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 't is 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 't is 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 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 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 't is 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 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 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 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
THE VANITY OF CHILDHOOD YOUTH WHEREIN The Depraved Nature of Young People is represented and Means for their Reformation proposed BEING SOME SERMONS PREACHED In Hand-Alley at the Request of several Young Men. To which is added A CATECHISM For YOUTH By DANIEL WILLIAMS LONDON Printed for Iohn Dunton at the Black Raven in the Poultrey MDCXCI To the Children and Young People who were Hearers of the following SERMONS THE Design of these Sermons was to regulate and improve the state of your Souls The Blessing of God having made them successful to several of you enclined me to publish them at your importunity thô I do oft refuse a Compliance with many judicious Friends in desires of the same kind even when the Subjects are more perswading Having overcome the Discouragement which I suggested to my self from the plainness of these Discourses I dare not make an Apology for the commonness of the Stile or Matter It had been a Profanation of an Ordinance when desired to preach to Youth to propose any Subject below what tends to their Salvation from that Sin and Wrath they are naturally under It had been folly to treat of such a Subject for Edification before Children and Apprentices in words unapt to inform or perswade them I thank God I could rather bear the dislike of a few less serious wits than neglect the eternal Concerns of so many less intelligent Hearers On the same account I am now afraid to raise the Style or omit the very repeated Appeals and Pleadings with Children being resolved to approve my self to the weakest Reader and leave the judicious to what is more fitted to their improvement My Prayer and Hopes be That God will accompany this Book with powerful effects on your Souls and not leave you to that obstinacy as will render it a farther aggravation of your sin and punishment you cannot pretend that God never informed you of your Disease nor directed you to a Cure You dare not after reading this Book say My Danger was concealed from me and Rules for my Safety were not prescribed God will severely witness that he condescended to argue matters with thy Soul he disswades thee from the Sins that will condemn thee at last however thou now flatterest thy self He useth many Arguments to encline thee to Duties which his very Gospel cannot dispence with the want of in any person whom he will save Let me then acquaint thee oh young Man that God addresseth himself to thee as by Name Thou by nature art brutish and devilish and as long as thou followest the imaginations of thy vain mind thy case becomes more desperate thy Lusts by indulgeuce grow more violent and Conscience still less concerned to vindicate the Affronts thou offerest to Gods Dominion or to represent the injury thou dost to thy own Soul yet be assured whether thou mindest it or not there is a God whose right it is to govern thee and will be sure to judge thee Thou art born his Subject thô unwilling to obey and forward to rebell against him thou hast an immortal Soul how little soever thou providest for its future State yea how much soever thou actest to expose it to endless misery and this for a short and fading Pleasure Thou art naturally depraved and thereby under that Condemnation which was pass'd by the Law of Innocency against man in the least sinful Oh then do not fancy that Baptism did regenerate thee whiles thou findest the want of every Grace and carnal Inclinations are thy governing Law Do not conceit that Baptism delivered thee from thy cursed State when thy Vnbelief and Enmity against holiness do both express it and further expose thee to it It 's true there is a way of Salvation for lost man published in the Gospel but that can benefit none who continues to reject Christ and refuse the terms of Peace Thou art the dedicated Child of believing Parents but their Faith cannot save thee now that thou art capable of consenting to the Covenant and refusest it yea thy early Dedication adds Perjury and Falshood to thy Profaneness Plead not thy Christian Name whiles thou art a Reproach to it Boast not of religious helps when they have not that good effect on thee as the light of Nature hath on meer Pagans which may convince us that where the Gospel fails to convert its Hearers Satan oft governs more powerfully than if the Gospel had never been preached to them We live in an Age of wonders among which it is not the least strange or awful that professed Christians are viler than Heathens and most of our baptized Youths scorn the plainest Rules of Christianity Ah wretched Age wherein Gospel-light cannot convince of that wickedness which even Nature condemns what Conceptions have they of God who think he can approve of such Enormities as they commit or be satisfied with those heartless and trifling Regards to which they confine all the