Shall the bleffing of the Lord of all accompany a contract, in which his honour is flighted, his approbation held of secondary importance? Do you feek the glory of God? Do you hope for his bleffing? Cherish not a thought of being united to another in marriage, until you have solid grounds for deliberate belief that the individual in queftion is a true fervant of Chrift: a fervant of Chrift not in the loose acceptation of the terms prevalent in a careless world, but in that comprehensive and fcriptural import which they shall be found at the last day to have involved. If perfonal attractions, or amiable manners, or lucrative or fplendid connections, preponderate in your heart; you are the slave of engaging features, or of alluring manners, or of intereft, or of ambition; not the fervant of Jehovah. Hear the voice of God prohibiting his chofen people from marriages with idolaters. Hear St. Paul commanding Chriftians to marry only in the Lord (y). Hear him, in the very paffage which is the foundation of the present difcourfe, commanding them not to be yoked unequally with unbelievers. What fellowship, (y) 1 Cor. vii. 39. he he exclaims, bath righteousness with unrighteoufnefs? What communion hath light with darkness? What concord hath Chrift with Belial? What part hath he that believeth with an infidel? Let it not be supposed that the energy of these words refpects merely the cafe of a Christian about to marry a heathen or a fceptic. It refpects the cafe of a Christian meditating marriage with any person whom God regards as not a Chriftian; a person who like the covetous man, or the glutton, being enflaved to fome habit of unrighteousness, is ftamped by the Scriptures an idolater; a person who lives not unto Christ, and therefore has no efficient faith in Chrift; a perfon whofe heart, idolifing the world, is cold and formal as to genuine religion. Reflect too on the danger which would neceffarily enfue to your own principles no less than to your happiness, from an union with a partner not truly religious: and you will confefs that on this as on every occafion intereft moves hand in hand with duty. Guard then your affections against sudden and premature impreffions. Look primarily to the religious character of the individual towards whom you feel a dawning of regard. Weigh circumstances with precifion weigh them under a lively fense of your predifpofition to fee all things with a favourable eye. If attachment infinuating itself into the bosom has been permitted to make progress, ere you difcover that its object is in the primary qualification defective; how diftreffing is the alternative of relinquishing your prospects at the expence of a bitter facrifice, or of perfifting at the risk of your present and eternal welfare! But if you shrink from the facrifice, you do not love God above all. In making it, whatever you fuffer, you fuffer as a Chriftian; you fuffer for righteoufnefs' fake. In fuch fufferings blessed are Act thus in all things, and you shall you. be bleffed for ever. Come out from among them, and be ye feparate, 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 filthiness of flesh and fpirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. HE Chriftian graces of piety, docility, THE and reverence for age, together with the leading obligations into which selfgovernment is ramified, were investigated in the preceding discourse 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 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 affiftance. If, in proportion as difcretion influences the character, the path is smoothed for the exercife 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 wifeft 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 dif creet. I will that the younger women give none occafion to the adverfary to speak reproachfully (a). Such are the precepts of the Moft High. Discretion neither recommends immoderate fufpicion; nor en (a) Prov. i. 4. ii. 11. iii, 21, 22. Tit. ii. 5. V. 14... 1 Tim. trenches |