THis present Meeting is for the spiritual advantage of you Children and young People: Your good we Ministers must intend, and its your Interest and Duty to re­gard, and improve these helps, as well as el­der Persons, for your Souls are are as Immor­tal as the Aged; God hath a right to govern you, being you are his Creatures. He hath given you a Rule of Life, he observeth your Hearts and Carriage with concern. Young Ones shall be arraigned at Gods Tribunal, and judged by the Rule contained in his Word, according to what they have been and done. Heaven and Hell are before you, one of them will be the eternal dwelling of the youngest in this Assem­bly; and considering, that most of Mankind dye when young, Heaven and Hell are fuller of Young People, than of such as arrived to a greater Age.

Do such Considerations affect you? ought they not to make me serious, and importunate with your Souls? And with yours especially, [Page 2] because Youth is under great indispositions to all that is serious and saving.

Oh let us look earnestly for a blessing to him, who is the God of the Spirits of all Flesh, Numb. 16. 23. and therefore is able to impress and manage your Spirits tho' unruly and vain.

The Author of this Book is Solomon; will you regard what a Great Man saith? He was King of Israel in its most prosperous State: Are a wise Mans dictates to be heeded? He was the wisest of meer Men. But above that, this Book was the result of great Experience; he speaks his feeling as well as his Judgment; yea, he records these things as a Penitent af­ter great offences, and therefore must repre­sent things according to their truth and impor­tance, especially since he was inspired by the Infallible Spirit in what he here delivers.

I shall not look further than the 11th. verse, to lead you to my Text.

1. There he doth by a sharp Sarcasm re­prove the sensual delights of Young People, re­joyce O Young Man, &c. its such a saying as Christs to his Disciples, Sleep on and take your rest, Mar. 14. 41. It's not said by way of ap­probation, but he exposeth the Sensualist by disdain, which may affect some People more than a direct Reproof; and God for our good condescends to try all ways. Surely you that think sensual pleasure the greatest happiness you are capable of, will suspect that it is not what it appears to your foolish minds, whon [Page 3] God by the Wisest Man doth thus Ironically brand it: he loads you with scorn, while you fondly please your selves with these poor de­lights, as your only Paradice. God keep me from that as my Portion, which God accounts my reproach.

Obj. But may not a Young Man rejoyce?

Answ. Yes no doubt, thou oughtest to de­light thy self in the Lord, Psal. 37. 4. yea, thou mayst delight moderately and holily in Ob­jects of sence; but that's not the rejoycing here exposed. The following words explain the nature of this forbidden joy, it's that evil pleasure which thou takest in walking in the wayes of thy heart, and in the sight of thine eyes. q. d. Oh vile Creature! how base art thou be­come, that confinest thy pleasures to, and re­solvedly wallowest in the delights that come by following the vain imaginations of thy car­nal heart, and meer gratifying thy sences. What a bruit art thou, that sportest thy self in a disregard of God and unseen things, and valuest the time of Youth only as it fits thee to execute what is sinful, and relish what is sensual! Is this rejoycing becoming thee as a reasonable Creature, made for and suited to things of so far a higher nature? Is thy corre­spondence to the Objects of Faith quite gone? art thou so sunk and buried in flesh? Is there no spiritual light or love to govern thy de­sires, and pleasures? If this be the merry Young Man, what an object of contempt is he [Page 4] in all his mirth? even in his jollity he is to be scorned, as well as pityed.

2. He allarms this brutish Sensualist with a prospect of Judgment. God addresseth him­self to thee as one stupidly ignorant, but know thou: it's what thou art little acquainted with, or thoughtful about; for all these things he will bring thee into judgment, a sore thorn in thy gay Cloaths; a great cooler to thy lusts, meer gall in thy Cups, and a sad disturbance to thy airy conceits: God will bring thee into judgment for all these things. Thô thou despise his Laws, thou shalt not escape his Sentence: he will not leave it to thee, whether thou shalt be misera­ble; though he referr'd it to thy choice, whe­ther thou wouldst be serious: hee'l compell thee to feel his wrath, though he would not force thee to refrain thy voluptuousness. Yea, Oh thou that sportest thy self in thy brutish delights! thou shalt account for all, thou shalt suffer for each. Thy punishment shall be proportioned to thy sins, and to thy pleasures thou didst take in sinning, and dost thou never consider how great that's like to be?

3. He then annexeth a serious Caution a­gainst two evils, to which Young Persons are obnoxious, v. 10. Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart; that is anger, as the word may be rendred, or all those heart lusts which will end in sorrow of heart. Thou art afraid of seriousness, thou seemest to prevent sorrow by thy carnal mirth: but alas, thou art making [Page 5] way for the deepest groans by thy seeming cure; thou bringest on sorrow by a pretend­ed driving it away. But Young Man, God seeing thou takest a wrong course, condes­cends to warn thee against the anguish which thou preparest by thy vicious inclination.

2. And put away evil from thy flesh; that is, fleshly pollutions, to which Youth is prone, or the bodily punishments which vile courses expose to: If you take the first sence, then, as in forbidding heart lusts, he stops a course of sin at the Spring-head, without which all the attempts for Reformation will be too feeble; so in forbidding fleshly pollutions, he would restrain the acting of sin: q. d. Thô Lust is conceived in the Heart, yet let it not break forth in thy practice: for abstinence from wicked acts will conduce to change thy tem­per, and abate thy guilt. If you take the lat­ter sence, then he argues from that misery, which brutish Youth is most likely to be af­fected by, q. d. That Body which thou so in­dulgest, that flesh whereof thou art so tender, is like to feel the woful effects of thy folly: Therefore as thou lovest thy very flesh, kin­dle not the flames which are to devour it in Hell; bring not down those Judgments, which may torment thy Body on this side the Grave.

The wise Man introduces these advices by a Motive referring to v. 9. Therefore, &c. as if he had said, because God will bring thee to judgment, avoid these sins, for which thou [Page 6] shalt certainly be arraigned, and prevent the miseries which the sentence will include, and which the Judge must execute according to the sanction of that Law whereby thou shalt be judged. Then, then, O Young Man! thou shalt know by the punishment felt, that thy Lawgivers threatnings were not vain, though during temptations they appeared so.

My Text is a further Motive, and as such is here inserted: For Childhood and Youth are Vanity, q. d. To these sins your young years are prone, they have room in your temper, and without great care and labour cannot be removed, or put away; therefore be intent and vigorous to put away evil from your flesh, to remove sorrow from thy heart.

Having thus described the Coherence of the words, I shall lay them down for a Doctrine, as they be in my Text.

Doct. Childhood and Youth are Vanity.

I shall explain this Doctrine, and insist on that sence of the words, which will most con­duce to the advantage of Young Persons.

(1.) Childhood and Youth may be taken for that time of Humane Life, which is short of Manhood.

If you take it thus, then the whole clause may be thus expressed: Though you are very apt to boast of these years, as most conducive to happiness, though now your Spirits are vi­gorous, your Bodies healthy and strong, your [Page 7] Sences quick, the Cares and Maladies of Old-Age are far from you; yet all this will not make you happy. This time of Youth it self is va­nity, it's insufficient to make thee a Blessed Creature; yea, though thou didst enjoy all sensible things that can minister to its satisfa­ction, it is but vanity; a poor thing, a short and empty matter, which leaves its admirers deceived, yea, undone, if they have no bet­ter provision. A serious Old Man disdains those years, and would not live them over again; yea, few live long that wish not much of that time expunged out of their life, and remember it with a blush.

(2.) Childhood and Youth note Persons of those Years or age, viz. Children and Young People.

I shall consider these words in this sence, and of such of you the Spirit of God proclaim­eth vanity, as your proper Epithite.

Quest. What is meant by Vanity, as it pre­dicates of these Young People?

Answ. Vanity is either natural or moral, and then it's the same as to say,

1. Young People are frail and mortal. All flesh is grass, and the goodliness thereof as the flower of the Field, Isa. 40. 6. The robust Youth hath his breath in his Nostrils; by the Course of Nature he may live longer than Old men, yet by the Frailty of Nature he may die before the oldest man. Thou reckonest upon long Life, but thou mayest dye tomorrow: Oh young man! thou [Page 8] hast the seeds of Death in thee, thou canst not resist any Messenger of Death; Heb. 9. 17. the Sentence lies against thee, and sin the cause of Death cleaves to thy early Age, Rom. 8. 10. What variety of accidents art thou subject to every moment? It's by Gods power you Chil­dren are alive till now, as well as the Man of eighty: Oh young Folk! that think of many years, before Death and you can meet; how many younger than you are already rotten in their graves? there may be many Children in this place, whose death your Fathers, yea, Grandfathers may live to mourn for: it's a brit­tle house your very Souls inhabit.

Exh. I cannot omit this Exhortation. Do and forbear all you ought to do and forbear in order to Eternity, as Persons within a step of Death. I hope the youngest here are assured, that there is no working in the grave, Eccl. 9. 10. What is to be done for Eternity must be done while you live; the state of trial lasts no longer than Life: whatever is beyond the Grave, is un­changeable reward or punishment.

Wilt thou lay to Heart these things? 1. I have much to do for Eternity. 2. Work for Eternity is hard to do. 3. This work as hard as it is must be done, or I perish for ever. 4. How short a while may I, as young as I am, have to do all this hard work in, which is the point I am on: Young Man, if Death overtake thee, thou canst not put it off till thou set a­bout the work thou hast neglected: all the [Page 9] cryes in the Word will avail nothing. Bethink thee then, if Ahijah had not been good betimes, he must have been eternally undone; so it may be thy Case, O Child of ten years old! if thou dost not get Grace before thou art a Year older, or it may be a Month or Week older, thou must dye graceless. Doth not the Word tell thee of some who dye in youth, and their life is among the unclean, Job 6. 14.: Shall that be thy Case? canst thou bear it? be perswaded now to fix thy thoughts on such things as these: Shall I Lye or Swear now, who may be dead within a Month? Dare I prophane this Sabbath, who may be dead within a Week? yea, my next sin may be the last act of my Life. How can I live without Christ a day longer, when I may dye to Night? shall I delay to know, and love, and fear my God, who must do it soon or ne­ver? I am sure if I do not fear God before I dye, Hell will be my place; and I am not sure of a Week to attain this Fear of God. Did the youngest of you know your frailty, you would tremble at delays, you would not dare to sin, you would blush at your sloth­fulness in any good Work. Oh then hear this Sermon as one that may never hear ano­ther! Pray the next time as one that may ne­ver Pray again. When thou art next tempt­ed, ask thy self, Would I yield to this if I were to dye to morrow? Will you believe this, and walk as them that believe it? even Youth is too uncertain for any wise one to [Page 10] venture to sin, or neglect his Salvation, as if sure of time to repent, and repair his neg­lects.

2. Vanity is taken in a moral sense, viz. as it regards the minds and manners; thus Eph. 4. 17. the Spirit of God warns us against walking in the Vanity of the Mind. Vanity is oft put for all sins, 2 Kings 17. 15. several sins are expresly called Vanity; and this Name is applyed, partly with respect to the Nature of some sins, but chiefly from the tendency and consequence of every sinful course. Every way of sin is vain; and sin deserves the Name of Vanity from this consideration, that it is committed to no valuable purpose; yea, it ends in what is destructive, and far worse than meerly unprofitable.

In this sense I shall improve the Text, and it includes these things:

• 1. Young people are prone to many sins that are notoriously vain.
• 2. Young People are apt to live to very low and unprofitable purposes, which is Va­nity.
• 3. Young People are apt to live to evil and destructive purposes, which is the heighth of Vanity.

Before I enter on these things, let me ask you young Folk, Is not this a true Charge? and is it not as awful a description of your State as true?

[Page 11] Obj. But how comes this to be laid so uni­versally, that all young People are thus vain?

Ans. 1. Because the generality of young People are vain: For one that is sober, how many are wild? for one that is pious, there be many prophane. A religious Child is be­come a wonder. Godliness in youthful years is very rare: The body of your ordinary young People is sottish; the generality of witty Youths are atheistical and irreligious. When the Disease is so common, the charge is pro­per as against the whole.

Ans. 2. All young Persons are inclin'd to be vain: Vanity is the Temptation of that Age; your Constitution and want of Experi­ence do especially expose you to this mis­chief, though Grace may deliver some of you from the power of Vanity yet it hath not cleansed you from all disposition to Vanity; it hangs about you, and liveth, though re­strained: Your stumbles will be at this stone, and your Faults will be under this head of youthful Vanity.

Young People! you see why the Charge is so common: Will you then apply what I shall say to your selves? When I describe the Dis­ease, say, This is my Disease: When I pro­pose the Remedy, speak to thy Soul, This is proper for my Case, this is necessary to my Condition. Thou Child, say, I am a Child, [Page 12] and therefore apt to be vain. Thou young Man! say, I am a young Man, and therefore I am apt to be vain. I must deny my Age, or own this Charge. Nay further, reason awfully with your selves, Most young Peo­ple are under the power of Vanity: The wic­ked Youths are a hundred to one that's pious. Oh my Soul what is my Condition! is not there more danger that I am one of those hundred wicked ones, than that I am that One pious young one.

I shall now return to consider the three par­ticulars, under which I included the Moral Vanity of young People.

1. Young People are prone to many sins that are notoriously Vain.

There be some particular sins that in their Nature argue more Vanity than other sins; they inferr a very vain mind in the Persons committing them. Young ones have many of these sins, and Lusts strongly prompting thereto.

I shall reduce your sins to eight particu­lars, and give you some Directions under each, to help you against that particular sin: But remember each of these are sins; every sin defileth thy Soul, and bindeth thee to un­dergo the Punishment threatned, if it be not repented of and mortified: Nor canst thou hope that these sins will be put away, unless thou follow the Methods which God hath di­rected for that end: He will not Convert thee [Page 13] as a Bruit that regards nothing, thô he must consider thy weakness as a Sinner, and there­fore exert his Power by the Means thou at­tendest.

1. Young People are subject to Folly.

The Spirit brands our tender years with this Crime: Prov. 22. 15. Folly is bound up in the Heart of a Child: Is this limited to Chil­dren? No, A young Man void of understanding is too often seen, Prov. 7. 7. This fault is not a want of that Wisdom which is unexpected from your Age: But it is such Folly as in your Years might have been healed; and it's made up of blindness and mistakes against that light which God hath afforded you.

God hath given you reason to govern your selves by, you are under the Means of Wis­dom, whereby you may know your true end, and the proper means to that end: Neverthe­less most young Persons are Fools. Dost not thou place thy Interest in things which are vain and destructive? Dost not thou think Jollity thy only Heaven, and the pleasing thy Lusts the only real Paradice? What is enjoy­ing God, or glorifying God to thee? these are things thou art unacquainted with, and unconcerned for.

Obj. Perhaps thou wilt say, I desire to be saved, and I do something towards it, how then do I mistake my end or means.

[Page 14] Ans. 1. I fear thou dost not know what it is to be saved: Salvation with thee is only be­ing kept out of Hell, as a place of Torment, when thou hast sin'd thy fill; but there is little more to commend Heaven to thee. If there be not vain sports, Revelling, and the like carnal Enjoyments; thou canst not tell how Heaven should be a happy State, thô better than Hell: But is not this the grossest Folly? What, to think that Salvation, which contains no Vision of God, no perfect Holiness of Heart, no full Conformity to Christ, no ravishing sense or Communications of the Divine Love, no hand in God's Praises? Foolish Youth! there's no Heaven but what principally includes these; that is not Salvation which wants any of these. Let me ask thee, art not thou foolish, if thou judgest Salvation to be what it is not? art thou not foolish to think it to be another thing than God describeth it to be? art thou not a Fool, that fanciest that cannot be a happy State, unless it wants what all good Men ac­count to be Happiness? and unless it includes such wicked and bruitish things as Heaven must keep and cleanse us from? Oh poor Creature! thus foolish do thy Notions of eternal Life dis­cover thee to be.

Ans. 2. Thy Folly appeareth, in that thou fanciest thou canst be saved in another way, than that which leads to it. To convince thee of this, consider that,

[Page 15] 1. Christ is the principal Way to Life, Ioh. 14. 8. He as a Priest by offering up himself, merited Life for such as repent, believe, and obey him: He as a Prophet teacheth Men the Author, Means, and Nature of the Terms of Life: He as King applies his Purchase by the Spirit, subdues Impediments, fits the Soul for, and judicially admits it into Glory. Now Child! dost thou hope to live for ever, and neglect Christ? is it not Folly to expect Life and despise a Saviour, yea, trample his Blood under thy Feet? is it not Folly to hope to be saved by Christ, and yet believe the Devil ra­ther than him, and prefer the Dominion of others before his Government?

2. Faith, Repentance and Holiness, are a way to Heaven, subordinate to Christ: I say, sub­ordinate to Christ, for they could not save thee but for a Christ; Sinners had never obtained them, but by a Christ; and they tend to save as they refer to Christ, whose atonement is the only purchasing Price.

