broken up in a tragick amazement The end of that mirth is coming fast enough and it will be heaviness The sore of your Conscience will shortly gâ—ngrene if it be not timely dressed and bound up in the Balsom of Christs blood The World will quickly fail you and be as worthless dust under your feet Your Friends now so dear to you and you to them shall suddenly go their way to their long home and leave you to follow their cold clay as Mourners to their Grave And that which knâ—cks still nearer at your door your life it self is continually spending upon the quick stock the oyl hourly consuming in the Lamp and your pleasing guest so dearly desired to stay with you tied up by an higher hand to a very short space of time allowed only as a way faring man to visit you and must be you never so unwilling hasten on his journey quit his lodgings anâ— be gone again fâ—om you Think not that you shall escâ—pe that you shall be excused because young the dead shall stand the small as well as the great before the Lord. And your death is already upon its march towards you and shall arrest you it may be at unawares telling you ripe or unripe the Sickle must now be put in and you cut up and carried before the Lord. Oh Young Man what wilt thou do in that solemn day Then will grace be needed then will the necessity and worth of it be better understood than now it is Prepare oh prepare to meet thy God Now it may be thy Conscience is not yet setled upon its lees or seared through long custome in sinning which yet it too soon may be Thy Heart is yet as the heart of Iosiah tender and even melting within thee As yet the World with its distracting cares is not crept in to hinder or overcharge thee Hitherto the holy Spirit of grace even striveth with thee Dost thou know indeed Or hast thou seriously considered what this season is what all these things mean and at what pass thy present condition stands Oh be perswaded to use means in time before the disease get too strong an head Physitians tell us on the one hand Of all Physick that is the hopeful Physick that is timely taken And experience tells us as sadly on the other hand it is hard hard indeed to turn out sin when it hath been once suffered to settle and strengthen it self by long connivance and entertainment Oh! let not time wait all the day long in vain upon thee oh let not the Spirit of the Lord as in the daies of the old world strive in vain with thee Whomsoever thou deniest deny not God any thing that he asks thee whatsoever thou refusest refuse not Heaven God is graciously willing with it thy soul may be everlastingly happy by it Return return and live It is well worthy of observation that in the Hebrew the same word that signifies a Chosen person is commonly used throughout the Scripture to signifie also a Young person It seems the Lâ—rd woulâ— have young people a choice people Oh! translate you this Hebraism into English and shew your selves a chosen generation a peculiar people Children as is said in Daniel that may be able to stand before the Lord and King of the whole earth Let others if they needs will be as dross worthless dross which no man values in which no man takes delight But as for you aspire after nobler things Oh! strive for your parts to be as so many vessels of Gold for the praise and service of your Creator Where are now those Isaacks that meditate while they are young Those Iacobs that prize and seek the heavenly blessing betimes Where are now those Solomons that study to know and serve the God of their Fathers Those Obadiahs that fear the Lord from their youth Where are now those Hebrew children that ask their Parents as those in the Law whaâ— mean the Sabbaths and Ordinances of the Lord that they may also keep them Or where shall we now find those Sons of wisdom that being enticed by sinners consent not but refrain their feet from evil courses and keep themselves from the paths of the Destrover Me thinks you should often call to mind the Example of Samuel who ministred and served before the Lord while he was yet but a child You cannot forget the good carriage of those children which so affectionately sung Hosannahs unto Christ. We can truly tell you for your encouragement the Lord ordaineth the Lord accepteth praise out of the mouths of babes and children Whoever quencheth them God will not despise them These are the young mans looking-glasses the young mans patterns and presidents that he should imitate and copy out Oh! let not the memory of such die while you live preserve them alive in your gracious carriage and coâ—versation Neither are other Examples wanting Did you but read the life of that Iosiah of his age King Edward the sixth that Phoenix of his time Prâ—nce Henry that truly noble Lord the young Lord Harrington with many others who blossomed as the Almond tree betimes whose holy and vertuous conversations whose sweet and gracious expressions should be the young mans peculiar study and delight Did you I say but read these or wash your morning thoughts in the serious remembrance of them as that noble Roman chose to wash his hands every morning in that Basin wherein he had the Picture of vertuous Cato in sight afresh before him for his imitation It would even provoke you to be in love with all goodness for their sakes You would even sit down and weep as the Emperour did at the sight of Alexanders Tombe to think how far others have gone in their early years heavenward and you so backward so far yet behind Oh! that you would make it henceforth the real Motto of your youth which was once the Swan-like Song of the dying Martyr None but Christ None but Christ. CHAP. II. The Young Mans Case and Concernments as they now lie before him stated and offered to his consideration YOu have more particularly two great Concerns lying now upon your hand which had need both of them be seriously thought upon and duly provided for before you slip any longer time The one is the wise ordering and improvement of this present life which is commonly spoyled in youth and scarce ever recovered in riper years The other the religious providing for a better which no man can be too diligent in He that is truly faithful in either will be in some measure conscionable in both These hath God joyned together and happy is that man who hath learnt to give each its due and through a well led life with men on earth to pass to a better with God himself hereafter in heaven It will be your wisdome to understand aright the good consistency of both these together That so you may neither on the one hand think hardly of religion
