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SEEM.
VIII.]
FALLING
SHORT OF
HEAVEN.
139
the
circle
of
outward duties,
as ye
are
led by
custom
and
form,
with
a neglect
of
inward christianity,
and hearty
godliness.
Did your parents
love
God
above all
earthly
things,
and
will ye
prefer
the love
of
this world above all things
heavenly
and divine
?
Have
ye
had such shining exam-
ples
of
holiness
brought
so
near
you to
no
purpose?
Do
they pray
for
you daily?
Do
they daily
mourn
over you,
and
hope,
and
wish,
and
exhort
you to
take care
of
your
souls
?
And
are
you
resolved
that
their
counsels,
their
prayers,
and
their
tears, shall be laid
out
upon
you in
vain? Is
this the
return
you
make for
all
their
care
and compassion
?
They
tell you daily
that
they
can
have no
greater joy than
to
see
their children
walking
in
the truth,
and
will
you cruelly
disappoint their plea-
sures,
and bring
down-
their
grey hairs
with
sorrow
to
the grave? Perhaps there are
some
of
you, who
al-
ready
have
parted
with
your
parents, and their spirits
are
at
rest;
and
has
neither their
life,
nor their
death, made
serious and lasting impressions upon you
;
have
they
en-
treated
you in
their last
dying
moments,
by all
that
is
dear
and sacred,
to make
sure
of
heaven
?
And
will
you
abandon
these
entreaties, and
sell
your
souls to
the
world,
and
to
death, for
a
few
perishing
temptations
?
Have
they laid
a
solemn charge
upon
you,
at
their last
farewel,
to
travel
in
the paths
of
piety,
and meet there
on
mount
Sion in
the
great day? and
have you
wander-
ed already from this
high
road
of
holiness,
and forgot
the
solemnity
and
the
charge
?
Shall
your parents
dwell for
ever
with
their God, and
shall
their
chil-
dren
for
ever
dwell in
fire
prepared
for the
devil
and
bis
angels
?
You cannot
sin
.at
so
easy
and
so
cheap
a
rate
as
others. You must
break through stronger
bonds, and
do bolder violence
to
your
consciences, before you can
indulge iniquity,
and pursue
wickedness.
Your
temp-
tations
to sin
have been
less
than
others,
and your ad-
vantages for salvation have been much greater.
Our
hearts
bleed within
us,
to
think
of your double
guilt,
and your aggravated
damnation;
to
think
that
you
should
not
only be
separated
from
your
parents,
and
their
God,
for ever,
but that
your place
of torment
shall
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