But yet they are a way to Life: No Man shall ever get to Heaven without them. Christ hath resolved without Faith, no Man shall have Pardon by his Merits, and therefore all the savingly enlightned do believe, that they may be justified, Gal. 2. 16.

He appoints us to repent, that our sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come, Act. 3. 19. and limits the number of the saved to such as obey him, Heb. 5. 9.

[Page 16] Now young Man, is it not Folly in thee to expect Heaven, when thou hast nothing which Christ hath instituted as a means of that Glory? Doth he as our Law-giver declare that he will and must suspend thy Salvation 'till thou be­lieve; and wilt thou madly say, he will save me, though I do not believe? dost thou know what he'll do better than himself?

Yea, your Folly is greater, in that Christ hath not only suspended Life on these Condi­tions, but he hath expresly declared, that they shall for ever perish, that do not in these things submit to him; and yet thou art confident.

What greater Folly than for an unholy one to look for Glory, when God saith, Without Holiness no Man shall see the Lord, Heb. 12. 14. and All the wicked shall be turned into Hell, Psal. 9. 17. is it not Folly to remain impenitent, and yet be in hopes of Heaven? when Christ saith, Except you repent you shall all likewise perish, Luk▪ 13. 3. Will not you own your Madness, that look'd for Life in your Disobedience, when you shall hear our Lord saying, Slay these mine Enemies, that would not that I should reign over them, Luk. 19. 27. Is it not an establish'd Rule under the Gospel, He that believeth not shall be damned, Mar. 16. 16. Unbelief and Hell are certainly connected, as Faith and Heaven.

3. Thy Folly appears yet more, in that thou fanciest thou canst be saved in a way con­trary to Salvation, and certainly leading to Hell.

[Page 17] Wouldst not thou judge him a Fool that in­tending for Dover, yet chuseth the Road to York? are not they Fools who desiring Health, refuse Physick, and take nothing but Poyson? Thy behaviour exceeds the grossest of these Instances.

What barrs any one from Heaven, but the dominion of sin? and that Conscience justly chargeth thee with: Doth not God declare, that to be carnally minded is death, Rom. 8. 6? thou art so minded, and yet expectest life: Is not God express, that no Whoremonger, nor unclean Person, nor covetous, hath any Inheritance in the Kingdom of God, Eph. 5. 5? And also that the abominable, and all Liars shall have their part in the Lake that burneth with Fire and Brim­stone, Rev. 21? Is he not as positive, that no Fornicator, Reviler, Thief, or Drunkard can be saved? 1 Cor. 6. What can be plainer, than that in be­ing such as these thou destroyest thy self? These Vices lead to destruction, and God warns thee against foolish self-deceit, by ho­ping for a better issue than Ruine by such a Course: Oh sottish Youth! will Theft, Drun­kenness, Swearing, Prophaneness, think you, lead to Heaven, after all these discoveries of God's resolves? what will damn thee, if such Vices will not? who can be damned if thou be saved? will a provoked God lye for thy sake? No, no, his Threats will take hold of thee, notwithstanding thy silly dreams.

Children, you see I have described the Fol­ly [Page 18] of all Young Ones, who are wicked. I have chosen this great Instance, viz. They mi­stake their true Happiness, and the Way to it.

I might open this great sore beyond this: Alas! Young People are generally ignorant of God, and themselves; they know neither good nor evil aright; they commend what they ought to dispraise; they chuse what they should reject; they make a mock of the greatest Mischiefs, as Sin and Hell; they rarely under­stand Men, or know how to carry it aright for this World, or for Eternity; they mistake Truth for Error, are governed by appearan­ces rather than realities. Where shall I stop if I intend a full attempt of the Folly of Youth?

Quest. What shall I that am Young do to heal me of my Folly?

Answ. 1. Beg Wisdom of God by fervent Prayer; Iam. 1. 5. If any of you lack Wisdom, let him ask it of God, &c. Thou wantest Wis­dom, thou art bid to ask it: Thou art en­couraged to ask, for he giveth it to such as ask, yea, he gives liberally, and he will not up­braid thee with thy past Folly, when thou set­test thy self to get Wisdom. Nothing will heal thy Folly but wisdom, and a prayerless creature is never like to obtain it: Therefore press thy Soul with the sence of it's want, and with the loveliness and necessity of Wisdom: This will help thee to strong desires, which are fervent [Page 19] Prayers. Oh Child! wilt thou be a Fool for want of praying? Shall God say, Here's a Youth void of Wisdom, because he would not ask it?

2. Study and believe the Scriptures. If thy Judgment bedirected by the Word, it will be sound, that gives understanding unto the simple, Psal. 119. 130. Be sure you learn to read, and when you can read, read the Scriptures most; there you must learn to think aright of God: they will teach thee what the Will of God is; the way of Salvation is there discovered; from them thou hast the truest account of Sin, and Holiness. In the written Promises thou wilt know what to hope for, in the Threatnings what thou shouldst fear, in the Commandments what thou must do, in the revealed Doctrines what thou shouldst believe. Come Children, you are allowed to learn the Scriptures; Ti­mothy is commended for knowing the Scriptures from a Child, 2 Tim. 2. 15. Study you these, there is nothing needfull for a Christian which is not contained therein: Every thing as to Salvation is doubtful, which is not deduced from these.

3. Suspect thy first thoughts, and never be governed by thy Fancy. If thy sudden imagi­nations be right, they will bear enquiry; if they be wrong, they need amendment. Or­dinarily the first dictates proceed from Vani­ty, and shall that prescribe when Life and Death depend on thy Resolves? nay, how [Page 20] knowest thou but that they be Satans whispers which thou executest, when Fancy is thy Guide? for he speaks to the Soul by impres­sing the Imagination.

4. Converse with the Godly Wise, and strictly observe and lay up their Sayings and Examples. The Word tells us, He that walk­eth with wise men shall be wise, but the Compani­on of fools shall be destroyed, Prov. 13. 20. Their Speeches will instruct, their practice will al­lure imitation; whereas ill Company will de­bauch thy Mind, and nourish thy Lusts. Pru­dent Persons will judge thy temper by thy as­sociates, well knowing, thou art already, or wilt certainly be what thy chosen Compani­ons are.

5. Design all knowledge in order to pra­ctice, and live up to the light thou receivest. He that in Sacred things takes up with Noti­ons for notions sake, is as truly a Fool as if he knew nothing. It's a practical Judgment that makes us spiritually wise, when other knowledge will aggravate our sin and woe.

Oh Young Man! wilt thou say unto Wisdom, Thou art my Sister? Prov. 7. 4. wilt thou cast off Folly with Indignation as thy great Disease? should you be fond of that which sin introduced, and will obstruct your healing whiles it pre­vails? Folly is the bane of intellectual Beings, and that's of the worst sort which guides our practice. Folly is the root of all your other Sins: Wer't thou spiritually wise, thy work [Page 21] were more than half done; and methinks thou shouldst not be hardly perswaded to get Wis­dom. Child! wouldst thou be willing to be an Ideot? Surely no: every one pitieth such a one, and is too apt to laugh at him. But I tell thee, to be a Fool as to Eternal things, is much worse than to be an Ideot: The Ide­ot hath few, if any actual Sins to answer for, but thou hast many. There may be hopes of an Ideots Salvation, especially if he be the Child of a Believer: but if thou remain spiri­tually a Fool, there's no hope of thee, tho' both thy Parents were the best of People. All Folly is the blemish of Humane Nature, but Spiritual Folly most of any.

2. Young People are subject to Inconside­rateness and rashness. How hard is it to make you think, or lay the greatest things to heart? neither Danger nor Duty, do Young Ones ap­ply to themselves. Would not the Conscien­ces of most of you agree with my accusati­on, if I tell thee Child, and thee Young Man or Woman, Thou art under God's Wrath, but wilt not consider it? Thou dost not me­ditate on the way of recovery, tho it be at great expence provided: Christ dyed for thee, but thou hast not spent one hour in the Con­templation of him. Thou art loth to think what thy wayes are, whether good or bad; nor thy State, whether safe or dangerous. How few Young Ones here have seriously ask­ed themselves; Am I born again or no? what [Page 22] will my sins bring me to? what evil is there in my Sins? when I must stand at Gods Tri­bunal to be judged, what shall I answer? what is like to be the issue? how shall I dwell with everlasting burnings? It's too common­ly with others as it was with that Young Man, He goeth after her straightway, (or suddenly) as an Oxe goeth to the slaughter, till a dart strike through his Liver: As a Bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life. Prov. 7. 22, 23. He took not time to think what would be the issue of Sin? unavoibable Torment gives the first prospect of his danger; when consideration would have represented this Misery, as a guard against Sin, even whiles Temptation solicited.

Quest. What shall I a Young one do, to deli­liver me from this inconsiderateness?

Answ. In general, strive to consider, and bind thy mind to suitable and fixed Thoughts. To this end,

1. Do not at any time allow thy Thoughts to wander unaccountably. It's hard to con­fine them at any time, when they usually rove. It's a great help for this World, and for ano­ther, to have our thoughts manageable; and our Souls capable of being easily fixed in their Contemplations. When ever thou thinkest, be able to say, What I think of, it is worth a thought.

2. Awe thy Soul with the importance of the things thou oughtest to consider. If they [Page 23] be Soul-matters, they be of the highest nature, and they be of greatest concern to thee: Tell thy self, Life and Death depends on these: If Sin have dominion over me, I shall dye: If I am not born again, I cannot enter into the King­dom of God, Joh. 3. 5. And shall I lightly think of these? what's all the World to me, if I perish for ever? Things Divine, things on which Eternity depends, must be consider­ed. Oh my Soul! wilt, yea darest thou re­fuse to dwell on these, which thou wert made for, which thou must shortly converse with, as the only realities, whether thou wilt or no.

3. Get so much Knowledge of what thou shouldst consider, as that thou mayst be able to represent it to thy Mind in some evidence. It's hard to consider long of what we little know; if it be of God, be not unacquainted with his Nature; if it be of Sin, be not ig­norant of arguments to disswade from it, and a sence of what aggravates it, &c.

4. Learn to discourse with thy self, and to urge things upon thy Heart: This will fix thy thoughts, and bring things with some due impression on the Heart. If thou canst not debate the matters inwardly, speak outwardly with thy Tongue, as if two Persons were in talk together: What, shall I lose my Soul for a Lust? Must not I, if Gods Word be true, rue my present Course? It's Gods charge that you commune with your own hearts, Psal. 4. 4. he [Page 24] can neither be true nor profitable to him­self, who seldom speaks to himself.

5. Take fit time and place to debate, and apply things of most concern, and bring things to a good conclusion. Great things must not be determined by a few thoughts, for so thou wilt neither pass a right judgment, nor yet be duly affected. Neither are serious matters becomingly considered in a Crowd, or when thou art unfit to think: And to consi­der, without coming to a conclusion, cannot fix thy Judgment, or govern thy Will and Practice. Therefore if the matter thought of be a Doubt, press it to a resolution; if it be a Duty, consider all arguments 'till thy Will be fixedly determined to do it; if it be a Sin which thou layest to Heart, cease not repre­senting the evil and danger of it, before thou feelest thy self resolved against it, and a strong indignation kindled to support that resolve.

Will you resolve to follow these Rules? will you strive to manage your thoughts, and shew your selves willing to be considerate? I am sure thou wilt not refuse, if thou hast a mind to chuse aright, to walk safely, or to have the benefit of what God hath afforded by natural Light, Revelation, or Providence to govern Mankind by. Yea, Young Man, it's impossible to be truly Religious, or to answer the great ends of Religion, without considering. Oh then ponder the path of thy feet, maturely deli­berate on things that thy thoughts are due to.

[Page 25] 3. Young People are subject to be obstinate and heady. This is one of your diseases; you break through restraints, and are regard­less of advice, intreaties avail little: Yea Children, though you be compared to tender Twigs, do not you discover much stubborn­ness: Parents command, but you are disobe­dient; they correct, but you remain obsti­nate; they perswade and intreat you to be sober, but you are still vain: Masters reprove, you are still the same; Ministers importunately call thee (Oh Young Man) from thy destru­ctive Course, but thou passest on, and shuttest thy Ears against the Word. Conscience oft speaks, and represents thy guilt, but thou seemest resolved on thy own ruine: Yea, God stands in thy way, as the Angel with a drawn Sword; but thou art fearless, and seemest to say, I will sin still, let come what will of it: Iob 15. 26. Let guilt grow, let God strike, let my Soul perish, all these shall not alter me.

Oh poor Stripling! Disswa­sive from Obstinacy. how soon can God undo thee! how soon will Hell Torments break thy Stomach! and wilt thou still be like the wild Ass which snuf­feth up the wind, and in her occasion, who can turn her away? Jer. 2. 24. How canst thou, Child, endure to hear thy Parents groan: I perswade my Child to be good, but I cannot prevail! I would instruct him, but he is un­teachable: [Page 26] Woe is me, I have brought forth for the Destroyer, when this my Child was born: I see him running Hell-ward, and can­not restrain him: I tremble to think from his setting out, what he is like to come to: Oh that the fruit of my Body should dishonour God, as he is like to do! that he should do the Mischiefs, I foresee he will! If God change not his Heart, he may come to an▪ untimely end, and is sure to be damned for ever! Oh that I had been written Childless! canst thou be unmoved, and still perverse?

Quest. How shall a Young Person be cured of this Obstinateness?

1. Get thy Heart possessed of a holy Fear: Beg of God a Heart that is in awe of him; a Heart that reverenceth thy Parents and Su­periours; a Heart afraid of Sin, and trem­bling at Hell, and all other punishments due to Sin. Fearlesness is a great ground of ob­stinacy: Young Man, these deserve fear; God hath put this Passion into thy Nature, to make thee governable. What horrid madness is it, not to fear a God who is a Consuming Fire? Heb. 12. 29. Not to fear Hell and Misery, which will force thee to weep and wail, and gnash thy teeth for ever? Mat. 22. 13. What a confusion and disorder is it among Mankind, that Inferiors are wholly fearless of their Su­periors, especially sinful Worms of a dread­ful God?

2. Believe the kindness of these, against [Page 27] whom thou art obstinate, and stir up some grateful returns of love to rhem. Thy per­verseness implies, that thou lovest not thy ad­visers; nor thinkest that they have any love to thee, when they advise thee. But young Boy, I would mind thee to day, that it is from Love all these opposed Admonitions do pro­ceed. Doth not God love thee, who made thee, who put such Bowels in thy Parents to­wards thee? Doth he not love thee, who gives thee all the good thou enjoyest, who spares thee, and intreateth thee month after month, when he might have sent thee to Hell at first, without any loss to himself?

Doth not Christ love thee, Oh Child, who gave his Life for thee, when thou wert an undone Enemy to him; who sent his Spirit to strive with thee, his Gospel to offer Mercy to thee, his Ministers and others to teach thee, as soon as thou couldst understand any thing? must not he love thee, young Man, who pleads with God ready to cut thee down, Lord, let him alone this year longer? Luk. 13. 8. Doth not he love thee, that weeps over thee, when he finds thee unperswadable, and this becaufe he knows the woful anguish thy con­tempt will end in?

Do not thy Parents love thee? Oh think at what care and pains thy Father is at for thy livelihood: Think of the tender bowels of thy Mother, what sorrow she hath selt, what fears she is in, when thou art in danger; [Page 28] what tears she poureth forth when thou art sick, and how it goeth to her Heart to cor­rect thee? I might shew all others love thee who advise thee to be good.

Well young Body! canst thou chuse but think that the reproofs of these must proceed from love? and art thou such a Brute as not to love them at all? what not love thy God who is so good to thee? Not love thy Christ, who bled out his Soul in love to thee? what, not love thy Father and Mother, to whom thou art so indebted? wouldst thou be so re­quited, when thou hast Children?

Obj. I hope I do love God, Christ, and my Parents. I am not such a Devil, and I think they love me.

Answ. What, love them, and be obstinate against their intreaties? Love them, and be disobedient in things they most insist on: God and Christ account them Enemies, Luke 19. 27. that are Rebels, and puts thee plainly to it, If you love me, keep my Commandments, Joh. 14. 15. As if he should say, Never fancy or talk that you love me, unless you will obey me. Thy Pa­rents if they be pious, will reduce thy love to the same instances: Thus thy Mother bespeaks thee; What my Son, and the Son of my Womb, and what the Son of my vows! Give not thy strength to Women, Prov. 31, 2, 3. and so she v. 4, 5. forbids Drunkenness. Thy Father charges thee, My Child, hear the instruction of a [Page 29] Father: Let thy heart retain my words, keep my Commandments, and live; get wisdom, &c. Prov. 4. 1, 4. They will both intreat thee; Child, if thou hast any love for us, keep from sin, save thy self from Hell; we are most concern­ed to see thee a real Saint, and eternally glo­rious; we'll bear any thing rather than sin; we are afraid for nothing as much as thy Soul, if thou destroy that, thou shewest the great­est hatred, and art as cruel as thou canst be unto us.

