82 AS 1UlisLr. ATTEMPT, &C. vances i =.i holiness are justly expected from persons who have enjoyed such an advantage as this ? How afflictive and melancholy is the case of many persons in their younger years, whose lot is -cast in families where there is not so much as the professionor form of godliness ? Who have had not one religious acquaintance, not one friend to speak a serious word to them for months or years together ? Who are tinder the perpetual impression of evil co,nmun caIions and the mischievous influence of 'wicked companions ? Who'are drawn away betimes into snares and,deflements ere they are aware of their clanger? How unhappy are they who instead of hearing pious discourse live daily in the. midst of profaneness? Who are surrounded with the language of hell, and where oaths and curses and blasphemies of the name- of God are made constant and familiar? And if at any time a holy thought, or an awful sense of sin be awakened within them, the divine spark is quenched on a sudden, and never suffered' to kindle into a flame and every hopeful appearance of religion or virtue is blasted and destroyed in the very bud ? How muchmore blessed are your circumstances who have been freed from the temptations of evil company in the dangerous years of youth ? It is expected that you should preserve yourselves more unspotted and pure from all the vices of the age, that your lips and your lives should be un tainted with the licentious impiety or lewdness of the times, that your behaviour should be more agreeable to the rules of strict godliness, and your virtues in the world would shine with a more illustrious light and your souls be animated with the purest flames of devotion, since you have had nothing -to damp or dis- courage them. But on the other hand, if ye have run .into the paths of folly and madness without the allurements of an evil companion, without the influence of a wicked example, without those temptations to which others are exposed, how aggravated is your guilt in the sight of God, and how deep and sensible ought your repentance to be ! IV. You who have had books of piety,and religion -put into yourhand from your youngest years, and have been taught to read the great things of God and of your salvation, what have you learnt, what have you done more than others? You who have.. been excited and, encouraged to acquaint yourselves with the necessary and important things ofreligion by reading ; whohave had the rules and advice, the precepts, the promises and threaten ings of the word of God drawn up into a narrow compass in reli- gious treatises, and set before you in a most powerful and persua- sive manner; you who have enjoyed the labours of your fathers,, and are addressed by the dead and the living, in their practical and pathetic writings, with the kindest exhortations tó virtue and piety, and the Most awful warnings against every sin ; you who
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