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reward, and virtue with reproach and punishment; where love is worked up to the highest excefs under the disguise of gallantry, and pride is recommended under the falfe notion of greatness; where the worst things are faid, and the beft abused. It is true, tho' the poifon be drunk off, it works not immediately the paffions are callow, and reafon only in the down; but when they are fledged by age, when youth inftills into thofe drowsy monsters warmth and vigour, and the animated fpecies of lewd reprefentations play in the imagination, what an uproar will they not raife in young people's breafts? and how ftrongly will they follicit them to doat on those things that fhine with fuch a charming luftre in their fancy? Now when reafon is weak, and temptation ftrong, when objects please, and glide fmoothly upon fenfe, paffion will run away with duty, unless found principles interpofe, and call all the terrors and joys of the other world to their affiftance. And when once youth is deeply entered in fin, there is no return. Therefore, train up a child, in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Prov. xxii. 6.

Secondly, Parents must not only remove ill objects from their childrens fight, but also cultivate their nonage with chriftian principles both of belief and practice. Haft thou children? inftruct them, and bow down their neck from their youth, Eccluf. vii. 23. Then they may be moulded into any shape; they lie under no prejudice, no preingagement : they are not gone over to a wrong intereft, nor biafs'd by the weight of ill habits. In fine, their fouls are a meer blank; you may write on them devil and angel almost with the fame facility. And as an early virtue is eafily acquired, fo alfo is it durable and permanent; for, in fine, experience teaches us, as well as fcripture, that the first loves and averfions fink fo deep, that they interweave F 4 them

themselves with our very nature, and cannot wear off without much time, and more violence. So that if we devote the firft fruits of reason to piety, we shall probably continue the practice. Young people's lives are generally of a piece; the last scene is a coру of the firft, and the exercises of our old age are modelled by thofe of our youth.

Take a youth, who has divided his time between the ftudy of virtue and learning: who fears more a barbarism in manners, than a folœcism in Latin ; who lends not an ear to lewd discourses, nor fuffers his tongue to pronounce them; who rates innocence above friendship, and God's holy grace above pleafure; take fuch a youth, I fay, and place him at the head of a numerous family; it is odds but his youthful piety will influence his riper years; for let the world throw before him a thousand fnares, he will find eyes to fee them, and courage to break through them. Let flesh prompt him to unlawful pleasures, he will reft content with thofe that are permitted, because he knows that a fatisfaction, purchafed by fin, is only a fweet poison, that charms the palate, and kills the foul a fhort folly, accompany'd by a long repentance, and too too often by an eternal despair.

But if we fhift the fcene, if we fuppofe a youth, trained up in the loose principles of the times; who knows the duty of a Chriftian, no better than he practises it, and owes all his religion to the climate, or baptifmal font; thus equipt, let us fettle him in the world. Will he reform? It is odds he will not; the change of ftate will make no alteration in his behaviour, unless it be to plunge him deeper in the mire of corruption. The ill habits, contracted in his youth, hang heavy upon him; paffion runs high, pleasures court, and parafites adore him; and when liberty and an eftate come in, able to fupport the expence of vice, what can be expected but debauchery?

bauchery? His bones are full of the fins of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the duft, Job xx. 11. And in all probability his foul will feel the punishment of them in hell.

Let therefore parents cultivate betimes their childrens minds with wholsome instructions, and ballance the wanton inclinations of their nature with found principles of religion and morality. When once they are engag'd in vice, inftruction comes too late. It is ftrange and amazing, that Christians fhould be fo preffing and follicitous about the temporal advantage of their children, and so indifferent, fo unconcerned, for their eternal. At the very birth, they begin to lay in provifions for their eftablishment; they affign them a poft, and train them up for the employment. Some are form'd for the court, others for the camp, and others for the bar. Dancing and fencing-mafters, Littleton and Cook are provided; but no preparation for heaven; and yet our all depends upon it. Tho' we leave the world as infignificant, as we came into it, known by few, or defpifed of all; if we fecure heaven, our fortune is made: heaven is our end, our final happiness, and virtue alone leads us thither. Why then are we taught fo foon all arts befides that of living well, which notwithstanding is the one thing neceffary, the only thing deferving our knowledge and our application?