that great and common one so incident both to Writer and Reader A practical neglect after all of any good counsel how usefully soeâ—er given how affectionately soever for present received To the Children and Servants of my dear Neighbours at c. My Christian love with desires of your real welfare in this life and that which is to come Ingenuous Youths UPon whom the eyes of all are justly set observing your present carriage and further waiting what your following years will prove Even a Child though but a child is known by his doings whether his work be pure and whether it be right So early doth nature put forth its inclinations and discover it self May your youth be as the Spring for loveliness your riper years as the Summer for real fruitfulness CHAPTER I. The Introduction or previous Entrance into the ensuing Discourse YOu are now entring a troublesom sinful world and are therein to be pitied You are now upon your great preparations for Eâ—ernity and therein had need be seriously counselled and advised Me thinks I see you just setting forth in your great journey your long journey whence you shall not return a journey which will prove either Heaven or Hell to every one of you in the end How much depends upon this moment it may be you scarce believe you little consider for the present though afterwards your selves shall plainly see this Life hath been but a restless Voyage the World a tempestuous Sea your Bodies the frail Vessels wherein you sail and Time the Charon the Boatman to wast you over these Waters and set you upon another shore delivering you up there as the Souldiers in the Acts presented Paul before your Judge the Supream Judge of all Flesh in order to your final and solemn Trial. It is on this great Errand of God and of your Souls that these present Lines are sent unto you You will I hope both willingly and seriously peruse them A wise Son heareth Instruction but the scorner causeth shame It is a kindness to shew the wandring Child the way to his Fathers house and truly I have greatly desired amongst many other cares justly incumbent upon me as I am able to further you heaven-ward and to prepare your hearts while you are yet young as a generation for the Lord. Your natures are too easily disposed to receive evil impressions Satan sees it and wâ—tches be times to forestall your tender minds therewithall It must be our care early to recommend and your duty readily to comply with better things that as the yielding â—ax you may now receive those impressions of God and goodness upon your spirits which may become some step toward your happy sealing up to the day of redemption Accept then I pray you of this plain Paper it is the best Token I have to send And Oh! that through the blessing of the Lord it may prove a good Token for you to receive It is sadly evident that many too many losing their tender their first years in conclusion lose their souls also And it is as undoubtedly certain that gracious Counsel however hardly thought of by most might be â—o the young man the best Guide of his Youth to preserve him from the paths of the Destroyer Consider what is laid before you and the Lord give you understanding in all things Our own true welfare we may freely grant is and justly ought to be the desire of all the right way to it iâ— known or understood of very few Iâ— was the sad observation of the wiseâ— of men The labour of the foolish wearieth him as well it may because he knoweth not how to go to the City Mercy is not miss'd because it is not sought but because men will not be perswaded to seek it where alone it may be found Most men spend their choice and precious daies in a vain shaddow and go down in the end thereof to everlasting sorrows You have the world now before you your own mercy or misery yet to choose and be you sure as you now choose so shall you speed hereafter Oh! be your own true friends and choose ye that which is good while it may be obtained and that good part shall never be taken from you You are now Flowers in their bloom Your Friends delight your Countries hope It lieth very much in your Sphere to be either a crown of rejoycing to them or to bring down their gray hairs with sorrow to the grave You are those first Fruits those green ears of corn which should be offered to the Lord. For his sake for your own sakes for your Parents â—nd Counâ—â—iâ—s sikes embrace your own mercies your own true good before your Sun be set and your hopes cut off for ever Others have been sometimes young as you now are and cannot be altogether strangers to the young mans heart the young mans thoughts and waies It is very likely your vain minds will be easily now taken with vain things But observe if they be not still secretly afraid meditating terrour and crying out I shall one day be called to a strict account for all this In this suspence it may be you may stick long not able to joy much in the waies of sin nor yet fully willing to leave them and seek the Lord. Sometimes faintly praying and yet inwardly shrinking back and still loth to receive indeed the grace that you seem to 1 pray for As the Father freely confessed the prayers of his youth had also been I said indeed with my lips Lord I give and yet in my heart I was too willing to give longer day and could have said Lord pray