Canst thou think thou lovest them, and be thus perverse? Nay, if thou think they love thee, that must cause some relentings: How can I run so cross to my God and to my Parents, who so dearly love my Soul, and are so solicitous for its weal? my hardned Heart begins to yield, and I cannot continue obsti­nate; my Love to them, and my sense of their Love to me, doe overpower my stubborn spirit.

3. Be perswaded of thy own ignorance and unfitness to direct thy self.

A proud conceit that you know better than any, what is for your good or harm, is in­cluded in an obstinate frame. Dost not thou think, that if thou wert convinced that God bids thee do nothing, but what were for thy good, nor forbids thee any thing but what is for thy harm, thou would'st do what he com­manded, and cease from what he forbids? and would it not be the same as to thy Parents and [Page 30] others? Let me then reason with thee, Young Man! Dost thou think thy God would deceive thee, or thy Parents and Ministers would lye to thee; when they disswade thee from sin, and perswade thee to serious Piety, and are so earnest in it? thou must conclude they think as they say: If they be not mistaken, they would encourage me to do as I do, but if I be mistaken, I ought, and would do as they ad­vise.

Then young People, the Matter is brought to this; thou art obstinate against Counsel, because thou art in the right, and they that give thee Counsel are in the wrong: They as thou thinkest, advise thee to thy loss, and all things set together, thou consultest thy own true Interest better than they do.

But is not this a very vain Conceit and ca­pital Error? Oh Child! sure thou art not wiser than thy holy Parents! they know more than thou, they have experienced what thou hast not; they and thy Masters are forced to teach thee the little things of this Life; thou would'st soon spoil and kill thy self, if they left thee to thy own management.

Oh young Men and Women! are not you sordidly foolish? can you imagine you know what God will do with you better than he knows it? do you know what you must lose by sin, and suffer for sin, better than God knows? you judge by a short moment, but he sees what Eternity is: You conclude from [Page 31] what your Body now feels, but he knows what thy Soul is, and what himself is to the Soul, whether in Wrath or Love: He knows what the Glory of Heaven and Terrors of Hell amount to: Thou concludest by thy Fancy, but he passeth a just Judgment, which every one will soon submit to; therefore I do begg thee to distrust thy self, as ever thou wouldst save thy self. Consider, all the good Men in the World were Conceited as thou art now, but they have repented, and owned their Folly: when they came to their right minds, then they came to be of God's mind. Yea, all the Wicked will be convinced of their Mistake; why else will they wail and mourn for ever? if it be best to be in Hell, why should they al­ways Complain there? The Prodigal thought he was wise when he rioted, Luk. 15. 17, 18. but Repentance assured him that he had been mad.

Young Folk, have you never seen resolved Sinners even in Sickness and Poverty, roar out, and mourn at the last, saying, How have I hated Instruction? Prov. 5. 12.

Consider how unlikely is it, that thy Opi­nion is truer than thy holy Master, or Mini­ster? thy Lusts darken thy mind, they have all the wise part of the World on their side. Thou canst remember thou wert as confident of other things, which now thou seest to be false, as they told thee then. Thou some­times now condemnest thy self for thy course, [Page 32] when thy sinful Inclinations are calmed. When thou wert sick, thou didst own that thy loose way, thy irreligious way was thy Folly: And after all these wilt thou bear it out? must that be thy Character, The Fool rageth, and is con­fident, whiles thou knowest not at what thou stumb­lest, Prov. 14. 16. Must this be written on thy Grave-stone? He shall dye without Instruction, and in the greatness of his folly he went astray, Prov. 5. 23.

4. Acknowledge thou art one under Domi­nion, and not at thy own disposal. People refuse to be subject, from a Conceit that they have a right to govern themselves. Is not this your Case? Our lips are our own, who is Lord over us? Psal. 12. 4. therefore I will Lye, Swear, talk frothily, let who will contradict.

But Child, thou canst tell who made thee, it was God; and should not he that made thee govern thee? ought not the Creature to ob­serve the Laws which his Creator gives him? Nothing thou hast is so much thine as thou art his: Christ bought thee with his Blood, and additionally founded his Dominion in his Purchase: He therefore dyed, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living, Rom. 14. 9. Thou art therefore the most unjust of Rebels, if thou art an obstinate Sinner.

Thy Parents, thy Masters, thy Ministers, have an Authority over thee, and disobeying their just Commands and Calls, is a renoun­cing an Authority thou shouldst own, and [Page 33] usurping a power, to which thou hast no claim. A Masterless Child, a masterless Youth is a Slave under pretence of Liberty; and doubleth his yoak, while he seeks to break it. Therefore know, young Folk, you'll find God a terrible Judge, whom you rejected as a Law-giver: Hee'll vindicate his own Authority, and the deputed Authority of your Parents, by the sorest Vengeance. Eternal Chains shall hold that Youth, which would break God's easie bands.

If any of you say, I do own God to be my Ruler and Master, consider God's challenge, If I be a Master, where is my fear, saith the Lord God of Hosts? Mal. 1. 8.

To finish this, how many sturdy resolute Young People are here? will none of your knees tremble; will love melt no Heart, will a sence of Gods skill to direct, and authority to Command, bend no stubborn will this day? Dare any Child or Young Person go hence, and say, I have been stiff-necked, and wll be so; nor will I follow these Rules to become more perswadeable. If thou hast the impu­dence to do thus, I have God's warrant to tell thee, Thou shalt suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy, Prov. 29. 1.

4. Young People are subject to Anger and violent Passions.

Children are apt to be peevish and cross: Young Men to be full of rage; the Verse be­fore the Text may be rendred, Oh young man, [Page 34] put away anger from thy heart: How soon is the fire kindled, how fervently doth it blaze? Young Persons are oft angry with their best Friends, even for what they should be thank­ful; they are incensed too freqneutly with­out a cause, and are so hasty, as not to search the reason. Sleighty Matters are with them great provocations; and moderation in their resentments they disdain: And no wonder, for thy Reason is darkened from seeing the fatal consequences of thy Fury. Lasting En­mities, Quarrels, Murthers, are too frequent­ly the effects of this inordinate fervour.

Young Man! Disswa­sive from Anger. is this a thing allow­able? Consider with thy self, anger is a short madness. Thou losest the management of thy own Soul; whence our Lord Commands, in patience possess your Soul, Luke 21. 19. An overheated Spirit is void of Prudence, and sure to procure bitterness to its self. God saith, he that is soon angry dealeth foolishly; and truly, he that is very angry is next to mad; he looks, he speaks, he acts too near a Lunatick. A Passionate Man is at the mercy of any designing Foe; and by in­dulging his Anger becomes his own Tormen­tor: how uneasie to his Family, how dange­rous to himself; how unfit for Counsel, how troublesome to his Friends, how ensnaring and infecting to Society, is a Passionate Man? May not I hope, you young Ones will be out [Page 35] of love with Anger; it unmans you, though it seems brave: It makes you contemptible with the wise; 1 Tim. 6. 11. but above all, argue with your selves, This my God forbids me, Let all bitterness, wrath and anger be put away, Eph. 4. 31. This will unfit me for the visits of the Spirit, who loves a calm Temper, 1 Tim. 2. 8. and therefore appoints meekness, Jam. 1. 21. as a qualification for communion with him in his Ordinances. How lovely is pati­ence, it's the height of fortitude? Yea, God saith, He that rules his Spirit, is better than he that takes a City: and he that is slow to anger, than the mighty, Prov. 16. 32. In a word, a meek and quiet Spirit is an Ornament, and describes one Blessed, Mat. 5. 5. How ami­able is a patient Child! he is more beloved by all than a froward one! How excellent is that Young Man, who is Master of his passi­on! He is armed against sudden assaults; he is fit for great services and sufferings; he is fit to use the knowledge he hath attained in the most dangerous passages of his Life.

Quest. What shall a Young Person do to be healed of Anger, and unruly passions?

Answ. 1. In general, get the Grace of pati­ence, and delightfully accustome thy self to the exercise of it as thy Glory, and no way a Reproach: But more particularly,

2. Get thy Heart filled with Love to God and Man: Love to God will encline thee to imitate him, who is long-suffering, slow to [Page 36] anger, full of Love, and good to all, Luke 16. 35. Love to Man will encline thee to in­terpret all to the best, afraid to hurt him, willing to benefit and forgive him; and not prone to those dislikes, which are unsuitable to thy fellow Creature; especially if the Image of Christ be enstamped on him, as you see 1 Cor. 13. 45, 7.

3. Often present to thy Soul the Example of thy Saviour, and strive to imitate him: he was humble, meek, lowly, and patient under the greatest provocations. He calls thee to learn of him, Mat. 11, 29. If thou hast any part in him, he hath formed thy Soul to some degree of imitation, and to endeavour after more, 1 Ioh. 4. 17.

4. Reckon on provocations, and be still armed against them. Thy own Carriage is not so inoffensive, nor are thy Acquaintance so innocent, but that thou oughtest to expect some Trials; to expect them, and be un­guarded, is Folly; neither is it possible to pre­vent anger when wholly unprepared: There­fore awe thy Soul against Passion, and accu­stome thy Mind to such Considerations as are fit to restrain thy Spirit.

5. Be humbly convinced how mean, sinful, and ill-deserving a Creature thou art. Conten­tion is from Pride, Prov. 13. 10. and he is fondly conceited of himself, who thinks he ought to bear nothing; whereas a due sence of thy own nothingness, and offensiveness to God, [Page 37] will make thee fit to endure much; especially considering, thy provocations from Men may be the humbling rebukes of thy God, who must forgive thee great things, if he cast thee not into Hell it self: yet whose Decree it is, if you do not forgive, neither will he forgive your trespasses, Mar. 11. 26.

6. Allow not thy froward Spirit a liber­ty, even where thou hast most power and freedom. He that is not pettish at home, will not be passionate abroad; whereas anger indulged among Servants, and in trifles, will expose thee to its power, when more dange­rous and indecent.

7. When thou feelest Anger begin to kin­dle, forbear to do or say any thing, till thou hast well considered. The cause of thy re­sentments, if just, will abide the thoughts of a Calm Temper, and the wayes of thy vindi­cation are far likelier to be due; whereas, if the Cause in it self is too sleighty, or thy sudden purposes are too severe to be appro­ved, how darest thou take blind passion for thy Guide? Thou must believe, that the dis­cretion of a man deferreth his anger, Pro. 19. 11.

5. Young People are subject to Idleness and waste of time. It's a while before you are fit ro learn, or do any thing; but when you are capable, how commonly are you remiss and sloathful? Were you left to your selves, what would you do besides eating, drinking, sleeping, and playing? Thou art put to learn, [Page 38] and thou art idle at thy Book, not learning in a week what thou mightest learn in a day if diligent. Thou art a Servant or Appren­tice, having work to do, but art thou not a Waster of that time, which is thy Masters, and not thy own; and loath to do the busi­ness incumbent on thee? How little do most of our Youth for this World, or for Eterni­ty? Sports and Idleness eat up that season, which is the best opportunity of Life, and the character of most young People is to spend their time in doing nothing, or next to nothing, or worse than nothing. You are idle in the Duties of Religion, and waste that time you pretend to employ with God: You are idle in your particular Callings, as if you had no business as Inhabitants of this lower World.

Oh Young People! A Disswasive from the idle mispending of Time. how preci­ous is that time you do mispend! and how sad an account are you able to give of those hours, that are not to be recalled! Will it be comforta­ble in this World to reflect on wasted Time? Grown years will be full of these reflections; I might have been a Scholar, my Knowledge had been improved, I had now been fit to serve my Countrey, and benefit my self and Family, had I been studious in my Youth: I might have understood my Trade, been encou­rag'd in my Calling by others, and laid up for my subsistance, had I been diligent and industri­ous [Page 39] in my Youth. But those years are spent in Folly, and now I am unteachable: my Credit is gone, ignorance, contempt and poverty are my companions: Oh foolish I!

But, Oh thou Child! Oh thou Youth! how much more uncomfortable on a Death-bed, and in Eternity, will thy idleness, and mi­spent seasons be, as they referr to thy Soul! I had a teachable time, but I dye in ignorance of God and Christ, woe is me! The seasons of Grace I enjoyed are my torment now, be­cause I improved them not! I hardened my Heart by neglects in my tender years: How have I trifled when I heard Sermons! How have I mocked God by my sleepy Prayers! How have I undone my own Soul, by a foolish remissness in all my seeming labours for it! What can I shew for all the years I have lived? To what a case have my Sports, my Idleness and Vanity reduced me! Oh that I could re­call my precious Time! but that's impossible. Oh that I had profitably employed those mis­pent seasons! that's as vain a wish: Oh then that I had never lived those days which I did not live; but sinned away as a sleep, or dead in pleasures! 1 Tim. 5. 6.

Darest thou, O young Body, for a little present indulgence to thy fleshly sloath, en­tertain thy self hereafter with such Heart­piercing thoughts as these?

Quest. How shall a Young Person be heal­ed of Idleness and waste of time?

[Page 40] Answ. 1. In general, abhorr sloath, and re­deem time, Prov. 19. 15. Eph. 5. 16.

Sloath is a wicked unaptness for action, and very unsuitable to an active Soul. Time not redeemed is mispent, and when it is not ap­plyed to it's proper work, it passeth away to no advantage.

2. Enquire what is thy present work, and be assured that what thou art about, is what God would have thee do, Col. 3. 23.

Every hour hath it's business; if what thou art about be not that business, meddle not with it, but find out what it is thou ought­est to be employed in at that time: Convicti­on of duty is a spur to diligence.

3. Still remember, that God who is thy Owner hath given thee thy Abilities, and that time to do thy present work. God calls thee as by Name, Use my Talents to this, which I have made thy present work; in this thou improvest the stock I lent thee, in this I will bless thee, and protect thee as one pleasing to me; for this thou shalt not fail of a Reward, Eph. 6. 5, 6, 7.

4. Excite thy self to do what thou art about with vigour.

Engage thy strength, call up the powers of thy Soul to activity, for the sloathful is brother to the waster, Prov. 18. 9. Idleness is a degree of omission in the affairs both of Soul and Body, for there is much undone that might have been done.

5. To this end consider, God will call thee [Page 41] to a strict account, how thy work hath been performed in that time which God affords thee.

Tell thy self, there's a time of reckoning for this that I am now a doing, or a negle­cting. The sloathful Servant is in Gods esteem a wicked Servant, Mat. 25. 26: and he that hid his Talent must perish, as well as he that mispends it. The more good that might have been done in such a day, will be observed, as well as what little hath been done in that day. Oh never forget, that vacant hours, and loy­tred moments are recorded with him, who will not inspect dreamingly, what thy slothful Spirit makes no account of.

6. Remember that all thy works prepara­tory for Heaven, need an intense Spirit, and are confined to a short season.

It's proper Advice, What thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no working in the Grave, whither thou art going. Time is posting, and we had need redeem it, because our business is difficult, and the consequences great. There are great things to be acquired and done before we are meet for Glory. There be great opposi­tions in our Nature, and from our Tempers, to every degree of that meetness. A vile Heart is not easily renewed, darling sins are not soon nor easily mortified; the necessary Faith, Knowledge, Love, Strength, and Joy are hardly come by; and the expected services in our generation are slowly proceeded in. Haste and eagerness are absolutely needful to such things. He that [Page 42] idleth can hope for little, and trifling in such matters is little better than downright neglects, especially when giving diligence, 2 Pet. 1. 10. is as much a Duty, as doing any thing. He is not upright in the matters of Religion, whose deep concern doth not make him industrious, because his Judgment never determined for these things as the greatest; nor hath his Will resolved the pursuit of them above all others, whose idleness declareth his indiffe­rency. Therefore oft tell thy remiss Soul, This day is past, that week is over, and short­ly time will be at an end, and shall I idle as I do? How little work is done in past years! Dare I loyter still, and be surprized whiles my works are so imperfect? or can I reckon on greater improvements in the same number of dayes, if I be no more intent and indu­strious than I have been in those. To thee is that directed, Not slothfull in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, Rom. 12. 11. re­solve to obey it.

7. Be able to give a good account to thy Conscience of the time that's laid out in sleep, and Recreations.

These are the common wasters of Time, by a disregard to their just bounds. Many do al­most divide their hours between Sleep, and re­creating Sports, Visits, and Talk; which three fall under this Head of Recreteion. It's an awful Consideration, that what are appointed only to fit Men for business, should become [Page 43] with many their only business: as if they had little else to employ themselves about. But know thou, Young Man, that he who sleeps longer than Health requireth, is a Sluggard, Prov. 6. 9. And he that lays out more hours in diversions than prepares him for the better discharge of Duty, is a mispender of Time. Thy Reason should tell thee, God would ne­ver have given me a Soul endowed with such Abilities for service, he had never placed me in a World full of opportunities and calls to Employment: He had never so strictly char­ged me to be diligent and useful; if I am able with Comfort to plead my Sleep, and Pleasures as the greatest part of my Exercise whiles I lived.

