1789] ^EV. WILLIAM SMLTH, D. D. 265 



On the adjournment of the Convention of 1786, Dr. Provoost 

 had been requested to preach before the Convention of 1789. It 

 assembled July 26th of that year. But Bishop Provoost was not 

 there. Dr. Smith, upon one day's notice, was requested to preach 

 instead. He did so. He had hardly delivered this sermon before 

 he was called on for another. The Rev. David Griffith, who had 

 been elected Bishop of Virginia and was now attending the Con- 

 vention, died suddenly at the house of Bishop White, on Monday, 

 the 3d of August. Dr. Smith was at the same short notice of a 

 single day requested to preach a funeral sermon. Both sermons 

 are good productions ; the former, — which, for some reason not 

 known to me, was not included in the edition of Dr. Smith's 

 Works, begun by Maxwell of Philadelphia, a. d. 1803 — was one, 

 I should say, of the best of his sermons which we have. It was 

 published however at the time at the request of the Convention, 

 and from it I make a single extract. The topic of the sermon is 

 Christian Perfection ; the opening passage of the text, — which 

 embraces the first twelve verses from the 6th chapter of the Epistle 

 to the Hebrews — " Therefore, leaving the principles of the doc- 

 trine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection." Having developed 

 this fine theme in the true spirit of the Gospel, the preacher 

 concludes : 



Above all, my brethren, in the great work now before us, where the 

 honor of our Church, the purity of our worship, true vital religion, and 

 the consequent happiness and salvation of millions, perhaps yet unborn, 

 are the awful and important subjects of deliberation — let us proceed with 

 candour and care, keeping the venerable sanction of antiquity and the 

 infollible word of God always in our view; not lightly given to change, 

 nor too rigidly stiff in matters unessential to the true substance of the 

 "faith once delivered unto the saints." In all our proceedings, however 

 much we may desire the wisdom of the serpent, let us also in a special 

 manner seek the harmlessness of the dove also; — adorning every other 

 acquisition with the clothing of humility and that excellent gift of charity. 



But I will detain you no longer. Ha\'ing put on that most excel- 

 lent gift; trying the faith that is in us by tests and marks already laid 

 down and laboring daily after greater attainments in holiness, we shall 

 at length arrive to that state of spiritual health and perfection which is 

 the end of all the outward and visible ordinances of Religion ; even that 

 " love of God which fulfilleth all things in us through Christ Jesus, 

 giving us to eat of spiritual meat and drink of the waters of health and 

 life everlasting freely." 