not yet I was even afraid lest thou shouldst hear me too soon and too soon heal and subdue my corruption for me Thus is the mind for a time like the wavering scales rising and falling going and coming ere it can settle with the true poize and weight If Satan in this conflict prevails your slavish fears will wretchedly degenerate and grow worse turning into an inward hatred of God and his good waies a disdainful loathing of Gods people a continual backwardness to your own duty Which God of his mercy prevent But if through grace you be enabled to overcome you will find your fears clearing up unto more kindliness and a willingness on your part to retain them still you will find gracious desires springing up by them Oh! that God would pardon my sin Lord give me Christ or else I dye From thence by tender steps which I have not time now to express will God lead you and will not forsake you or despise the dâ—y of your small things And oh that you may be thus led by the hand of the Lord till you both see and receive the blessed reward of the righteous the salvation of your souls Think not that your present condition your present pleasures will last long No no as Adonijahs feast these banquets will soon be
wherein every creature so justly oweth it self to glorifie that God which gave you your life and breaâ—h You came hither as the sick man unâ—o change of air for recovery and cure You came hither to imploy an immortal soul in the study of Eternity and in a spirit of enlargement and nobleness to look after those future things which shortly shall come to pass In plainest terms You came hither to settle the great case of your Souls heaven-ward on such solid terms that neither the troubles of life nor the very stroke of death should ever hereafter be able to amaze you You came hither to seek the Lord and his face reconciliation and communion with him whom you must enjoy or dye and fall for ever Oh dear Youths these are the great ends of life if you can apply your tender minds too tender I fear to close far with such ponderous matters yet these and no less than these are the sacred ends of life and your just duty if you can receive it And who indeed can have the heart to refuse or wave the righteous pleasure of the Lord herein Is it worth the time to design so earnestly as most do such inferiour things as Honours Estates and Friends here And shall it not much more become us to rouze up our minds to nobler things things worth the thoughts worthy of the cares of an immortal Soul How we may most silially and fully serve the glory of our great Creator How we may most surely escape the snares of death And in the end inherit the long long'd for crown of life If others can find no better imployment than with Claudius Souldiers to gather Cockles or with the poysonous Spider to make sorry traps to catch silly worthless Flies in If they will needs as too too many daily do with the Serpent go upon their belly and lick the dust unworthily chaining down an heaven-born spirit to poor unsutable and earthly things Yet let them be no Presidents unto you Call you upon your souls as that holy man did to remember their Country and Kindred above God hath given you the wings of nobler desires heavenward oh clip not those golden wings but make your flight as thâ— Dove unto the Arke Walk you in Gods name in the way that is most excellent and covet you the best things Thirdly You have now understood both where you are and what you have to do It â—ests still thirdly that you carefully consider by what true means these great ends are to be at length attained and enjoyed The glory of God the glory of God it is most mens language few mens care The persecutor in Isaiah could say Let God be glorified when he for his part went about whatever he could by his bitterness against Gods people to dishonour him Heaven and happiness are easily pretended to but not so easily enjoyed Neglect and slightiness in the means of our salvation is the Epidemical disease here we commonly stumble and fall Most men could soon be perswaded to like of the end but they can fearce away with the means Well the câ—se is however stated unalterably to our hands whether we like or like it not Our way of coming to the blessed favour of God and oh that our hearts may be solemn indeed in these solemn things our way I say again is that new and living way by Christ and the Covenant of free grace He is the way the truth and the life no man cometh to the Father but by him Our way unto any sweet communion with the Lord or consequently glory in the end for our own dear souls is by the real renewing of our inner man and sound conversion toward God For what communion thinks any man is light likely to have with darkness Or what fellowship if we will needs remain in our sins can Christ have with Belial We are now come to the great knot that sore difficulty wherein your present thoughts should be so justly taken up whereupon the Crisis and decision of your future state so certainly will depend Oh! that the Lord may please to bring you under the bond of his Covenant and make you partakers of this great this blessed and honourable change from nature to grace from the power of Satan to the Kingdom of God Knowledge and education may make an external Professor But it is only Regeneration that makes a true Christian. Conversion we may all with blushing confess with many it is plainly despised with most it is secreâ—ly disregarded as a matter of great and deep thoughts of heart and so we set up the exteriour profâ—ssion of the name of God without any serious travel in it But this will serve no mans turn it is a truth shall live when we are dead No Regeneration no Salvation Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God This is that ingrafting of the wild branch into the good Olive that it may bring forth better fruit This is as the first Resurrection unto life which must forerun any ascension unto glory