Attend to these Rules with Care, and from this moment Gird up the loins of thy mind, as one determined to run thy Christian Race with intenseness and haste, 1 Pet. 1. 13.

6. Young People are subject to Levity, and inordinate Mirth.

This is a common distemper; your talk is frothy and unsavoury. How far from grave are you in your Carriage, or Dress! Vain Books thou lovest to read, idle Tales thou lik­est to hear, foolish Sights thou art best plea­sed with, foolish Songs thou greedily learn­est: what airy Conceits is thy Imagination fil­led with! These thou indulgest till they be­come the Guides of thy practice, and chief Object of thy thoughts and Discourse: To say nothing of thy Instability, excessive Laughter, vain Jestings, Merriments. &c.

[Page 44] Oh young ones! Disswasive from Levi­ty. is this a Temper to be allowed? it is condemned by all prudence, it's contrary to all that is serious, and obstructs all improvement in wisdom. How odious is the character of a vain Fellow! 2 Sam. 6. 20. How do God and Angels despise thee! How do the Good and Wise compassionate thee! Yea, canst thou refuse to be angry with thy self? Reason a little with thy own Soul: Have I not better things to think of, than these silly matters, which tend to no good for Soul or Body? Do not these antique gestures make me ridiculous? What hurt to others, what a wound to my self comes by this frothy talk! Is not my mind grosly vain, that I can relish such foole­ries? Can it ever be bettered, whiles I employ my self in nothing but what is foolish? Dost not thou find, that this lightness is even risen to prophaneness? Thou canst ridicule the Scriptures, sport with the Divinest Subjects, and turn the most serious matters into Fuel to thy childish Conceits: Poor Wretch! God will force thee to be ferious by the Torments hee'l shortly inflict: Thou wilt be convinced, that thy Atheistick thoughts have not put God out of his Throne, though they cast thee out of his Favour: Thy ridiculing of Religion hath not made it less real, or necessary; though it hath excluded thee from all the blessings of it. Thy making a mock of sin, Prov. 14. 9. hath [Page 45] not a jot lessened its evil, but exposed thee more to the Vengeaance due to it. Thy jocular temper shall not delay the awful recompense of that Contempt wherewith thou hast treat­ed the gravest Matters: What is more fit to make a serious Heart bleed, than to see thee jest and fool thy self into eternal Flames? how surprizing will those Torments be to a poor Creature, that always disdained a sober thought, Luk. 12. 46.

Q. How shall a young Person be healed of this Levity and inordinate Mirth?

Ans. In general, follow after Sobriety and Discretion, 1 Pet. 4. 7.

The want of these is evident in thy frothy Behaviour, and a total want of them is unbe­coming thee in the early exercise of thy Rea­son, much more in improved Age. The gra­vity of an old Man cannot be expected in a Child, but a degree of it is necessary to the youngest, that is capable of acting by the no­tices of a discerning mind. What is thy Rea­son for, but to discern what is meet, direct thee to what is fit, and govern thee in thy Carriage according to the Rules of thy Con­dition? Discretion will tell thee, a godly Book is more profitable than a Play-Book; the Soul deserveth more Care than a perishing Body that will shortly be Meat for Worms; that silly Tales edifie not as wise Discourses. So­briety will direct thee to endeavour a demea­nour becoming a Man rather than an Ape; it [Page 46] will check thee in those Jests which discovers thy Vanity, as well as expose a Christian Name; it will urge thee to refrain matter of future sorrow, for the sake of that contempti­ble pleasure which thou takest in indulging a light Fancy, whiles more important things are not regarded.

To this end,

1. Oft represent to thy self thy Condition in this life.

Sure it must conduce to seriousness, when thy mind is accustomed to such thoughts, as thy present State suggest. Oh young Man! thou art born a Child of Wrath, Eph. 2. 3. thy Nature is vicious, the condemning Sentence was pass'd on thee by the Law of Innocency, Rom. 5. 18. Death is justly fearful, thou art in a state of Trial, and on thy good Behaviour for an endless Joy or Misery. Thou hast con­tracted much guilt by thy actual Enormities and Omissions: Satan, the World, and thy own Lusts, are active to fix the Curse, and prevent thy reconciliation with God, by keeping thee in a state of Infidelity, Impenitency, and Dis­obedience to the Gospel. Thy Exercies as a Christian are difficult, if thou art saved, it must be scarcely, 1 Pet. 4. 18. and many endea­vours for Salvation do prove ineffectual, be­cause a perseverance in so many things are essential to determine thy State. Alas! of many called how few are chosen! multitudes [Page 47] of Professors miscarry, seemingly strong hopes are oft delusive: The Heart is above all things de­ceitful, and so desperately wicked, that it may well be asked, who can know it? Jer. 17. 9. These and the like things may call thee to mind thy self, and lay that froth which argueth small sense of thy bleeding Wounds, slippery Paths, dis­advantages and dangers attending thy Case in this Life, as it leadeth to Eternity.

2. Deliberately propose a becoming End in all thy Words and Actions, and let them be conducive to that end. To speak or act thou knowest not why, is a reproach to thy Pru­dence; and so it is to speak or do things to an end which they are not fit to serve: Nei­ther is it becoming a serious Person, to intend that which will put him to the blush, whiles he deliberates of it. I can hardly think thou da­rest say to thy self in thy Closet, I'le spend so many hours to day in shewing my own Folly, or gratifying anothers Madness; I'll lay out my Pains to divert my own mind or anothers from all that is serious, to make my Heart vainer than it is, to furnish my self with those false Notions of things, which I must with trouble unlearn before I be wise; and to strengthen that levity, to which I am already too prone. Canst thou resolve, I will spend this week in trim­ming a poor Carkass, and neglect my Soul; let this shift for it self as to any care of mine, unless it be to add to its hurt by the snares which my vain conversation shall expose it to.

[Page 48] But if thy design be what's edifying, thou canst not imagin a course of Foolery will ever accomplish that design. Yea, this very fixing on warrantable Purposes, will gradually dis­pose thee to seriousness.

3. Remember thou art still under the obser­vation of such, as should awe thee to Sobriety, and make thee ashamed and afraid of a frothy behaviour.

Thou wouldst be ashamed, that a wise Friend were acquainted with all thy light Francies and talk but one day. Oh! forget not that God trieth the reins, and knows all thy thoughts, Isa. 66. 18. Poor Youth! is not the Eye of thy God and Judge more than all the World? Holy Angels are not always strangers to thy Carriage, and Discourses; and mayst not thou blush at their Remarks? Devils do oft im­press thy Fancy, and put those things into thee, which thou thinkest and talkest of; these Ene­mies of thine do gladly behold thee unmanning thy self, wounding thy Soul, and corrupting others with thy foolish Speeches and Actions. Thy silly Companions observe thee, and receive the Contagion to which their own Inclinations make them apt: And is it nothing with thee, that thou conversest with People ready to be diverted from seriousness, and forward to be vain by thy Example? Alas! thou becomest accessory to all the evil they shall propagate; and wilt be condemned in their thoughts, if God give them Repentance, or cursed by them [Page 49] in Hell if they dye impenitent. Thy ungrave Deportment sometimes is seen by such as are wise and good, those despise thee, and pity thy Madness, when thou pleasest thy self as be­ing airy and witty.

4. Be not an unconcerned Stranger to the State of the World, where enough daily oc­currs to make thee serious.

Canst thou be light and altogether vain in a World so full of Sin and Misery? how many dismal Objects dost thou see and hear of! what Cruelty in one Man to another! how oft is the Church oppressed! what Judgments and Ca­lamities are thy Neighbours under! what dan­gers is the Land of thy Nativity exposed to! Most of the Earth lies in Ignorance, Idolatry, and subject to the Devil's Empire, 1 Ioh. 5. 19. how many Souls are bemoaning their own sins, and ready to despond under Doubts and Fears! where is there a Family but groaneth under some disaster? and canst thou play the Buffoon, as if Childish toys diverted thee from all sense of these things?

5. Awe thy Soul with the importance of sa­cred things, so as not to dare to entertain a light thought concerning them, much less to speak jestingly of them.

Every Scripture truth is a beam of Divine Light, it's revealed by the eternal Spirit to Mankind, for to direct their Faith and Practice, 2 Tim. 3. 16. and dare a poor Worm that shall be judged thereby, affront Heaven by ridiculing [Page 50] its Discoveries? Young Man! they cannot be matter of Jest, which the holy and wise God is intent on, and the Hearts of all devout Per­sons are deeply exercised with. Are such things to be sported with by Man, which the very Devils tremble at? Canst thou chuse but be seriously affected with the Matters of Re­ligion, if thou believe, these are the things the Incarnation, Sufferings, Death and Testimony of the Son of God referr to? These are the things which great Miracles have attested: These are the things which the various Opera­tions of the Holy Ghost on Souls design, and the Ministry of Angels subserve: These are the things which the Devil is so industrious to oppose: These are the things a Gospel-Ministry is esta­blished for, and about which all pious Mini­sters are so intent and importunate: These are the things which most affect, and govern all such who are freed from the Dominion of their Lusts, and can dye with hopes: These are the things which if totally disregarded expose Mankind to all bruitish Villanies in this World, and endless Tortures in another?

6. Abstain the Society of light Persons, and observe the danger of excessive Mirth.

There's that levity in thy temper which in­ferrs danger by vain Persons; and thou art in­considerate if the latter doth not force thee to say of Laughter it is mad, and of Mirth, what doth it? Eccl. 2. 2. Yea, sorrow is better than laughter, for by the sorrow of the Countenance [Page 51] the Heart is made better, Eccl. 7. 3.

7. Acquaint thy self with those purer and higher Joys which a serious Temper lead to. There be delights of a higher Nature than what thou pursuest; they would soon render these unsuituble to thy taste, as well as con­temptible to thy judgment: No holy young Man would exchange the feast of his heavenly Father, for thy Swinish husks; Luke 15. 16, 23. there's no present emptiness, nor following bitterness in Spiritual Delights. The sence of Gods Love, Peace of Conscience, the lively hopes of Glory, the satisfaction of well-doing, the serenity of a composed Soul, the ease of a rectified Nature, as far as the Faculties are de­livered from Sin, and healed by Grace, do constitute a delight so real, and refined, as if thou once taste, will make thee reflect on thy past Joys with shame and disdain. See Psal. 4. 6. Cant. 2. 3, 4.

7. Young People are prone to lye: This Sin appeareth in Childhood, and then such a habit is contracted, as they hardly are deliver­ed from. It's now true of many, They go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies, Ps. 58. 3. You lye to your Parents, to excuse your Faults; You lye to God, in breaking your Baptismal Vow. You lye to your Equals for pleasure, or gain: You speak falsly, to revenge your selves on such as you are angry with. Oh how oft do you speak otherwise than you think, [Page 52] and contrary to what you know, deceiving them to whom you speak!

Consider thou Child, A Disswa­sive from Lying. lay to Heart O young Man, that Lying is a hor­rid Sin: Herein thou imitatest the Devil, who is the Father of a Lye, and the first Liar, Iohn 8. 44. Thou art contrary to God, who is a God of Truth; to him lying Lips are an abomination, Prov. 12. 22. He is so incen­sed by this Sin, that he allots every Liar his Portion among the worst of Sinners, Rev. 22. 15. Oh Child! wouldst thou get to Heaven? then thou must not lye: Art thou afraid of burn­ing in Hell for ever? then fear a Lye: Wouldst thou be a Child of God? He tells thee, his Children are such as will not lye, Isa. 63. 8. It's the Charge of God to thee; Put away lying, and speak the truth, Eph. 4. 25. Darest thou say, I will not regard what the Lord saith to me! Alas! he will punish thee for a lie, worse than thy Father or Master can punish thee for any Fault.

Young Men, allow not your selves in this Iniquity; let no Master force you to lye in your Trade, much less do you use it in your Discourse; it's a mean thing, it's destructive to Humane Society, and the bane of Conver­sation. What is a greater Reproach than to be a Liar? What is esteemed a worse Af­front, than to say thou lyest? Great are the mischiefs to Mens Repute, Estates, Peace, by [Page 53] a false Tongue; and in vain be all pretences to Religion, if the Tongue be not bridled, as to this fault, Iam. 1. 26. How hateful is it to debase so noble a thing as Speech, in delu­ding thy Brother in thy Communication with him!

Quest. How shall a Young Man avoid Lying?

Answ. 1. Love Truth, and despise what would allure thee to quit it in thy Speech. It's the Character of him that shall inhabit God's Temple, He speaketh the Truth in his heart, Psal. 15. 2. To speak the Truth argues a plain Man, an honest Man, an Heroick Man, and general­ly a Godly Man. Therefore, like it in thy self, as thou must do in another: In order to this, get rid of slavish fear, which induceth to lying excuses. Hate Pride and vain Glory, whence all Lyes for ostentation proceed; tram­ple on love of filthy lucre, and thou wilt not lye for gain: Abborr a hurtful envious Spirit, which will prevent those lies that are framed to the damage of thy Neighbour.

2. Be wary and thoughtful of what thou art about to speak. He that speaks hastily is in danger to speak falsly; and having uttered one lye in haste, is too apt to back it with more; whereas he that is sparing in his words, doth not easily betray truth; and he that considers, dare hardly utter a false thing. Who will venture to lye, that says within himself, God hears what I am going to say, and he will judge me by my words? This restraint [Page 54] on thy Speech is so needful, that thou shouldst pray, Set a watch, O Lord! before my mouth, keep the door of my lips, Psal. 141. 3.

3. Let the lies thou hast uttered at any time be to thee matter of deep humbling. Re­penting sorrow for what's past, will be a strong caution against the same fault; thy grief for it will make thee earnestly pray with David, (whose fault this was) Remove from me the way of lying, Psal. 119. 29. They sleight­ly confess a lye who can persist in it.

4. Take heed of Equivocation, which is or­dinarily downright Lying. What is blamed in Jesuites is too usual among Protestants: as if a poor Artifice would compensate truth. To conceal thy meaning where thou dost not owe a discovery of it, is warrantable; but to impose delusion under pretence of truth, is intollerable, especially where Rules of Ju­stice are violated. How sad is it! to observe the liberty some take in deceiving their Friends with ambiguous words, which they hope will be interpreted contrary to what they know to be true.

5. Do not be encouraged by Reports, to publish what thou hast not just reason to be­lieve: What false slanders do some utter on incredible evidence! Report, say they, and we will report it, Jer. 20. 10. as not daring to in­vent the lye, yet not scrupling to repeat what they more than suspect to be false: But learn thou, never to say any thing of thy Enemy [Page 35] upon worse testimony than thou wouldst be­lieve it of thy Friend.

6. You that are subject to correction, be watchful and innocent in your Carriage, that you may not need to lye. Do nothing that thou needest be afraid to own. This will prevent falshood; and thy fear of being put to lye, may guard thee against many irregularities.

Here I would advise Parents and Masters to encourage truth, by abating somewhat of se­verities for Faults, that are plainly confessed. And I wish, Buyers by their backwardness to give a just price, would not tempt the Sel­lers to lye, in bargainings for their goods.

8. Young People are subject to fleshly Lusts, especially Uncleanness. This Head concerns Persons past Childhood, and therefore I direct it to Young Men. You are not ignorant that your Appetites are unruly, and your Inclina­tions too lascivious. In eating, you are prone to Gluttony: Excessive drinking is too com­mon a fault; there be many Drunkards short of twenty years old: and Voluptuousness seems the Idol. whom our Striplings worship above the living God.

Uncleanness is thy raging Disease: What immodest Dalliance, what filthy Thoughts, what obscene Speeches, what wanton Looks, Self-pollution; yea, actual Fornication, doth Conscience charge some of you with! How few possess their Vessels in honour, 1 Thes. 4. 4. or arrive at Manhood without a forfeiture of Chastity!

[Page 56] Thou that art apt to Drunken­ness, A Disswasive from Fleshly Lusts. or Gluttony, oughtest to consider, what these Vices are, and how vile thou rendrest thy self, by indulging thy self therein: Sure thou forgettest thou art an imbodied Soul, whiles thou art led by thy brutish Lusts. The Name of Christian ill becomes thee, Whose God is thy Belly, Phil. 3. 19. Where is thy Reason, that thy Appe­tite should thus rule thee? What is thy Con­science, that fails to terrifie thee out of sins, so undoubted, and dangerous. Shall God put thee off with a portion that becomes a Beast, and when thou askest Heaven, reproach thee with faring sumptuously every day, and receiving thy good things in this life? Luke 16. 19, 25.

Oh Drunkard! how odious art thou to all that behold thee! how subject to do and suf­fer the worst of Mischiefs! Thy Enemies have an advantage to betray thee; Satan may ea­sily perswade thee to the greatest of Sins, when thy Soul is in no case to see the Tempta­tion, or the consequences of it. What secret art thou able to keep? what business art thou fit to do? how do reproach and penury wait thy persisting in this Course? But above all, dost thou lay to Heart, that God is incensed against thee? He left it a rule to Israel, that Young Man should stoned, against whom his Parents witnessed, that he was a Glutton and a Drunkard, Deut. 21. 20. It is the sanction un­der [Page 57] the Gospel, that Drunkards shall not inhe­rit the Kingdom of Heaven, 1 Cor. 6. 11. Is thy pleasure worth the pains thou must endure, or the loss thou shalt sustain?

