SERMON XIX.

On the Chriftian Characters of Youth.

2 Cor. vi. 17, 18. vii. 1.

Come out from among them, and be ye Separate, faith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my fons and daughters, faith the Lord Almighty. Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved; let us cleanfe ourselves from all filthinefs of flesh and fpirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

HE Chriftian graces of piety, docility,

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and reverence for age, together with the leading obligations into which felfgovernment is ramified, were investigated in the preceding difcourfe with especial regard to their influence on the conduct of youth. May the guidance of the Holy Spirit direct, and His bleffing profper, our inquiries

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inquiries into several branches of duty, which remain to be examined with a fimilar reference.

V. With felf-government difcretion is intimately connected. Each borrows aid from the other, and lends reciprocal affistance. If, in proportion as difcretion influences the character, the path is smoothed for the exercise of felf-command; in proportion likewife as fober-mindedness and forbearance produce experimental effects on the conduct, the difcriminating powers of discretion are ftrengthened, and the exertion of them is rendered prompt, easy, and determinate. To give to the young man difcretion, was an object which occupied the heart of the wisest of men. My fon, keep found wifdom and difcretion.. Difcretion fhall preferve thee, and fhall be life unto thy foul. Let the aged teach young women to be difcreet. I will that the younger women give none occafion to the adverfary to speak reproachfully (a). Such are the precepts of the Most High. What confummate, what truly fcriptural, difcretion, was manifested by the incarnate Son of God, when he repelled the tempter in the wilderness; and

(a) Prov. i. 4. ii. 11. iii. 21, 22. Tit. ii. 5.

V. 14.

Tim.

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when he turned afide the enfnaring queftions of his enemies! Be yours the wif dom of the ferpent with the harmlessness of the dove. Difcretion neither recommends immoderate suspicion; nor entrenches on candid fimplicity and ingenuous' openness; nor authorises the smallest deviation from the path of fincerity. But, as including vigilant and cautious deliberation, it imposes a curb on the natural precipitance of the young: requires them to examine ere they choose; to understand before they decide; to distinguish between qualities in some points fimilar; to prefer a substance to a shadow, an enduring to a transient enjoyment, a great good though remote to a trifling acquifition at hand. It regulates words no less than actions; inculcates seasonable filence; enjoins composure of deportment; upholds ferenity of mind. How many unguarded fpeeches, how many rafh compliances, how many unwife engagements, how many difputes, misconceptions, offences, and animofities, fubjects all of fubsequent and unavailing anxiety, would difcretion have precluded! How many wafted opportunities of prudent remark, of falutary advice, of active usefulnefs, would discretion have feized! Difcretion exacts a rational appropriation of time,

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time, and a judicious felection of employments. It profcribes noxious and trifling books; and, among the diverfity of im proving ftudies, directs your eye to those which, according to your station, promise the largest portion of defirable fruit. It forbids eagerness and curiofity to exhaust the powers of youth in boundless excurfions throughout the regions of learning and inftructs you to limit your pursuit to objects not furpaffing your grafp by their number or by their magnitude. Again and again it sounds in your ear the danger of evil communication: warns you that amiable feelings give no affurance of religion: that alluring manners may veil a profligate heart: that wit compenfates not for vice, nor gay cheerfulness for indifference to piety. It reminds you that all the delight of the Pfalmift was in fuch as excelled in virtue ; that he was a companion to them that feared God; that men will form their judgement concerning you from the character of thofe with whom you affociate: and that, according to the natural propensity of your heart to evil and the powerful contagion of corrupt example, an unfavourable judgement, if at prefent premature, will probably be verified.

VI. In the general deportment and conduct of fociety the young receive a peculiar measure of benevolent attention. Their minds too have not as yet forgotten early leffons and habits of compliance: nor loft the warmth of affection or of fanguine credulity amidst protracted experience of hypocrisy and selfishness. Hence the Christian duty of benevolence urges its demands on youth with greater pofitive advantages, and in the face of fewer obstacles, than exist in maturer life. If the world, tolerant as it may be where age has chilled the feelings of fympathy, and caution has chained the hand of liberality, regards youthful malignity and youthful unkindness, and even youthful apathy with deteftation: with what eyes fhall God, who pronounces the want of benevolence utterly unchriftian in any period, behold it in the young? Though the relief of the diftreffed by pecuniary affistance, or by those comforts which money can purchase, is so far from conftituting the fubftance of benevolence, that you may be Stow all your goods to feed the poor and be totally devoid of Chriftian charity; it is yet one of the fruits which true benevolence cannot but render. If any man hath this world's good, and feeth his brother have need, and Shutteth up his bowels of compaffion from him ; how

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