120
A
HOPEFUL YOUTH
tSERM.
VSL.
ture
there
is
of
amiable and hateful qualities amongst
the
children
of
men.
There
is
beauty and comeliness; there
is
vigour and vivacity; there
is
good
-
humour
and
come
passion
;
there
is
wit
and
judgment, and
industry,
even
amongst
those
that
are profligate and
abandoned
to
many
vices.
There
is
sobriety, and
love,
and honesty, and
justice,
and decency amongst
men
that
know
not God,
and
believe
not the
gospel
of
our Lord Jesus. There
are
very
few
of
the
sons
or daughters
of
Adam,
but
are
possessed
of
something
good
and agreeable,
either
by
nature
or
acquirement;
therefore,
when
there
is
a
ne-
cessary occasion to
mention
.the vices
of
any man,
I
should
not
speak
evil
of
him in
the
gross,
nor heap re-
proaches
on him
by
wholesale.
It
is
very
disingenuous
to talk scandal
in
superlatives,
as
though every man
who
was
a .sinner,
was
a
perfect
villain,
the very
worst
of
men, all
over hateful and abominable.
How sharply should our
own
thoughts
reprove
us,
when
we give
our pride
and malice
a loose, to
ravage
over
all
the
character of our
neighbours, and deny all
that
is
good concerning
them, because they have
some-
thing
in
them
that
is
criminal and worthy
of
blame
!
Thus our
judgment
is
abused
by
our
passions
;
and
sometimes
this
folly
reigns
in
us
to
such
a degree,
that
we
can
hardly
allow
a
man to
be
wise
or
ingenuous, to
have
a
grain
of
good sense,
or
good-humour,
that
is
not
of
our
profession,
or
our
party,
in
matters
of
church
or.
state.
Let
us
look back upon
our conduct,
and blush to
think
that
we
should indulge such prejudices, such
a
sin-
ful
partiality.
2d
Remark.
A
man
that
has
not true
grace,
nor
.ho
-'
liness,
may
be
the
just
object
of
our love;
for
we find
several instances and several degrees
of
love were
paid
by Christ, the wisest
and
best
of
men, to
a
youth
of
a
covetous and carnal
temper;
one
who
preferred earth
to
heaven, and
valued
his
present
possessions above
those
eternal treasures that Christ
had promised
him.
I
confess,'
under
the Old
Testament,
in
the cxxxix
Psalm,
ver.
2I,
22.
David appeals
to
God,
do
not I
hate
them
that
hate thee
?
and adds,
I
hate
them
with
a
perfect hatred. But
this need
not
be
construed
to
sig-
nify
any malice
in his
heart
against
them as a
private
per-
son; but
his
design to fight
against
them,
and suppress