Oh Unclean Person! how dismal is thy case! This Lust blindeth thy Judgment, and sear­eth thy Conscience, so that Misery becomes unavoidable by a stupidness in Sin: How da­rest thou worship a holy God, whiles thou wallowest in thy pollution? Doth not thy fil­thiness make God a terrour to thee in every Duty, as well as defile the Duty by the wan­drings of a vile Imagination? The Holy Spi­rit is quenched by lustful motions, and can­not dwell in a Heart so unclean, 1 Cor. 6. 19. Thou professest to belong to Christ's Body; hear the Apostles expostulation, Shall I take the Members of Christ, and make them the Members of a Harlot? God forbid: 1 Cor. 6. 15. How oft, O Young Man, hath the Spirit of God repro­ved thee? How oft hath Conscience bitterly warned thee? and darest thou waste thy Body, debauch thy Mind, ruine thy Estate, deface all hopefull impressions on thy Soul, renounce a Christ for a base Lust, defie God to avenge the Affronts, and for ever undo thy self, and them whom thou allurest to partake in thy Lasciviousness? Then admit that as a holy re­solve, Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, but put ye on the Lord Iesus, Rom. [Page 58] 13. 13, 14. and take heed least God give thee up to vile affections, Rom. 1. 26.

Quest. How shall a Young Person be delive­red from Gluttony and Drunkenness?

Answ. Set thy self to get the mastery of thy Appetite. Reason with thy Soul, and cry earnestly to God, that this may not be thy Ru­ler: None would be a Glutton or Drunkard, but that his Appetite hath more power than his Reason; and Conscience is too weak to resist the cravings of his Lust: most young People are pleased that the Beast should rule the Man; they quietly yield up themselves to the Empire of this brutal part; they can bear no check to it, they are afraid it should come under restraints. But, Oh young Man! thou art carnal or spiritual, as thy Appetite or sanctified Reason govern thee; much of a Christians Warfare consists in the struggle be­tween these; the inordinate appetite is a great part of that Flesh which lusteth against the Spirit, and is contrary to it, Gal. 5. 17. Is it not high time thou shouldst set thy self to contend with this Enemy, and attempt to bring it into sub­jection? This is Temperance, when thou canst restrain its irregular motions, and deny its cravings: Oh then, daily quench this fire, and press after that Sobriety, which implies a mo­deration of Soul to the objects of sense, and a Government of our Life by the Will of God, and not by fleshly desires. Let it then be thy business in every duty to weaken this Tyrant, [Page 59] and the scope of thy Life to deliver thy self from the power of thy Appetite.

2. Make no provision for the Flesh to ful­fill it's Lusts, Rom. 13. 14. It's afflictive to be­hold some Persons contriving for their Bellies, as if carefull for nothing else; it's the design of their labours, and the thing that makes Riches valuable with them, is, that they may pamper the Flesh, and fulfill it's desires. But resolve with thy self, thou wilt not minister to this flame, nor live as if catering for the Flesh were thy principal employment in this World. Prepare what is meet for thy Body; it's a mercy in our Pilgrimage to have the conveniencies of Life; but excesses are fittest for them who dare brutishly say, Let us eat and drink, for to morrow we die, 1 Cor. 15. 32. Poor Worms! is there nothing after Death, that they should live in preparation for? yea, is not Life it self as bad as Death, whiles it serves to no higher an end? nay, these voluptuous Courses do often so enfeeble Nature, and multiply Diseases, that Life is a burthen, and some beginning of Hell in bodily Torments.

3. Avoid Temptations according to thy weakness to resist them. He that's prone to slip, ought the more carefully to look to his ways: Is Gluttony thy Crime? be afraid of Feasts; Art thou apt to be Drunk? look not at the Wine when it sparkles; refrain the Com­pany in compliance with whom thou hast so oft offended. Knowest thou not, that the com­panion [Page 60] of riotous persons shameth his Father? Prov. 28. 7. It's in vain to pretend, I will not be drunk, though I do associate with them that will perswade me to it. How oft hast thou resolved, and yet complyed! Nay, thy delight in the Sin is plain in the choice of such Associates, and thy Lust is strong enough to prevail when the Temptation offers, if it be able thus before hand to lead thee into the oc­casion.

4. Force thy self to an abstinence from just liberty for some time, when the strength of thy Lust is found to abuse what is otherwise lawfull. Some People are so exorbitant, that if they drink any Wine, they must drink to excess; if they go into a Tavern at all, they cannot forbear Drunkenness; if that be thy case, do not despise it as below Vertue, for a while to drink no Wine at all, or wholly to forbear a Tavern or Alehouse; it is thy mise­ry, that what is to another Man lawful, is to thee a snare: but it is thy Duty and Wisdom to manage thy self with a regard to thy weak­ness, that thou mayest by degrees get rid of thy wickedness.

5. Be content by watchfulness and hard struggles to oppose thy Lusts, till time and frequent repulses abate their power. An ap­petite long indulged is not soon brought under the power of the Soul; it will be importunate and uneasie, even after it's dominion is remo­ved; much more whiles the contest for Su­periority [Page 61] between it and Grace is undecided. Therefore sink not, as if it were in vain to strive; nor let the uneasiness of the struggle tempt thee to give it over; for as yielding to the flesh makes it more impetuous, so frequent denying it will abate the strength of its moti­ons. Many Drunkards after a while become rid of all Inclinations to be drunk; and So­briety grows so habitual to them, as if excess had never been their Temper. Oh Children! never make your Cure hard by beginning a wicked Custom: Oh young men that are en­snared! grieve not to be at due pains, nor pa­tiently to wait the stopping the Course of sin, which thou hast strengthned by frequent com­pliances. Thou must cease to be a Drunkard, or thou art miserable for ever: And thou must be at all the labour, and be willing to conti­nue it till thou art reformed, or a Drunkard thou wilt be still.

2. Quest. How shall a young Man be delive­red from Uncleanness?

The former Directions are proper to this Case; I shall apply somewhat of them, and add some more Rules.

1. Awe thy Soul with the Purity and Perfe­ction of Gods Law, as it referrs to this Sin. It's a great snare to mistake a Precept, and confine it below God's explication of it, or intention in it: yet how many Young People allow themselves in degrees of Uncleanness as innocent, not seeing, that these things are [Page 62] comprehended in that Precept, Thou shalt not commit Adultery: Therefore Young Man! exa­mine the Word more strictly, and thou wilt find that God hath provided against every de­gree of uncleanness, and against all that leads thereto. Are thy hidden thoughts and motions free? No; the thought of foolishness is sin, Prov. 24. 9. And our Lord reproves the Pharisees as Hypocrites, because their hearts were full of un­cleanness, Mat. 23. 27. Evil concupiscence, inor­dinate affections, &c. are to be mortified, Col. 3. 5. Are thy lustfull Gazings on a Woman allow­ed? No; our Saviour expressely saith, He that looketh on a Woman to lust after her, hath commit­ted adultery with her already in his heart, Matth. 5. 28. Mayest thou talk Obscenely? No; Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, are convenient, nor to be once named among Chri­stians, Eph. 5. 3, 4. If the Command of God reach to these lesser degrees, sure thou art not so stupid, as not to see that all grosser acts are forbidden, as more abominable. And if Marriage be the remedy against Inconti­nence, thou darest not think that God allows thee other wayes to gratifie thy lust, and so frustrate the great ends of that Ordinance, and the aptitude of humane Nature for it.

2. Be watchful against all occasions of Unclean­ness. Nourish not Lust by an intemperate Diet. He had need be free from fleshly Inclinations, who dare strengthen the assaults of the Flesh against his Chastity. The Spirit of God tells [Page 63] thee, that if Wine prevail, thine eyes shall behold strange women, Pr. 23. 32, 33. Be not in the reach of a Woman that will entice thee. Ioseph esca­ped the snare by flying from his Mistress, and refusing to be with her, Gen. 39. 10. Whereas the Young man that admitted the Speeches of the immodest Woman was soon ensnared, Prov. 7. 21. Venture not on thy own strength too far, God may justly leave thee, when thou temptest him; and stronger than thee have sadly rued the power of Occasions. Play-hou­ses, mixt Dancings, &c. have been the ruine of many a Youth.

3. Guard thy Senses. These are inlets of evil, by them. Objects insnare and kindle those Lusts which lay asleep. David's Eye betray'd him into Adultery. Iob is to thee a good Ex­ample, Iob. 31. 1. I have made a Covenant with my Eyes. Listen not to immodest Songs, or lewd Discourse, which insensibly stir up those Inclinations, which tend to the vilest Acts.

4. Stifle the first workings of Lust. First motions are weakest, and so more easily con­quer'd; the longer they are entertained, the more violent they grow; and the Soul less apt to oppose them. Filthy Contemplations allowed, darken the Mind, and abate that dread and abhorrence which are a great part of thy security against sin: Oh then crush the first appearance. If thou ask me, how? I'll tell thee, Banish these evil thoughts out of thy Mind, plead God's Command, and seek his [Page 64] help; represent to thy self the Threats and Punishments of God against this Sin; consi­der that these Motions unrestrained, may end in the grossest Action: and resolve not to speak a word, glance one look, or use one gesture, in compliance with that sinful mo­tion.

5. Avoid Idleness, as that which tempts the Devil to tempt thee. Young Man! it's a great Mercy to the World that we have business to follow; and he that hath no Employment, will wish hereafter he had never had an Estate to prevent a Calling; therefore be sure thou hast work, and attend it. Sin easily intan­gleth the Idlers, who will be doing wicked­ly for want of Business: But the Diligent is not at leisure for vain thoughts, he needs not ensnaring Company to divert him; yea, la­bour substracts matter from Lusts, and ren­ders the Body less disturbing to the Soul. Leisure hours are the young Mans danger, be not desirous of too many such, and double thy Watch in thy spending of them; for Sa­tan observes thee then, and will suggest vain thoughts to thy Mind, excite fleshly motions, and prepare ensnaring opportunities.

6. Attentively regard, and yield up thy self to the motions of the holy Spirit. The Spirit will warn thee against these Defilements, and direct thee to that purity of Heart and Life, as will prevent the advantages the un­clean Spirit finds in thy youthfull Age. A re­verential [Page 65] regard to the presence of the Spirit, will call the mind from base Employs, and ex­cite thee to what is approved by him: The more his Fruits abound, and express them­selves in thy temper and carriage, the more effectually wilt thou be cleansed from all thy fleshly pollutions. To this we are directed, Gal. 5. 16. Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the Lusts of the Flesh. Yea, the aids and influence of this holy one are necessary to a saving abstinence from, and dominion over Lusts, as you see in Rom. 8. 13. But if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the Body, ye shall live.

7. Keep thy thoughts well employed. This will prevent those vain Imaginations, which are the incendiaries of Lust, and by which, the Judgment is blinded or bribed to perswade the Will; Let the Word dwell richly in thee, by filling thy Mind. Contemplate God in his Perfections, behold him present with thee when in greatest secrecy; he makes a third, when thou and thy Paramour are most reti­red: In this case he testifies, Ier. 29. 23. Even I know, and I am witness, saith the Lord. Re­present to thy Soul the Torments following these Lusts, if gratified: Hell-fire is enough to quench these lustful Flames; and who dare wish the pleasure so dearly bought? Attend to such Scriptures, as, Whoremongers and Adul­terers God will judge, &c. Heb. 13. 4. Oh Young [Page 66] Man! canst thou think of this believingly, and cast off restraints, or give a Carnal Mind it's scope?

9. Resolve before thou compliest with the most urgent Temptation, to put up a serious Prayer to God in Christ. Lay thy self under this Law, I will not consent before I look to God; it must be a dreadful evil, that will not admit an Address to Christ; if it be a sin, I have need of strength from him, who came on this errand, to put away sin, to cleanse me from Iniqtity, and destroy the works of the Devil, Heb. 9. 26. Eph. 5. 26. 1 Joh. 3. 8.

Prayer may deaden the Temptation when strongest, it may recover thy baffled power, for Christ is able to inspire thee with that light and vigour, as may support thee when almost gone. St. Paul thrice prayed when grie­ved with a thorn in the flesh, and the Grace of Christ proved sufficient for him, 1 Cor. 12, 8, 9. The Devil, the Flesh, and an enticing Object are too hard for any Man, that calls not in the help of Christ by Prayer. Satan desires no more, than to engage thee single, and with­out frequent supplications, thou art like to be so: On the other hand, Prayer will drive Satan to some more subtile Assault, than so gross a wickedness as Uncleanness must ap­pear to every one, that beholdeth Christ when calling on him. Therefore, I do again intreat thee, even when thy Lusts seem to have most advantage, that thou wilt not forget to pre­sent [Page 67] thy case to him, who is concerned for thy good, and able to foyl the Enemies of thy Soul, when in greatest prospect of success.

Thus I have represented to young People some of the sins, to which your Age is most sub­ject. All are not named, alas! there's Swear­ing, which is a prophane Villany, that hath neither pleasure nor profit to allure; there's Theft, which is a violation of Justice, and a discontent with what God hath thought fit to give you; there's Pride, (one instance whereof I shall hereafter speak to) which a­mong you Children and Youth is generally on very fordid accounts; you are proud of a lit­tle Beauty, which the Small Pox may spoil, and no Body is truly the better for; you are proud of your fine Cloaths, and from Pride desire them; but what trifles are these, none but Fools esteem them, or value thee the more for them.

Though I cannot insist on these, yet if God is pleased to deliver thee from such sins as I have mentioned, all others will be reformed: Oh then set thy self against them! let the youngest be warned against these, as what they will feel temptations to. And be all re­solved, faithfully to observe the Directions given; that if possible, you may arrive to middle Age, free from the corruptions of Youth and Childhood, and not be forced to cry out with bitter reflections, Thou makest me to possess the Iniquities of my Youth, Job 13. 16. [Page 68] What would an aged Saint give, that he had been innocent of all these Crimes whiles he was young? Learn wisdom by such now, whiles thou hast opportunity and warnings.

I now proceed to the second head of the Vanity of Childhood and Youth, viz.

2. Children and young People are apt to live to no valuable purpose, which is Vanity. Thou wilt easily allow, that to spend ones strength and time for nothing, or for what is as good as nothing, is vain. Is not he a vain body, that thinks much, talks much, and doth much, to no purpose? Common opinion will grant this, we brand Caius Caligula as vain, for bringing a great Army to the Sea-shore, and gathering Cockle-shells, when he pretend­ed a great attempt. The Spirit of God just­ly accuseth those Persons, Isa, 41. 29. Behold they are all vanity, their works are nothing. Solo­mon doth frequently mean this in his Book of Ecclesiastes, when he saith, This is also Vanity; that is, it's to no valuable purpose; it is not worth the labour and concern a man is at: One had as good let it alone, and be unem­ployed, as reap no other fruit.

Young People! this is your very Case: Most of you live, and busie your selves for nought.

1. You are apt to design nothing at all in your living. It's long before thou askest thy self, What do I live for? What end shall I pursue? are not most of thy actions perform­ed, [Page 69] thou knowest not why? Most of you are hurried by a foolish Temper, allowing no de­liberate design to govern you. A vain mind, or Devilish suggestions determine the actings of most Young People. Is not this a reproach to thee, if thou happen to do any good, it's more by chance than by thy choice? If thou receivest any real advantage, it's by a merciful Providence, and not by thy Intenti­on? If God should ask thee at the Church Door, wherefore comest thou hither? May not some of you say, I do not know, or it was from a fancy I had to hear, or from custom. But how few can say, I had a design to get some help to grapple with my youth­ful lusts, I proposed to meet with God in his Word for my Souls improvement. When you intend so little in an Ordinance, what purpo­ses must govern you in the ordinary affairs of Life?

2. Your Youth is spent to no considerable purpose. May not I tell most here, thy time past is lost, and the time to come is like to be lost: For,

1. Thou hast lived in vain as to thy self. What hast thou gotten by the ten years thou hast lived, Oh Child of ten years old? What hast thou improved by the fifteen years thou hast lived, Oh Youth of fifteen years old? yea may not I as justly ask the Young Man of twen­ty, What hast thou done? what use hast thou made of thy twenty years? Must not Consci­ence [Page 70] answer, Oh! I had as good been just now born, for any good I have gotten?

That I may fasten this Conviction, I call every Soul to answer me; what art thou near­er God to this day? how much is Sin morti­fied? what Grace hast thou attained to this very time? Oh youth! hast thon yet got an Interest in Christ? what Treasure hast thou laid up in Heaven? If thou must own, I am fur­ther from God, and not nearer: Sin is stron­ger, and not weakned; then sure thou wilt own thou hast lived in vain to thy self.