Simeon, who for many years had panted after the coming of the Meffias, and spent his days in wishes, was led into the temple, by the Holy Ghoft. The fame moment, the Child Jefus was carried in by his parents. And he came by the Spirit into the temple, and the parents brought in the Child Jefus. Thus God crowned this good man's defires, and rewarded his perfeverance: he was grown grey in expectation, and had almost out-lived hope. But his wishes

were

were granted, when they feemed defperate. So true it is, God never abandons thofe, who place their confidence in him; and, if he defers to grant their petitions, it is either to add heat to their fervour, or wings to their hope; or to enhance the favour, by granting it, when least expected; or, if he complies not with their demands, they may be fure the refufal is a benefit: they afk, what an enemy alone would grant.

No fooner had Simeon received the Child into his arms, but he took his farewel of life, and fung his laft. Lord, now letteft thou thy fervant depart in peace, ver. 29. I have beheld the object of my wishes, and embraced it; my defires are at an end; nothing remains now, but to leave this world, and to expect his glory in the other.

The very touch of this divine Infant inspired him with the gift of prophecy: He foretold the perfecutions of the Son, the fuperlative grief of the mother, and the ingratitude of mankind. Behold this Child is fet for the fall and rifing again of many in Ifrael. This is ftrange! Does he not fay, 1 came not to judge the world, but to fave it? John xii. 47. Yes; but alas! in fpite of his mercy, we force him to employ his juftice, to punifh us more than others, because he has lov'd us more. How many refufe to acknowledge him for their Saviour? and how many feem to confefs his divinity, merely to prophane it with infult and outrage ? They treat him, now glorious in heaven, with lefs refpect than his enemies on earth; they tranfgrefs his orders, as if he had no authority to command, as if he were too weak to punish, and too poor to reward. This unwarrantable conduct defeats the defigns of his mercy, and provokes him to damn us, altho' he gave up his body to the cruelty of men, and fury of devils, for our falvation.

And

And thus, at the fame time, we verify to a tittle the other part of Simeon's prophecy, and for a fign which fhall be spoken against. For this is not to be understood only of the Jews, who oppofed him living, nor of the Pagan tyrants, who perfecuted him dead, but of Chriftians (which is ftrange) who contradict his doctrine, and revile his Perfon. For, tho' we receive it in fpeculation, we condemn it in practice, and our manners favour much more of the alcoran, than of the gofpel.

And thus we difgrace his facred Perfon, and deliver it up to the raillery of Pagans, and blafphemies of Mahometans. For what infidel, by the conduct of Chriftians, would not judge their law a nuifance to fociety, and a fhame to human nature? that its author was fome prostitute, fome banditto, who gave protection to crimes, and impunity to the most flagitious criminals. For what fins are almoft poffible, that are not visible in the practice of Chriftians? And how can an infidel prefume, their law preaches up the most refined morality, when the far greater part of its profeffors are ftained with vices, and ftigmatized with the moft flaming impieties? Thus we decypher the Saviour of mankind as the deftroyer of it, and the most Holy as the most flagitious.

O my divine Redeemer, tho' I bow to thy divinity, I have abused thy favours, and traduced thy Perfon by difobeying thy commands: I have joined with the crowd in demanding to crucify thee; and, tho' I pretended refpect, have outraged thy goodness with a thousand indignities. But I put, from this inftant, an end to my crimes, to begin the practice of my duty. Tho' I fear thy justice, I confide in thy mercy, and hope, by a fincere repentance, to turn thy coming, not to my ruin, but to my refurrection.

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