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A66355
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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.
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Williams, Daniel, 1643?-1716.
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1691
(1691)
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Wing W2657; ESTC R31018
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71,103
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147
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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 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 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 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 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
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 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 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 'T is an ill practice in Parents to 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 't is just with God that Child should 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 't is 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 not correction from thy Child and he shall not dye Prov. 23.