2. But yet farther, how many others may lay to thee the charge of unprofitableness? Thou livest in vain as to God: He may say, This young Body never served nor praised me: I had as good there had not been such a Youth in the World. Thou livest in vain to thy Friends, thy Parent may say, It is an unprofi­table Child to me, I have yet had no comfort by him. Thy Relations may cry, He never gave us good Counsel or Example. Thou liv­est in vain to thy Master; he hath got little advantage by thy care, or labour. Thy Mini­ster may cry, This young body brings me lit­tle joy as yet: I have striven to little purpose with him; he seems as if I had laboured wholly in vain, 1 Thes. 3. 5. Thou hast lived in vain to the Church; what increase or Glory hath it reaped by thee? Thou hast lived in vain to the Nation; thou hast not helped to make it more innocent by thy Life, more flourishing [Page 71] by thy industry, or more safe by thy Prayers. So that now, Young man! is it not a true Charge, which I lay to thee? mayest thou not cry out, Oh useless I! I have lived for nought, I have been an useless shadow, I have cumbered the ground, and God may just­ly cut me off as an unfruitfull one? Luk. 13. 7.

Obj. I foresee some Young one will be ready to evade this Charge, and say, I do live to some purpose that is valuable: I gratifie my senses, I live pleasantly, I begin to look after the world, &c.

Answ. Alas poor Creature! is living to the Flesh valuable? Is living barely to this World valuable? Is living to the Devil valuable? Methinks thy Reason should tell thee, It's bet­ter not to live at all, than live to these: An intelligent Spirit to live to the Flesh, is base; an immortal Soul to live barely to this World, is madness: A Creature of God, redeemed by the Lord Jesus, to live to the Devil, is self-destructive, and foolish. What! live to him, who hath undone thee in the Fall, and is so studious to prevent thy recovery by Christ! Live to him who hath blinded, blemished, and debased thee, as he hath done! Live to him, who tho he hates thy God, cannot escape his own misery! Live to him, who envieth thy good, desires thy woe, opposeth all that is the benefit of Mankind, and contributes to all the miseries and disorders which the World [Page 72] is distressed by. Oh young man! canst thou justifie this course of living?

But this will more appear, if upon a due reflection on thy Life, thou wilt answer me these Questions.

1. Doth thy Life answer Gods End and Purpose, in giving thee a Being?

The wisdom of God may assure thee, he had an end becoming himself in thy creation: he tells thee, all things were created by him, and for him, Col. 1. 10. The blessed God had an Eye to himself, and a regard to Christ the Redeemer, in giving thee an Existence. He exerted his Power in thy Being, that thou mightest serve and honour him; dost thou answer this End, by living as thou dost? hast thou ever aimed at this? doth thy behaviour contribute to this at all? Thy way of Life would be a Reproach to thy Maker to have proposed to himself in thy Creation.

2. Are there not greater Purposes, to which thy Nature and Abilities are suited?

He lives to an unvaluable purpose, that neglects to live to the highest Purposes he is capable of. Little things are a reproach to him, that is adapted to great things. Have not you Faculties, to know, and love your God? and do your childish or wicked em­ployments answer them? You are capable to serve, and glorifie the blessed God, and is the gratifying thy lusts equal to these? You are receptive of divine Joys, and are thy car­nal [Page 73] merriments answerable to these? Oh young Body! what use art thou fit for to others? What benefit mayest thou yield to thy self? how canst thou seem to answer these, by a trifling diversion, or a perishing advantage? Sure, thy Capacity is thy shame: the very Beast, that liveth to the utmost of his Pow­ers, will witness against thee, who behavest thy self so much below thine. It would have been thy Mercy whose Exercises have been so low, that thy abilities had been less. Hence,

3. Wilt not thou shortly acknowledge with shame and grief, that thou hast lived to un­valuable Purposes?

No Ministers rebukes will be so sharp as thy own, when Grace renews thee, or endless Torments overtake thee. If the Spirit ever enlighten thy Mind, and alter thy Will, we may ask thee, What fruit had you of those things whereof you are now ashamed? Rom. 6. 21. With a grieving blush thou wilt answer, Nothing I dare boast of, nothing I can justi­fie: I am ashamed of my Reward as well as my Labour: What I reaped by Sin is my shame, as well as sin it self; it was a Fools Diversion wherewith I pleased my self; it was my Blemish wherein I gloried; it was my Loss whereby I valued my self: What are they now to me? they are Dogs meat ( [...]) to what I now taste, Phil. 3. 8. I am astonished, that I could relish these [Page 74] unsavoury things, or derive the least Content­ment from them, when my chief Good was unsecure. Young Man! if Grace do not a­waken thee, Hell will; the never-dying Worm will be Convictions of the emptiness of what thou hast pursued; and the base Purposes thou hast lived to. How will they tear thy Soul with such Thoughts as these! where's the Plea­sure now! where's the Satisfaction to which my Endeavours were confined! oh, that I had been but a Beast, who have lived to de­signs so brutish! Oh, that I had had no in­tellectual Nature, being I studied not to know my God, and the way of Life! Oh, that I had been void of rational Powers, since I did not govern my self accordingly! Oh, that e­ver I had natural Abilities to love and fear, being I have not loved my God, nor so reve­red him, as to abstain from Vanity! Wo is me, that I had a Capacity for any Service, seeing I have lived so uselesly to God, to my Friends, and to my self! Alas, where is the Fruit of my labonr! what now do I enjoy, that deserved one hour of my life, or answers the least of my Abilities! These, these, oh, Child! will be the Effects of thy present way.

3. Children and young People are apt to live to destructive purposes, which is the height of Vanity.

The last Head is convincing, that it were as well thou hadst never lived; but by this it were far better for thee, thou hadst remained [Page 75] meer nothing to this day: to live to hurtful Ends, is worse than not living at all; yet this is thy Condition, you dishonour God, you pro­voke the Eyes of his Glory, you trample the blood of Christ under your Feet with Con­tempt. How many young People serve the Devil with their strength, are a Snare and Infection to all they can influence? One young body spoils many others, and leads them to that Villany they had never thought of.

You oft break your Parents Hearts, and they by thy means feel, that a foolish Son is the heaviness of his Mother, Prov. 10. 1. You fre­quently destroy your Master's Estate: To the serious you are a Grief, to the City and King­dom a Plague, as helping on its Sin, hastning its Punishment, and obstructing its Good: How many may complain of Harm on thy account! But whatever Hurt you bring to o­thers, sure you avoid Mischief to your selves? No, no: Young men live most to their own Hurt, and seem to take great pains to make their Misery sure and great. Oh, vain Youth! thou daily makest thy self more the Child of Wrath by thy sinful Practices; thy wicked Habits grow more strong; by idleness and frequent opposition, hopeful Principles are more baf­fled and expelled; Conscience by thy Affronts, is less concerned, and capable to admonish thee. Thy ill treatment of Gods Spirit, makes him withdraw, and his Visits are more seldom; so that he is ready to say of thee, Let him a­lone, Hos. 4. 17.

[Page 76] Believe it, careless Youth! thy ways tend to more sin, and less hopefulness of Grace and Glory: Oh, wretched Life! to live only to be more guilty, and to be exposed to greater Punishments; thou runnest Hell-ward, thy Thoughts tend there, thy Words lead there, thy vile Actions heap the greater store of e­ternal Flames. Indignation and Wrath, Tribu­lation and Anguish, are the things thou workest for, Rom. 2. 8, 9. Thou labourest for these Wages, thou livest thy self daily to a greater obnoxiousness to these Woes, as if thou wert afraid thou shouldest not be miserable e­nough.

Oh Soul to be pitied! not to be born had been thy mercy, as well as Iudas, unless thou change thy living, is it not to thee those words are proper, Behold, you are worse than nothing, [...] Isa. 4. 24. Hadst thou not lived at all, thou hadst not done the mischief thou now art doing, thou couldst not have felt the hurt thou must shortly endure. How may most young Folk bemoan the day of their Birth! their Life is a misery, which might have ca­pacitated them for the Bliss of Angels, had they well employed it. The Lord grant you be not found thus foolish and cruel to your selves; yet to this you are more proner than to a more profitable Course.

The next Work is to shew you, 1. How Childhood and Youth became thus vain. 2. Why [Page 77] they continue so. 3. How most young People grow still vainer.

1. Quest. How comes it to pass that Child­hood and Youth are vain?

Ans. Childhood and Youth became vain by Original Sin.

There's the Spring of the Disease, thou didst not come out of God's Hand thus prone to sin, and thus averse to himself. But a depra­ved Nature descends to thee from Adam by the Line of thy Ancestors: Thou wert born under the Infection common to Mankind, ge­nerated in the ordinary manner; the very quickened Embrio in the Womb, hath all the Seeds of those sins, which time ripens, and opportunity brings forth; our Constitution is become sinful, and all corrupt Effects are next to natural.

I shall not trouble you with Disputes, but meerly inform you, 1. How our Nature be­came corrupt: 2. How it descends thus cor­rupted to thee.

1. Our Nature became corrupt or vain by the entrance of Sin, whereby the Divine Image was expelled as well as forfeited.

A Rational Soul cannot be void of moral Qualities and Dispositions, as it is a Subject of God's moral Government; there must be Wisdom or sinful Ignorance in the Mind; there must be Love or Enmity to what is good, and Aversion or Inclination to what is evil, [Page 78] in the Will; for Man is not considered in Gods Law meerly as an Agent, with respect to what he occasionally acteth, but he is con­sidered also as to his temper, what he is; what are his governing Principles, and prevailing Disposition; those are necessary to the deno­minating him a godly or ungodly Man, as well as influential into the ordinary course of his Actings, which will be answerable to his inclinations and light.

Adam was created after Gods Image, which consisted in Knowledge, Righteousness, and true Holiness, Gen. 1. 27. Eph. 4. 23, 24. Col. 3. 10. This was his Constitution, tho' not so fixed, as to prevent the possibility of sinning. And whiles Adam sinned not, our Nature was im­pressed with that holy Power, Light, and Love, which answered the Law, and capaci­tated us for that exact Obedience injoyned by it. These divine Qualities were inconsistent with their Contraries, by the Law of Inno­cency; tho' they are not incompatible by the Law of Grace; for that Law insisted on Per­fection, and entire Innocency; and fixed a Forfeiture of all holy Gifts, by man consider­ed in any degree sinful; yea, besides this For­feiture of these Gifts by the penal Sanction of the Law, Man was not entitled to those Aids of the Spirit, whereby Divine Qualities might subsist in the same Soul with contrary sinful Dispositions (as they do under the Law of Grace) no snch influences of the Spirit were [Page 79] provided in the Law of Creation; and there­fore as the least sin in the Soul brought down our Holiness below perfect, and thereby made it cease to be Holiness by the Rule of Innocen­cy; for Love was not Love by that Law, if there was any mixture of Enmity against God: So sin would prevail to extinguish that Puri­ty, and expel those holy Dispositions at first implanted, if once it entred into the Soul.

Adam did subsist a while happy under this Law, but at last he sinned, his Heart turned from God to the Creature, which implies Igno­rance in the Mind, and Aversation and Enmi­ty to God in the Will. The entrance of these did of Course deprave the Soul of A­dam; Knowledge was expelled by Dark­ness, corruption removed his original Purity. The Disease invaded the whole Man, the Poi­son operated to the extinction of his glorious Excellencies; there was no need for God to take any good out of the Humane Nature, it necessarily died by the force of sin. And it is by a new grant, that there be any Re­mains of God in lapsed man. It is not from any thing in Man, or in the first Covenant, that there be any moral Vertues, or good Nature in any; God in mercy bestows these, and re­strains the growing Contagion of sin, that we become not more devilish.

When holy Light and Love were expelled by Sin, the appetite (of course) became Ma­ster of our Reason, and all disorders hence en­sue. [Page 80] The Soul being cloathed with Flesh, doth for want of holy Principles become subject to sensible Inclinations, which through the pre­sence of agreeable objects, hurry poor Man into all that is Flesh-pleasing: whiles the pro­per concerns of the soul are forgotten, and its intercourse with unseen things is cut off, for want of that Light which should perceive them, and that holy Love which might relish and desire them. A Soul thus debased and entangled, becomes little better than an active Power to contrive Fuel for our various Lusts, and receive the little delights which are mi­nistred by Sense and Fancy. Oh wretched state! especially when Error and Enmity a­gainst God and Holiness help to compleat its depravedness.

2. Thy Nature thus corrupted descended to thee, as propagated by the appointed Law of natural Generation.

Adam was not only the common Head of Mankind, as representing all meer Men, but also he was the Original of all men in order to propagation. As Representative, he was capable to forfeit much good: As he was the common Parent, he must transmit the Nature which he had with its Impurities: he was to propagate his Kind; Gen. 5. 4. he begat Seth in his own likeness; this is opposed to the like­ness of God, wherein Adam was made, v. 1. Tho' Seth was the Father of the holier part of the World, and a good man; yet he was [Page 81] not begotten after Gods likeness, or with a nature in its Original purity, but with a Nature as depraved in fallen Adam. Lapsed corrupted Nature cannot propagate a holy Nature. Can a clean thing come out of an un­clean? Job 24. 4. How can he be pure who is born of a woman? Job 25. 4. A Person natu­rally sinfull, cannot generate a Child free from that sinfulness: if the Father be naturally void of spiritual Wisdom, the Son in the course of nature will be so; and if we are born void of Wisdom and Holiness, we must be vain, foolish and ungodly; for humane Nature must be unholy, if it be not holy. This made Da­vid own, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me, Psal. 51. 5. This is so fixed a Rule, that our blessed Lord must have an extraordinary generation, to escape the Pollution of humane Nature. Mary was found with Child of the holy Ghost, Act. 1. 18, 20. The Spirit overshadowed her; and this Christ is the only One born holy, Luk. 1. 35. Others are made holy by Grace; some, it may be, are renewed in the Womb, but none are na­turally so, or by Generation; therefore if thou shouldst ask, Why do not good Men na­turally beget good Children? I answer, Their goodness is superadded to their Natures, it comes by another Law than that of nature; their Grace is from Christ for the Salvation of their own Persons, but not to propagate to their Offspring by Generation.

[Page 82] Oh young Man! thou seest how thou groan­est under Adam's Fall, and labourest under the depravedness of humane nature, as pro­pagated from Adam by thy Ancestors down to thee! And is there ever a Child here, but is a living Witness to this Corruption? Are you not all proner to sin, than holiness? Is it not easier to make you vile, than to make you gracious? Do not fewer and weaker Ar­guments incline you to be wicked, than to be godly? Is there not that in thee, which serves instead of a Tempter to evil, tho there were no ill example, or Solicitation from without? Wert thou ever sensible of this, oh, Child? hast thou been yet truly humbled for Original Sin? Thou wert wicked whiles an Infant, as to the temper of thy Soul; the corrupt Nature thou then hadst, is the Spring of all thy Vanity: Thy nature is to be foolish, to lye, to be unclean, and what else is vile. That nature whiles unrenewed, will express its unholiness and enmity against God, one way or another: it's true, the power of one Contrary Lust, thy bodily Constitution, God's Restraints, Education, &c. may prevent the raging of some Lusts, but the malignity con­tinueth, and cannot fail to govern, till the Grace of Christ do alter thee.

Quest. 2. Why do Childhood and Youth continue vain?

Answ. Childhood and Youth continue vain for want of a due use of means appointed for [Page 83] their healing. O young People, here are three things in this that are very fit to move you.

1. First, here's Comfort, that the Vanity of Youth is healable; thy case is sad, but 'tis not desperate; there's hope in Israel concern­ing the Recovery of Sinners in their Youth: The Devils became wicked, and never can be recovered; they may grow viler, but they can never grow better; but blessed be God, this is not thy case; the Wound though sad, is yet curable: There have been many young Folk made pious and serious. Isaac was good betimes, Timothy and Iohn were Old Disci­ples, before they could call Man. Iosiah's ten­der years were impress'd with Grace. I have known undoubted Evidence of Grace before ten year old: Oh then you need not resolve to be vile, because 'tis in vain to attempt to be good; no, no: No young Persons in this Assembly need to say so, or need think so. God has not resolved against Young Persons, that they shall never be recovered; nay, he has deter­mined, that out of the mouth of Babes and Sucklings he will ordain praise, Psal. 8. 2. Children! Our Lord Jesus has never said, he will have no­thing to do with such as you, I'll neither wash you, nor heal you, nor teach you: Nay, he has said quite otherwise, Suffer little Children to come unto me, and forbid them not, &c. Mat. 19. 14. The Spirit of God never resolv'd, I will convince no wicked Children, I will san­ctifie no prophane Youth; nay, instead of that, [Page 84] to you he speaks, in Psal. 34. 11. Come ye Chil­dren, hearken to me, and I will teach you the fear of the Lord. The Spirit has a Mind to be the Teacher of Children, and the Instructer of Youth, he has a mind to train up the Young Generation for Heaven, as well as the Old ones: So that Young ones may say to Day, Why though I am wicked, yet there's hope, and though I have a vile Nature, yet there's hope. I may be recovered even though my whole frame seems thus set for Villany, and appears thus desperately dispos'd.