This is that fresh and lively drawing of the glorious Image of God upon those dark hearts which lay before as the Earth in its first Chaos void and without form or beauty Oh! that men would forbear their hard thoughts and censures of God and the sweet workings of his grace There may be many weaknesses even in gracious hearts according to the frailty of humane nature while they are under the hand of God in the transacting of this great and unusual work There may and will be sore throwes and pangs accompanying of it whereever it is truly wrought But still these things need not be matter of reviling matter of distaste or discouragement unto any What God himself sowes is here sown in weakness And as for the thing it self this new birth this new life this renewing of the inward man must indispensably and certainly be if we desire any part or place in that new Ierusalem which is above This is the very posture of things before you these are those ancient Land-marks which none may remove What oh what manner of persons then ought you to be What continual and serious care are you obliged henceforth to take lest you should do the work of the Lord and your own souls slightly CHAP. III. Counsel and Advice propounded for the right Guidance and Improvement of the Young Mans present Condition to his Own and Others Solid Comfort YOu cannot now account as too many do gracious Counsel in the Lord either needless or burdensom No no it is as an excellent Oyle that needs break no mans head The needful and happy Clue to carry us through all our present Labyrinths The true Index of a sweet and hopeful disposicion So saies the Historian shall any man become surely eminent and prosperous if he be deliberate and willing to steer his course by the compass of Good Counsel It is the neglect of this that
casts so many sad shipwracks upon the shore Headiness rusheth on and is confident but never prospereth There are and will be those heart breaking grones in another world which may justly endear good Counsel to us while we have a day to live How have I will the poor damned one day say how have I hated instruction and my heart despised reproof Dear Youths stop not your ear as the deaf Adder to the instructions of wisdom let them be unto you as the weights to the Clock that set it into an orderly motion of going As the welcome friendly gales of wind which carry the ship that might otherwaies have lain becalmed the fairer the faster and straiter toward its desired haven It is a spur to quicken our pace a guide to direct our way which the wise in heart will esteem as the Poet of old A sacred thing of great safety and usefulness to all The Counsels and requests I have now more particularly to lay before you for the guidance of your youth are of a twofold nature 1. The first relating more immediately to Religion between God and your own souls 2. The other to your relative condition and converse which you are entring into here with men Though therein also Religion is still greatly concerned In both I shall endeavour all plainess and practicalness and not to cast in matters of doubt and division Such things are at any time more ready to humour the wrath of man than to work the righteousness of God The Temple is then best built when there is the least noise of knocking oâ— hammers heard about it It will be your part and that which God himself will look for at your hands not barely to read or to rest your selves in the verbal commendation of pious truths which nature is very desirous to sit down upon as they on this side Iordan and go no farther toward the Holy Land you are to compose your selves forthwith to enter upon the real practice of the good will of God concerning you And oh that the Lord who alone teacheth to profit would please to give these sorry Lines any place of abode in your hearts to your souls just furtherance and edification in the Lord. In the great Concernments of Religion as Man is far the noblest Creature in the world So is Religion still the highest enoblement that he is possibly capable of A right understanding in it a wise and cordial consistency with it that we may not in effect dishonour what we seem to respect by an undue professing of it these are mercies of an high nature and come only from the Father of lights The heart that is thus upright with God carries alwaies a great presence and blessing with it The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth and he will shew himself strong in behalf of those whose hearts are thus perfect toward him We may here safely sing with the Psalmist Blessed is every one be he never so mean otherwaies that feareth the Lord and thus walketh in his waies The Heathen though wandring in too much darkness have yet usually had so high a sense of this as ascribe all their welfare to their fidelity and care in their Religion Thus the great Orator even boasteth of his Romans that it was neither their Policy nor their Strength but their Piety which became the advancement of their Nation Lo here how they who had not the Law became yet a Law to themselves oh let us be provoked to a better emulation by them But I shall endeavour to be yet more particular with you that you may not on either hand as too many in these perillous daies are sadly sound to do miscarry in these tremendous matters of Religion First then Entertain from your youth up pious and reverent thoughts of God live in the constant acknowledgement of him in â—ll your waies let your hearts dwell in the religious sense of his Deity his Holiness and Omnisciency and they shall lay a divine weight upon both heart and life It is a fundamental principle which God himself stands much upon He that cometh to God must believe that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him In the Old Testament we read The fool and never any but the fool hath said in heart there is no God And in the New Testament the Apostle tels us of some that were