Homage which they afford him Surely England's Calamities are like to be terrible when this jealous God ariseth to force men to juster Thoughts both of his Nature and his Laws I must allow that this Treatise is intended to convince thee of the great Evil of such things as most esteem indifferent and practise as allowable yea so far doth their blindness prevail that Sobriety much more Godliness is ridicul'd as Folly But know that the feeling of endless Torments will soon convince such as dare mock at Divine Revelations The Perfections that render God able to endure their Affronts now will oblige him to vindicate his Government and Honour then Poor Wretches that would not be ruled by means suited to their Natures as rational shall without their Consent undergo the inflicted Evils which whiles only threatned did not move them Therefore young Man be not affrighted from true Wisdom by the Clamours of the worst of Fools whatever Wit they pretend to Vndo not thy self for the sake of a Crowd for it 's better be religious with the lesser number now than be damned hereafter with the multitude Sure thou must be an Atheist and wholly disbelieve unseen things if the Contempt or Perswasions of enslaved Factors for the Devil can encline thee to chuse Hell by resolving the Course that infallibly tends to it I must acquaint you That in the last Sermon I add no Particular to the Notes one of your selves took from me when I preached and supplyed me since with to help the defect of my own Papers yet I have added many of the Directions for avoiding the eight particular sins I disswaded you from in my first Sermon I have also thought fit to subjoyn a short Catechism in the end wherein you may learn the Essentials of Practical Religion in familiar Terms if you think fit to learn it consult the Proofs The good Lord prosper all to you Could I but see young ones generally enclined to serious Religion I would hope that God hath a mercy in reserve for England and the Vengeance
that hangs over it because of the last thirty years too successful Contrivances to debauch the Nation in order to Slavery and Popery might be diverted or at least confined to such as are too far engaged or obstinate to admit a Reformation That every Child and Youth who shall read this Book may as many of you already do thus contribute to my Hopes and Share in the Benefit thereof shall be the Prayer of Your Compassionate Friend Daniel Williams THE CONTENTS THE Context explained to Page 5. Vanity considered as its natural Frailty p. 7 8 9. Vanity in a moral sence in General 10 11 12. Particularly as to eight Sins to which Youth is prone 1. The folly of Youth in the Concerns of Eternity explained and demonstrated from p. 13. to 17. Directions against Folly from p. 18 to 21. 2. The Inconsiderateness of Youth with Directions against it from p. 21. to 24. 3. The Obstinacy of Youth described disswaded from with Directions against it from p. 25 to 33. 4. Anger and violent Passions of youth described disswaded from with Directions from p. 33 to 37. 5. Youths idleness and mispence of time described disswaded from with Directions from p. 37 to 43. 6. The Levity and inordinate Mirth of young people described disswaded from with directions to get Sobriety from pag. 43 to 51. 7. The sin of Lying described disswaded from with Directions against it from p. 51 to 55. 8. Fleshly Lusts viz. Drunkenness Gluttony and Vncleanness described and disswaded from from p. 55 to 57. Directions against Gluttony and Drunkenness from p. 58 to 61. Directions against Vncleanness from p. 61 to 67. The Vanity of Youth as it consists in their living to no valuable purposes demonstrated from p. 68 to 74. The Vanity of Youth as it lives to destructive purposes from p. 74 to 77. An Account how Childhood and Youth became vain where Original Sin is treated of from p. 77 to 82. An Enquiry why Youth continues vain where also the possibility of their healing is spoken to from p. 82 to 90. The Reasons why many young people do grow more vain daily from p. 90 to 92. Inferences from the whole Doctrine 1. The dismal Aspect of the World p. 92 93. 2. Parents and Masters care and pains in the Education of youth urged and directed suitably to the Disease of youth from p. 94 to 97. 3. The reasonableness of youths subjection to the Rebukes and Restraints of Superiours p. 97 98. 4. Attentiveness to Advice needful and fit p. 98 99. Exhortations 1. A serious Examination of the present state of youth whether they are still vain or no urged p. 99 100 2. They are called to admit Directions answerable to their present Condition 1. A Call to young people still vain with Directions and Arguments for their present casting off their Vanity from p. 100 to 110. 2. Advice proper for such young Ones as are serious from p. 110 to 121. A plain youths Catechism from p. 110 to the end Ecclesiast ch 11. v. 10. last clause Childhood and Youth are Vanity THis present Meeting is for the spiritual advantage of you Children and young People Your good we Ministers must intend and it s 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 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. it s 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 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 in all his mirth even in