There's the first point, and that's a great matter, and under the power of that, I preach to Young Ones, and under the hopes of that you Young Ones should regard what I say, and urge; for the case of Youth is healable.

2. Secondly, Here's a loud Call to you, that God uses means to heal Young Ones of their Vanity. This confirms the former: Is God at pains with Youth to make them better? then there's hope of Youth, for God would not be at this labour if it were wholly useless: O my Friends! God has sent his Son to dye for young Children, as well as old Men, even Young ones receive forgiveness by his Blood; My little Children to whom I write, for your sins are forgiven, 1 Ioh. 2. 12. The Spirit of God strives with many Young ones, as soon as they can un­derstand any thing; he bids early for your com­pliance. I do believe there's not a Child of six years old under the Gospel Means, but the [Page 85] Spirit of God has been striving with: This holy One can truly say, I have been dealing with this Child to make it happy.

Pray let's a little consider: Thou Child or Youth, hast thou had no sence of Hells misery ever upon thy Heart? hast thou never been convinc'd that 'twas ill to Lye or Swear? Hast thou never found pressing motions to be good, and to resolve against evil? have no good de­sires stirr'd in thy Soul? Why, all these were the workings of the Spirit of God on thy poor Soul. God has been labouring with every young Body in this Congregation: He has been labouring with thee, by the advice of thy Parents, when they taught thee to read, or taught thee thy Catechism, or instructed thee to pray, it was God by them taking pains with thee.

We Preachers preach to you Young Ones, as well as to the Old; nay, we preach to you with more hopes, expecting that you are not hardned as old Persons are. Young People! have not the Mercies of God, have not the preservations of God towards you, been so many Teachers? What has been the Lan­guage of every Mercy to thee Child, to you young ones, but this? Oh Children! don't you provoke this God; don't make me your Enemy, for you see I would fain do you good, I would fain be merciful, and not a Destroyer of you: Nay, have not Afflictions been the pains of God with you? Is there [Page 86] ever a Young one here, that has not been sick at one time or other? Why the Lord sent that Sickness to thee, and spake in this manner thereby, I will warn this Young one to be Religious, lest he should dye be­fore he be converted; all the Corrections of thy Parents, and Master, for thy Sin, they have all been the Calls of God, and his Language in them all has been, I would fain imbitter Sin to this poor Young one, by some­thing short of Hell: I would gladly restrain the Wickedness of this Youth, before I must damn him. You see, you had need look to it, for God has used means towards your reco­very; think not, God doth not mean me in his Word; don't say, God did not intend my cure in the helps I enjoy; alas, he intendeth thee as well as any other. It's thy enlighten­ing, Oh Young Man! he intends by all his teachings: 'Tis thy Conversion, O Young Woman! that he designs by all his Calls, all these have been directed upon this very de­sign; and least you should doubt it, the Spirit of God does particularly name you: O Young Men and Maids! praise you the Lord, Psal. 148. Young Men be sober, Tit. 2. 6. Nay, Christ himself tells us, in Prov. 1. 4. that his great de­sign there, is to give discretion to the simple young ones: Therefore I beg, that not one young bo­dy in this place may forget what I say now, that they frustrate God's hopes, if they be not Good; and disappoint him of all his la­bour, [Page 87] if they be not gracious, all the pains that have been taken with them, are lost up­on them; and will God bear this? will he always bear this? what will become of you, if you proceed this way?

3. Thirdly, Here's an awful Charge, That you young Men continue vain, because you don't rightly use the means for your healing. Ah, sad Charge! the case of young ones is curable, but why is it not altered before now? Why, O Conscience speak! Children you have Consciences; Young Ones, you have Consciences; Can you say 'tis long of God I am vile still? 'tis long of the want of means that I am vile still? Ah, Friend! Father, Son, and Spirit can all say, 'tis not my Fault that this Child is bad still; 'tis not my Fault this young Man and Woman is wicked so long; 'tis not long of me. May not the Spirit of God say, I have taken more pains with this Child, and spoken oftner to this young person, than I have done with thousands in the World: Alas! so it is concerning every one of you. Chil­dren of Pagans in all their days never had thy helps. Consider a little with your selves, God may this day say, I begin early with this young one: I have still pleaded after many a repulse, I have followed him and her from day to day, and from sin to sin: Oh, how earnest have I been with this young Stripling, that I could propose very little good by; yet have I ta­ken pains and labour with him. Come young [Page 88] People, is it now to begin? that God has cry'd to you, Turn unto me, why will you die? Ezek. 33. 11. Is now the first time that he has said unto you, When will you be made clean? when shall it once be? Jer. 13. 27. Has Christ never said unto thee, O look to me, and be saved? Look to me for help, for there's help no where else. Thy distress makes me needful, and pity makes me willing. Lay these things to Heart, and I will defie any young body in this place, to go away, and say; I have lived up to what I know, I have improved all that God has afforded me, but he denied to give me more: I am miserable and wicked still, because God has refused to help me, when I have sought it of him.—Is there any that can talk at this rate? No, not one: Not one? Why then whence is it that we have so many young People bad still? Why still so fatal to thy self? why a Slave to base Lusts? O Friends! God knows the cause, and thou knowest the cause; thou didst not use that knowledge thou hadst; thou didst not improve thy op­portunity; doth not Conscience witness thy Ear has not been opened, thy Heart has not been attentive, thou didst not frame to turn unto the Lord. Hos. 5. 4. God can say this day, this poor Creature might have been in a good case, he would have been serious before now, if he would but have yielded to my plead­ings, if he had turned at my Reproofs. This young body would have been an eminent Chri­stian [Page 89] before now, had all my Impressions been retained, and all my Calls complied with; he had known me better, had he been but teachable in my ways, as he was in other things, Prov. 2. 15.

Oh then, young People! Consider with your selves what has been your case; you have told God plainly, I will not come to thee that I might have Life. Where's the young body that has not practically given God a denyal? And every time thou wert under Conviction of sin, and didst not leave it, thou didst tell God, Lord, I would be thine, but I love my sin better: I would be happy for ever, but I will not, unless I may be wicked in this World. The youngest here hath the great hand in his own ruine; he that is but of ten Years old, if he perish, he is his own Destroyer: (I think it's true of many younger.)

Children! you were born vain, and you have wilfully chosen to remain so: You may be ready to accuse Adam, by whom you became wicked, but it is your own fault that you con­tinue wicked, since God hath provided a Re­medy; its your sin, that you are no better for Mercies, no better for Affliction, no better for Means; wicked before, and wicked still.

O therefore! what will you be able to an­swer? how sad is it! that any young body here should be forc'd to say, Lord, 'tis my fault that I am no better for a Christ, and no bet­ter for the Gospel; my Misery is of my own [Page 90] choosing; God has taken pains with me, but 'tis all lost through the obstinacy of my Will.

These three things are plain under that se­cond Head wherein you see why Young peo­ple remain vile and vain.

3. Thirdly, Youth becomes yet more vain by evil Customs, and indulging carnal self: vanity unhealed is of an improving nature; and there's no bad Child, but grows worse: Sin is not a Stream that grows empty, or a Root that dies by meer time. God knows, we have had experience of that. Alas, how does Villany grow with Years! the Child that began with few sins, grows up to many sins; insomuch that we have some young men be­fore eigthteeen, have committed as great sins as the man of eighty. Youth enters with les­ser sins, and proceeds to grosser sins: We have many young People that seem to abound in wickedness, as they improve in age; as if they grew older only that they may grow viler. Oh, what a mercy would it have been for those to have died in the Womb! or any one year before another! Now, Sirs, whence is it? how can it be, that young people should grow vainer and vainer, instead of better and better?

I tell you, one sin brings on another, by the lesser thou art fitted for a greater. Sinful Habits are strengthned by sinful Acts: and fear and shame for sin wear off, yea, are even extinguished by a course of sin. O poor [Page 91] Soul! Satan has got the faster hold: The Spirit has been provoked, and given over striving; and it may be thy Parents through Despair, have almost given over praying. Conscience that warn'd thee, is sear'd and silenc'd, and so the wicked Creature has his whole Scope, 2 Tim. 4. 2. God sayes of him, Let this poor Creature alone, I'le strive with him no more, Gen. 6. 3. O young Folks! you may be harden'd before you grow old; Lust may be strongly rooted before old Age; and I fear 'tis so with abundance of Youth: Is it not so with some of you? Did not some of you blush at a little sin, and now thou canst mock at great ones! Are there not some amongst you that once dared not to tell a small Lye, and now you can lye all sorts? Are there none here that trembled when they swore a little Oath, and now can swear at the bloodiest rate, and add Blasphe­my and Cursing to their Oaths! Sirs, did not some of you feel a check for a light act, and now you can commit Fornication and Unclean­ness, without any inward Rebuke! It was hard to bring thee to pilfer a Peny, and now thou canst steal Shillings and Pounds: It was much ado that thou couldst endure to be drunk in the Night, but now thou canst do it openly, and glory in it. Thou durst not for­merly have neglected a Sermon, and thou must pray by thy self, but now, alas, poor Creature! thou canst play away a whole Sab­bath, [Page 92] and spend Weeks without Prayer, with­out one serious Prayer. My Friends, what's the matter! is sin grown a less evil? by no means? Is God, and Heaven, and Hell, less certain! No, no, Sirs, you will feel it to your Cost: Is thy poor Soul less precious, and less valuable? No, this is not it neither, but the reason of it is this; Wickedness is grown by Wickedness; committing sin has made it easie, the Current of sin running, has made the Channel wider, and the opposition less. O, therefore for the Lords sake, begin this day to consider, the Devil is grown more impe­tuous by thy Consent: And I can tell thee to day, and let the youngest of you observe it, That if thou continuest wicked, thou wilt be yet more and more so. And thou wouldst now blush to think what Wickedness thou wilt hereafter come to: As Hazael, when it was foretold him by the Prophet what Cruel­ties he should commit, cries out, Is thy Ser­vant a Dog? 2 King. 8. 13. &c. Thus I have finished what I intended in the Explication, I now come to the Use.

First, by way of Inference; the Lord set it home. Some own'd great good on this day twelve-month, may more receive good to day. The Inferences then are these.

Inf. 1. How dismal a sight doth this Truth afford us of this World! Childhood and Youth is Vanity: Ah, Lord! how true then is it, that even the whole World lies in Wickedness, [Page 93] 1 Joh. 5. 19. the greater part doth so; for Young People are many more than old ones. The chief part of Age is Vanity; the best part of Time is Vanity; Childhood is the time fit­test to learn in; Youth is the time fittest to act in, and yet both these are Vanity. Oh, how little are heavenly Designs carried on by Young Ones! Oh, how little is God wor­shipp'd and serv'd by Young ones! How few of them are engag'd in their own true Con­cerns! Dreadful! that in Youth we will do nothing, and in Age we can do nothing! Oh, who loves God, and is not grieved! who loves Souls, and is not melted! All men come sick into the World, and most men grow more diseased by their stay there. All come mi­serable, and most help on each others Ruine, and encrease their own. Oh, how many go off the Stage, and have reason to wish, would to God I had perish'd before I saw the light! So like Hell is this present State, that i'ts a wonder we are able to take any Delight therein. God is serious with pleople in their younger Years, and they heed it not: Mini­sters are earnest with young People, and they regard it not: Ah, poor Wretches! they think we have nothing to do with them. Oh, Young Ones! help us to mourn to day, for I am calling on Men to mourn for you, who in your Youth yield your selves up to your Lusts, and thereby are injurious to Christ, and cruel to your own Souls, and will you be unmo­ved?

[Page 94] Inf. 2. What Care is incumbent on Parents and Masters, in the managing of Young Persons! Youth is vain, and that bespeaks a suitable carriage. O Parents, you don't beget Angels, but sinful Children; you breed up corrupt ones, and not perfect ones: Few are sanctifi­ed in the Womb, and therefore you should deal with Children as with deprav'd and cor­rupt Persons, as with them whose Childhood and Youth is Vanity. The very Distemper directs Parents and Masters in their duty and carriage towards their Children: I shall espe­cially name Parents in my Directions.

1. Children are Ignorant: Oh therefore take you occasion to instruct them. Alas! canst thou let thy Children be unacquainted with God, and insensible of their own Misery! or the way of their escape! What must thy Child be inspir'd, or it must perish for want of know­ledge? If it must know, pray who is fittest to teach it? Upon whom does it lye in point of Duty, as it does upon you? And who has the Advantage of doing it as thou hast? Who is so like to prevail with thy Child as thy self? None faithfully dedicates his Child to God in Infancy, that will not carefully instruct him when of age to learn.

2. Youth have unruly Appetites, and therefore don't indulge them. Oh that every Parent here had but his Heart open to what I say: and I speak it out of pity to the Souls of Young ones. 'Tis an ill practice in Parents to [Page 95] feed their Child by the cravings of i'ts Lust, and not by their own Judgment. I will tell you the Mischief of it, besides the laying a foundation of distemper in Age; it gives the Appetite an ungovernable force. Children being alwayes indulg'd in what they crave, they cannot deny themselves any thing they desire; and by the same rule, that they must now eat what and when, and drink what and when they will, while they are under thy care; they will be drunk and Whore, &c. when they grow in years; their Reason cannot bridle it then, as thine (which ought to guide them) neglects to do it now. Oh dreadful thing! that any Childrens Appetites should come from under their Parents tuition unbridled: I look on no­thing a greater Reproach to Parents. And what's the ground of all Wickedness in the World, more than an Inordinate Appetite? yet how few Parents do help to cure it while cure­able! whereas an Appetite curbed in Childhood, would endure a denial in Age.

3. Youth have violent Humours, and Selfishness, and therefore don't foolishly gratifie them. A Child left to himself, brings his Mother to shame. Pr. 29. 15. Oh what a Devilish Sight! how plea­sing to Satan! to see Children cocquer'd, and Youth indulg'd! It's peevish, then all must be done to please it; it's obstinate, and it must have it's will; it's revengeful, and it must not be check'd; this is the way of most Pa­rents. And 'tis just with God that Child should [Page 96] break your Hearts, whose Will you never broke. How many poor Creatures will have cause in Hell to curse their Parents! Dreadful! that they prove the worst Enemies to their Chil­dren under a pretence of fondness.

4. Youth have many Lusts, and are prone to sin, therefore be afraid for them, and prevent all Occasions. Iob knew this, Iob 1. 5. He went and offer'd Sacrifice, lest his Children should have sin'd, and cursed God in their hearts. Oh that Parents would consider what brittle Vessels Children be! what dry'd tinder Youth is: Oc­casions though small, over-rule Young Persons: What then? Oh then be perswaded to choose the Company of your Children for them, see that it be of their own Sex, and Virtuous. Put them to Trades, and such Trades as have the least Snares; set them in Families where most Good is to be got, and least evil to be catch'd. Find them business, and fulness of Employ, and cut out their time for them. Pa­rents, learn this Wisdom, that your Children have no time for Idleness. Marry them as soon as convenient, if so be you are not very certain of their Sobriety.

5. The Vanity of Youth is deeply rooted; there­fore be importunate pleaders, and sharp Cor­rectors. If advice prevail not; 'tis not an ea­sie thing to cure a Child of it's Vanity, or Youth of it's Folly. Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a Child, the Rod of Correction will drive it far from him, Prov. 22. 15. And with­hold [Page 97] not correction from thy Child, and he shall not dye, Prov. 23. 13. I look on't as a sad sign of growing Villany in the next Age, that corre­ction is become unfashonable: The Lord pity us. Let me tell you once for all, Sirs, Youth is governed chiefly by fear, and they that lose the benefit of that passion, lose the great­est advantage which Youth have to be ma­nag'd or improv'd by. People may talk of love, but God's injoining the Rod so oft, dis­covers that it will prevail but with very few. Wisdom must be exercised in this matter, as the end may be best attained: But be assu­red, the Blood of that Child lyes at the Pa­rents door, who might have been reform'd by Corrections, and was not. Can Parents for­get God's severe Judgment against Eli for his indulgence to his Sons? or do you think that Children are now so harmless, that they need not to be corrected? I should have call'd you to give them good Examples, as being pow­erful to encline them, who strictly observe, and are prone to imitate you; they are apter to evil than good; deny them no help to their holy improvements, and create them no hinderances: But time prevents me.

Inf. 3. How should Young Ones bear the Rebukes and Restraints of Superiours in sence of their own Vanity! Here I call to Young Ones again: Parents and Masters know what will harm you better than you do your selves; they know how weak you are to resist Temp­tations; [Page 98] they know what's sinful and destru­ctive better than you. Oh therefore thank God, and thank them that are over you, who endeavour your healing, and don't suffer sin to lye upon you; Lev. 19. 17. If you be good your selves, you'l do the same for your Children when you have them; therefore don't take that ill which is your necessary cure; but rec­kon, Am I vain! Oh then! though I have not the Liberty I would, and have not the Allow­ance I desire, matters are better order'd for me, for I can't bear those other things.

