g8 PALLING SHORT OP HEAVEN. porous." It is seldom that we see a man in the prime of his days, possessing largetreasures and dominions in this world, that will seek after the things of another; or that will shew -due re- spect to his fellow -creatures; or practise so much as the form of godliness: that when all these meet together, as they did in this young man, they conspire to make himlovely in the eyes of every beholder. But alas ! this unhappy youth, furnished, as he was with all these virtues, and these advantages, which our Lord be- held in him, and for which he loved him, yet he lost heaven for the love of this world. He refused to accept the proposals of Christ ; he went away sorrowful, for he had large possessions. And this naturally leads me tothe thirdhead. [If this sermon be too long, it may be divided here.) III. Sonic remarks upon this mixed character ; upon the folly, the guilt, and misery of a man so lovely, and so beloved of Christ. 1st Remark. Howmuch good and evil maybe mingled in the same person ? what lovely qualities were found in this young man ! and yet there was found in him a carnal mind in love with this world, and in a state of secret enmity to God. Our nature . at first was a glorious compositionof all that was good. How has sin ruined human nature from its primitiveglory, audmingled a large measure of evil in its very frame ! and yet how has re- straining grace kept our nature from losing every thing that is good and valuable, and from becoming universally monstrous and loathsome ! Let us take a survey of the world, and see what a mixture there is of amiable and hateful qualities amongst the children of. men. There is beauty and comeliness ; there is vigour and vi- vacity ; there is good-humour and compassion; there is witand 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. Thereare very fewof the sons and daughters of Adam, but are possessed of something good and agreeable, either bynature or acquirement ; therefore, when there is anecessary occasion to mention the vices of any man, I shouldnot speak evil of him in the gross, nor heap reproacheson him by wholesale. . It is very disingenuousto talk scandal in superlatives, as though everyman who was a sinner, was a perfect villain, the very worst of -men, all over hateful and abominable. How sharply should our own thoughts reproveus, when we give our pride and malice aloose, to ravage over all the character of our neighbours, and deny all that is good concerning them,
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