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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
of
a
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
kingdom
which 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
?
How
will
ye
endure
to
see
the
honours
of
heaven
put
upon those whom you
have
so
often despised
in
your 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 blessing
of
religious
parents, and
a
pious
education; that
have been bred
up
in the
nurture
and admonition
of
the Lord,
in
the know-
ledge
and practice
of
the moral
law,
and
in the outward
performance
of
religion,
according
to
the appointments of
the
gospel.
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, and
mak-
ing haste
to
ruin:
or
when,
at
best, ye
go
on
and tread