Inf. 4. How Attentive ought you to be to all Advices and Pleadings of your Relations, being design'd to heal you! O! for thy Souls sake, Young One, never let the Advice of thy Parents be lost; never let thy Friends Coun­sel and Reproof be lost, because 'tis all de­sign'd to remove this Disease: Thou dost not see the Hell thou art just running into; thou dost not see the Heaven thou art flying from; thou dost not see the God thou hast provok't; thou dost not know the Misery thou art un­der; thou art ignorant what Grace, what Wisdom thou wantest; how much must thou learn and attain before thou art wise, or good; thou art ignorant of many snares, and sins; thy folly hides thy folly from thee. O there­fore! be heartily intent to all their Advices, and say to thy self, Lord, is this for my cure, and shall I neglect it? Is this Reproof for my good, and shall I make light of it? Is all this [Page 99] pains to heal my poor diseas'd Soul, and shall I cast it behind my back? God forbid!

Inf. 5. How great a Wonder of Grace is a young Convert! and how thankfully should such acknowledge it! O the power that makes the vain Prodigal come to himself! Luk. 15. 17. How near does God come to the Soul, to tame it, when 'tis like a wild Asses Colt! How ef­ficacious is Grace, that overcomes Lust in it's greatest rage! and that deadens Temptations when they strike on Youth, so prone to re­lish the offer, and yield to it! O Blessed work! that inclines us to fear that God whom in our Youth, we are so apt to despise.

Having laid these things before you, I offer two General Vses of Exhortation.

Exh. 1. Reflect on your selves, whether you are under this Vanity, or deliver'd from it. Young Folks, I speak mostly to you, and therefore I intreat you for the Lords sake to lay to heart what I am saying. Your case is dismal, you are born vain, and prone to be vain; are you still so or not? 'Tis a great work that goes to the healing you; is that work pass'd on thee? 'Tis a great deal of God goes to the making a Youth good, and seri­ous, have I felt that? Pray ask your selves, Am I vain, or am I not? Is my Heart a Spring of Divine Motions, or Beastly Inclinations? Young People, how is it with you? Try your mayes, are they under the Government of Grace or of Lust? are they under the Conduct [Page 100] of Wisdom or Folly? Ask your selves, Do my wayes profit or hurt People? Is it not time to ask? What Sirs! are the years you have spent unfit to be enquired after? or is thy Sin not worth being concerned about? Oh ask your selves often, What am I doing? whither am I going? Does my walk please God, or pro­voke him? Do I walk with him, or do I for­sake him? Try and judge impartially; it's thy greatest concern; thou mayest deceive thy self, thou canst not delude thy God, who will judge as the matter truly stands with thee. How is it with you, O Young ones? There's none here but ought to be concern'd how 'tis with them. You will be concern'd, nay within a while you must be concern'd: therefore en­quire this to day, and never rest till it be de­termined.

Exh. 2. Receive Directions suitable to your case: And here I must divide this whole As­sembly into two parts: First, Such as are un­der the power of Vanity. Secondly, Such as are by Grace delivered from it. One of these two is every one in this Assembly; Young and Old you are still under the power of Vanity, or you are deli­vered from it: There is a great difference in your Case, I'll speak to each. 1. Those of you that are yet under the power of this Vanity. Poor Souls! would you be delivered? or have you a mind to continue what you are? Come Chil­dren, dare you be still blind! and still obsti­nate? shall thy Soul that was made for God, [Page 101] be a Cage of unclean Birds? Shall thy Tongue which is his Glory, be employed to his Dsho­nour? O Young body! shall not Christ heal thee of that Nature, which the Devil intro­duced? Wilt thou live a Bruit and a Devil still? shall Satan serve himself of thy parts, and of thy strength, and of thy opportuni­ties? shall the Devil say of thee, Here's a Child, I hope, will do me a great deal of Drudgery? Here's a young Person will do my Work while he lives, and be damned with me when he dies? Young Folks, Satan stands by, and seems to speak thus of you: And must Christ all this while weep over thee, and say, Here's a young thing that's my Creature, but he will rebell against me as long as I spare him? here's a Youth fit to serve me, but he will bring on me all the Dishonour that he can, and obstruct my Interests as far as he is able: Here's a Strip­ling that I bought with my Blood, a young Girl or Boy, but he serves Satan before me, and will not be saved, unless against his Will? For the Lords sake lay these things to heart to day! What say you, Child, to this? what say you Young People? I hope some of you will be ready to answer, O Sir, help me, give me some counsel, for I am weary of this present Condition, and would be in a better; if so, take these few Advices, and resolve to follow them in earnest.

[Page 102] 1. Believe how had thou art by nature, and bewail it before God. Oh, 'tis thy Picture I have been drawing, as bad as it is! Come poor young Folks, you that pride your selves when you look in the Glass, could you but see your Souls with a right Eye, you would abhor your selves: Young People, will you believe God speaking of you? Does not he say you are vain and vile? will you believe all the wise People that know you? and will they not all agree in this, That thou art a sinful wretched Creature? Doth not thy own expe­rience convince thee? Oh Friend! own it, and go away mourning; and how canst thou but do so, when thon consider'st, My Heart is fil­thy, my Affections disorder'd, the powers of my Soul poor and wounded, the Image of God lost, Satan's nature is visible upon me; what a Reproach doth every title fasten! what can be said worse of thee, than that thou art thus? Is this a Case to be rested in? is this a state to be quiet in? yet this is thy Case, O young Person, by Nature! thou art full of what's hateful to God, and hurtful to others; thou art intent on thy own Ruine. Oh, Sirs, the most innocent young Sinner here, is fuller of Poison than a Toad, and filthier than a Swine: All of you are thus by Nature, and yet thou remainest so.

2. Consider often how miserable thou art, whilst thou continuest thus vain. Danger will affright some, whom Sin will not. But, O [Page 103] how unable am I to represent the Horror of this to you! Young People! you are Children of wrath as well as others, Eph. 2. 3. Every Lust is a killing Wound, every step is on the brink of Hell; there's not a wicked Child in this Congregation, but I can stand over it, and say, Here's a Child with whom God's angry every day; here's a young Body, for whom God re­serves his wrath, Nah. 1. 2. and sees his time a coming. Young People! sure you will be a­fraid to go home, and say, I am a Sinner, and I am an impenitent Sinner, and therefore an un­pardon'd Sinner; a Sinner for whom everlast­ing Wrath is reserved. Once for all, you re­solve to be wicked, and God cannot but be just: You will not be born again, and God must keep you out of his Kingdom then, Ioh. 3. 3. You will live after the flesh, ay, and God is as resolved you shall die in your sins, Rom. 8. 13. Come, Young People, God will be as perem­ptory as you, and his Will shall stand; there­fore tremble to go out of this Congregation, unless in a founder Mind than you came.

3. Be convinc'd that nothing short of re­newing Grace can savingly heal thee. Mora­lity may polish thee; Fear and Shame may restrain and conceal a Sinner, but 'tis only Grace can truly alter a Sinner. O, my Friends! it must be a new Heart, or it will always be a vain Heart. Vain Inclinations will govern, till God writes his Law there, Heb. 8. 10. The youngest must be a new Creature, or natural [Page 104] Corruption will baffle all pretensions, Gal. 6. 15.

4. Be assur'd, Grace cannot be had but from God, through Christ, by the Operations of his Spirit. Don't think it an easie thing to attain Grace, tho it be necessary to have it. Young Folks, God must open his Treasures a­new, or thou wilt for ever want it. Christ must plead for thee, or thy Disease is incura­ble; he must act towards thee, as Redeemer, and not meerly as Creator, unless he pass by thee as one rejected. He seeks the lost sheep, Mat. 18. 12. he makes the stubborn willing; Faith is his Gift, Consent is his Purchase, as well as the Blessings annex'd to it; there is no other Name by which we can be saved, Act. 4. 12. there is no other Fountain of Grace or Help. Know also, it's the Spirit must give of Christ's fulness, Ioh. 16. 14. he must enlighten thee, O Child, or thou wilt go blind to thy Grave; he must renew thee, or thou wilt die in thy Uncleanness. Christ made the Atonement, but the Spirit makes us capable of its Applica­tion. Christ hath acquired a fulness of Grace and Blessings; it's by the Spirit he imparts thereof to Man. Men cannot renew thee, means of themselves are too weak to alter thee. Oh, then look upwards! wait on God; direct thy Eye to Christ, depend on the Holy Spirit, as able to conquer thy Reluctancy, and rea­dy to work by the means to which his Pre­sence is promised.

[Page 105] 5. Observe, that the more thou sinnest, and the longer thou art graceless, the more oppo­sition thou layest in the way of Grace: think serioully of this; the hopes of the Soul are up­on the Spirit's working, and the disposedness of the Heart to yield unto them. Oh, my Friends! will you go on in sin? then the Spirit of God will leave you, he will not always strive, Gen. 6. 3. The more you sin, the more you quench the Spirit. Will you go on in sin? then your Heart will be hardned the more, Heb. 3. 8. Wilt thou go on delaying? then to mor­row it will be harder to prevail with thee than to day. Oh, therefore be allarm'd to day. More sin will strengthen your Lusts, and fur­ther prejudice your Soul against Christ. Is not Conversion difficult enough already? is there need to make it next to impossible? for the Lords sake consider! greater Offences may make God and Men say of thee, This Wretch is resolved against Grace, he arms himself a­gainst Hope.

6. Resolve within thy self, that thou wilt follow after Christ, and throw off thy Vanity without delay. Oh, that I could but get this Consent from you all this day! That all the young People in this Congregation would say, O Lord, Amen, Amen. Come, poor Sinners! put it to your selves this moment: Say, For this I will pray, that I may cease to be vain; I will meditate for this, I will hear for this. O young Folks, that are yet in a state of sin, [Page 106] you have work enough for your time! sometimes you know not how to pass away your time: what, spiritually blind, and not know how to pass away time! what, dead and graceless, and not know how to pass away time! a Sinner wild in his frame, and have no Work! Oh, be intreated this day to be earnest with God, and never be quiet till he has given thee Wisdom instead of Folly; till he has given thee Sobriety instead of Rashness; Humility instead of Conceit; Calmness instead of Passion; Truth instead of Falshood: Yea, never be satisfied till God has brought thee to live to the best and highest pur­poses. And, oh, that every Soul would say Amen; how would Satan be disappointed! how would Heaven rejoyce! it would be thy best day, and the entrance of eternal Life.

Obj. But I believe some here are ready to say, Sir, must I now change? must I now stop my Vanity? surely 'tis too soon: Sure I might be vain a little longer; there's no danger in it, I hope.

Answ. My Address to you is, for this In­stant, even to day harden not your Hearts, Heb. 4. 7. Oh Child! just now cease to be vain; 'tis late enough with the youngest of you; it's not too soon to stop a wicked Course, now, now thou shouldst yield to Christ: If you ask, Why now? I tell you:

1. Because young Peoples Souls shall be sa­ved or damned by the same Rules as the old ones, if they be past Infancy. Oh, if you die to night, God will judge you by the Go­spel! [Page 107] Rom. 2. 16. and that's the lowest Rule God can judge you by: Youth must be judged as well as Men, Eccl. 11. 10. Young ones that obey not the Gospel, shall not escape the Vengeance, 2 Thess. 1. 8, 9.

2. God is concerned at, and provok'd by the Vanity of Children: Pray consider, you think, it may be, that God takes no more notice of what you say or do, than you do your selves. Alas! you are deceived: don't you think God was angry with the Children whom he slew by the Bears, for deriding the Prophet? 2 King. 2. 24. God notes what you do: Young Ones, God doth not rule old Men, and leave Children to their own Wills; his Laws are prescribed to young Men under the same Threats, as to the old; and it's not indifferent to him what you do: God observes what you do as much as any other person; for you are his Subjects, you were made for his Glory: you serve him, or his Enemy the Devil, and what you do is good or evil.

3. The youngest of you are under Vows to God against Vanity; I suppose you were en­tred into Gods Covenant by your Parents, as Deut. 29. 11, 12. Was not a holy Heart, and a serious godly Life engaged in that Covenant, in opposition to Sin and Satan? You are de­dicated to God in your Infancy; you are his, and not your own. Young Children! what, will you lie to God now? will you be perjur'd now? O, God forbid! Dare any young Per­son [Page 108] here say, I was given to God in my Infan­cy, but I now retract it; I was sworn to be the Lords, but I will not keep to him: Baptism will sink those Children of Believers, who per­form not their Vows, and practically renounce their God.

4. Let me tell you, if you remain vile all your Youth, a thousand to one but you will be ever so: You may die before you are old, and then you are undone; but if you live, and are not converted when young, it's improbable that ever you should. O, it's ill dealing with old Sinners, they are conceited, full of Pre­judices, immersed in worldly Cares; the Calls and Threatnings of God, are grown familiar to them, and their Souls stupid and void of Affections. God makes now and then an In­stance of Grace in them, but 'tis rare; the last Hour Converts are next to Miracles; most feel that, he that hardens his heart, being often re­proved, shall die without Remedy, Prov. 29. 1.

5. Again; Oh, what service mayst thou do for God, when thou ceasest to be vain betimes! Come, my Friends, what a heap will every days little come to in time! if Young persons would but now begin to be holy, tho they act but a little for God every day, it will at length amount to much: As we say, he that begins with the Sun, will make a long days Journey. Oh, how much do Young People do for the Devil, in a state of sin, when they live long! how large is the Roll of their Transgressions! [Page 109] and how much might they do for God in a state of Grace! how many may bless God for thee! what a publick blessing mayst thou prove! thou mayst well be an eminent Saint, much improved for Heaven, and abundant in the fruits of Righteousness.

6. Our Youth will be the Plague or Hope of this Land in this great Crysis. Great things are before us, the rapid motion of Providence hints no common matters: There have of late been many ways taken to debauch Young Peo­ple in their Manners, to prejudice them against Holiness and Sobriety. Nevertheless the holy God has seasoned some Young Ones; there are many looking Heaven-ward, and God seems designed to reform the rest. Well, whether of these two prevail, doth determine England's lot. Oh, if our Youth grow yet more profligate, God's about to leave us! if he recover our Youth, we may hope he'll yet continue amongst us. Young Ones, I would be earnest with you, for God indicates his mind to England by you. Oh, be you all ready to say, Can I help to save a Nation! by the Grace of God I will be one of these that will do it; let Satan, and the World, and the Flesh struggle with me as they can.

7. This youthful Vanity continued in, will be the grief, and wounding of Age, tho thou shouldst be converted then. Little do you now know what youthful sins may cost you in old Age: Thou makest me to possess the sins of my [Page 110] youth, sayes Iob, ch. 13. 16. Oh, how bitter will the remembrance of past Villanies be! oh, how wilt thou tremble to think thou hast help'd any one in the way to Hell, when thou thy self art got out of that road! How will it grieve thee to think thou hast been a means to damn any Soul! can it be a little thing to thee? the Joy of late Converts is abated by the thoughts of youthful Sins. Paul carry'd it to the Grave with him, that he was a Persecutor in his Youth. Believe me, Sirs, the Evidence of our Conversion, when late, is more than made up by the Innocency of our Lives, when converted young: And they are to blame, who seem to complain that gross Villanies have not made their Change more remarkable. Thus I have done with the first Vse; God grant it be to such purpose, that none may go out of this place unwearied and unresolved; unwearied with his Vanity, and unresolved to put an end to it.

Exhort. 2. To such as through Grace are de­livered from this Vanity.

Before I enter on this, I must declare you are our Joy, and our Crown; I would I could speak it of every one here to day: Oh, that every Young One in this place, were of this Number! You are our Comfort, that God has some to propagate Religion when we are dead and gone. How lovely is Gods Image in your tender Years! Your Grace is less que­stionable now than it would be, if you were [Page 111] aged. I say your Conversion's more evident now; for you are now in your Health and Heat; you are now under the force of Tem­ptation; you are not decripid, and aged, and under the government of Fear, as old Folks be. Oh, my Friends! what but Grace can win thy Consent to Christ, now when the Devil and the World are strongly bidding for it? You are like to reap the largest Har­vest, because you have the longest Seed-time. You young ones that do fear the Lord be­times, you are like to be the more remark­able in the Heavens. All the Blessings that belong to the oldest Saint, belong to you; and Christ as truly loves you: The youngest Believer in this place may rejoyce in all the fulness of Christ, as his Store-house and Se­curity; he may read over all the greatest Promises of the Gospel with Comfort, as his own. We bless God for you, bless God for your selves, that hath adopted you for his so soon, and thereby prevented much Sin, and made you early Blessings: for your sake we hope the Gospel will not be removed from England; how happy are each of you! your Parents can die comfortably now that you are in Christ: Your Friends look with joy upon you, as secure in your better part. Oh the comfortable Aspect that every such Soul affords! I will give you a few words of Ad­vice.