the result of their modesty, than as conveying literal truth; it cannot be doubted that their surprising industry would have procured very honorable distinction, even to persons of common intellectual powers. By application an incredible difference may be produced between persons, whose natural endowments are not dissimilar. But habits of industry, if they

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