III. Some remarks upon this mixed character; upon the folly, the guilt, and misery of a man so lovely, and so beloved of Christ. 1st Remark. How much good and evil may be 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 composition of all that was good. How has sin ruined human nature from its primitive glory, and mingled a large measure of evil in its very frame! and yet how has restraining 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 vivacity; there is good-humour and compassion; there is wit and 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. There are very few of the sons and daughters of Adam, but are possessed of something good and agreeable, either by nature or acquirement; therefore, when there is a necessary occasion to mention the vices of any man, I should not speak evil of him in the gross, nor heap reproaches on him by wholesale. It is very disingenuous to talk scandal in superlatives, as though every man who was a sinner, was a perfect villain, the very worst of men, all over hateful and abominable. How sharply should our own thoughts reprove us, when we give our pride and malice a loose, to ravage over all the character of our neighbours, and deny all that is good concerning them, because they have something in them that is criminal and worthy of blame! Thus our judgment is abused by our passions; and sometimes this folly reigns in us to such a degree that we can hardly allow a man to be wise or ingenious, to have a grain of good sense, or good humour, that is not of our profession, or our party, in matters of church or state. Let us look back upon our conduct, and blush to think that we should indulge such prejudices, such a sinful partiality. 2d Remark. A man that has not true grace, nor holiness, may be the just object of our love: for we find several instances and several degrees of love were paid by Christ, the wisest and best of men, to a youth of a covetous and carnal temper! one who preferred earth to heaven, and valued his present possessions above those eternal treasures that Christ had promised him.