138 Á HOPEFUL YOUTH [SEAM. VIII. perfection, and practise civility in every form ; but are very little acquainted with the forms of godliness, and never yet felt any thing of the life of religion, or the powers of the world to come. How mournful a sight is it to behold a well accomplished gentleman, yet a vile sinner ! A pretty obliging youth among men, but deaf and obstinate to all the calls of God, and the entreaties of a dying Saviour ! A person ofa free and ingenuous deportment, yet in chains of slavery to corruption and death ! and how unspeakably sorrowful will it be at the last day, to see such as these, the gay, the affable, the fair- spoken, and the well-bred sinner, in the utmost ago- nies of horror and despair, mourning a lost God, a lost soul, and a lost heaven ! Let me speak once more, and try to provoke you to jealousy. Shall the rugged and clownish part of man- kind press forward into that kingdomwhich ye despise ? Will ye be patient to see some of the unbred and unpo- lished set at the right hand of the Judge, and yourselves with shame, be divided to the left ? Howwill ye endure to see the honours of heaven put upon those whom you have so often despised inyour hearts upon earth ? Can you imagine that that tribunal will be bribed with fair speeches ? or that any thing will be accepted in that court, besides solid and hearty religion ? Suffer this ex- hortation then, and receive this advice, you that are not used to deny any thing to your 'friends, you that love to oblige those who ask any reasonable favour at your hands; nor let me plead this day in vain. S. To those that have enjoyed the blessingof religious parents, and a pious education; that have been bred up in the nurture and admonitionof the Lord, in the know- ledge and practice of the moral law, and in the outward performance of religion, according to the appointments of thegospel. Children, we love you for your fathers sakes : we love to look upon you, for you are the little living images of our dearest friends: we have loved to ask you the younger questions that your parents have taught you, and to see the first-fruits of their instruction and holy care; but we pity you, from our very souls, when we behold you break the bars of your education, andmak- ing haste to ruin: or when, at best, ye go on and tread
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