Let me speak a word to those also that have rich endowments of mind. Where we behold a sprightly genius, solid reason, and deep judgment, we cannot forbear loving the possessors of them: We cannot forbear to say, “It is a pity that so much wit should be abused to ridicule religion, and do honour to foul iniquity; that it should be enslaved to all the arts of lewdness, and dress up the shame of nature in the charms of language.” Or if it be not debased to so exceeding vile purposes, yet at best, it is a pity it should be all employed in jesting and trifling, in mirth and raillery, and vain amusement. Might it not have been laid out infinitely better, to allure sinners to the love of God, to adorn the truths of our holy profession, and give credit to the gospel of Christ, even in the eyes of the witty and profane? I pity the man of lively imagination without sanctifying grace. What a lovely wilderness of blooming weeds! fair indeed in various colours, but useless and unsavoury, and it must be burnt up with unquenchable fire. You are the persons whose happy talents give a relish to the common comforts of life; you diffuse joy and pleasure through all the company, and enliven the dullest hours; your presence is coveted by all men, and you are beloved of all: But how dismal is your state, if you neglect holiness and are not beloved of God! Can you imagine that your gay fancy will brighten the gloom of hell? or give airs to yourselves or your companions, in those hideous regions of sorrow? It is a most melancholy reflection to consider, that persons of your accomplishments should increase the number of the damned; and there is no sport or amusement admitted there, to divert the anguish of the tortured mind, or to relieve that heavy and everlasting heart-ache. I pity the man of strong reason and great sagacity of judgment, that hath traced nature in her most secret recesses; that has sounded the depths of the sea, and measured the heavens; but has spent no time in searching the deep things of God, and lets the mysteries of religion lie unregarded as obscure and useless things. He has never sounded the depth of his own misery and guilt, as he is a son of Adam: Nor is he acquainted with the way of climbing to heaven by the cross of the Son of God. Reason is a faculty of supreme excellence among the gifts of nature, and it is dreadful to think that it should ever be engaged in opposition to divine grace. How great and wretched are the men of reason, who strain the nerves of their soul to overturn the doctrine of Christ! who labour with all their intellectual powers to shake the foundations of the gospel, to diminish the authority of the scriptures, and to unsettle the hope of feeble christians!