without God in the world Not that God intends to let them so escape and pass away No no though they would have nothing â—o do with God God hath yet something to do with them but the Scripture thus records them for practical Atheists against God because they care not to know or interest themselves by true grace in him But as for you see that you set the Lord alwaies at your right hand lest at â—ny time you offend agâ—inst him Live continually as in his sight for the truth is you and all your waies are naked and open before him Harbour not that thought in your mind venture not upon that action though never so seemingly secret in your life which you would be ashamed to own or avouch as yours before the Lord. Still meditate the Omnisciency and greatness of the presence in which we alwaies all of us are and how all our present waies will we â—ill we must one â—ay abide the touchstone of â— publick â—id at the Bar of God Choose him in your Youth and he shall be a God â—ll-sufficient unto you through your wâ—oâ—e life Yet rest not your selves too much on this general reverence toward God but modestly press after the most particular and filial knowledge of him You may freely 〈◊〉 as Moses without offence I beseech thee shew me thy glory He is that God in whom you live and have your being the God of all your mercies and good things with whom if ever you become happy you are to live to all Eternity You cannot sure you cannot but holily desire the utmost acquaintance before hand with him How earnestly how affectionately was this pious study recommended in the Primitive times Their Language me thinks might even enflâ—me us I testifie saies Lactantius I proclaim it as far as ever I can make this voice of mine to be heard I declare to all the world that this is our great Maxime and Principle the true Knowledge and Worship of God it is the just sum of all Wisdom This this is that the Philosophers so anxiously sought afâ—er but poor men they groped in the dark and could never find it Dear Youths you are willing to learn and gain acquaintance with men Oh! be ye not strangers unto God I commend and leave it with you under this great assurance It would most certainly become life eternal to any of you thus to know the only true God and him whom he hath sent Iesus Christ. Secondly Let
Christian saies the Father then and then only shews himself worthy of his Christian name when he walks in his Conversation Christianly By this shall men know that we like our Religion indeed that we account the Lord faithful and his righteous waies worth our careful walking in The Gospel deserves it men expect it we should fulfil it All people are ready enough and will walk every one in the name of his God and let us also though upon better grounds walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever But alas herein Christianity covers its face sits down with tears upon its cheeks and bewailes it self as one neglected too much neglected on all hands Me thinks I hear its groanes as in the Lamentations Is it nothing to you oh all you that pass by You that are called Christians and which is yet more you that have come forth as Protestants from the Corruptions of former Ages that ye might as Israel going out of the Land of Egypt the better serve the Lord when oh when shall wisdom be practically justified of these her children The profane man doth the Devils work with all his might he runs violently to the utmost excess of riot The worldly man his heart taketh not its rest in the night he is drudge enough and enough to the world for the recompence he is ever like to have from it These spare no pains but act like themselves too true to their principles such as they are where-ever they come But oh the professors of the everlasting Gospel how do they faint in the head of the Streets How cold and weak are they How sparing and slow to adorn the Doctrine of God and our Saviour With Ananias and Saphira we keep backpart of the price We offer the form but too often withhold the power Oh Sirs if we have judged Religion worth professing let us also judge it worth the practizing It may be our care and labour of love may one day be found as a sweet memorial before the Lord. Dear Youths You will meet with many it may be possing a Iehu's pace in the Opinions and Traditions of men for indeed a carnal forwardness in such things whether on the right hand or on the left costs us not much it is self-grown nature can afford it But oh Lord how rare a thing doth it still remain to find an Hezechiah that can testifie upon his death-bed in what uprightness he hath walked before the Lord all his life Israel may be as the sand by the Sea-shore for common profession but these will still be too near the Lords reckoning One of a City and two of a Tribe that is very few Wherefore I will even entreat you to revive that sweet Inscription which was once engraven upon Aarons breast-plate oh Copy it out fair in your lives and be ye Holiness to the Lord. Let this be your kindness to that sacred Name of God by which you are called not to leave it as too many do subject to everyones reproach by the carelesness of your carriage but by the cleanness and vertuousness of your deportment whatever you can to make it a praise in the Earth Sixthly When at any time your tender hearts shall be desirous to refresh and ease themselves from the sorrows of this life Evermore go to God and the sweet comforts of Religion This was the solemn counsel and farewel the Jews were wont to leave with their dearest Friends when most overwhâ—lmed with sadness We wish you as the best Cordial the comforts of heaven We might herein not without just indignation say as Elijah once did Is it because there is no God in Israel that men send to Baal-Zebub the God of Ekron Is it because the All-sufficient God is become as an empty Vine that there is such hurrying after the world and its fading comforts The provocation and indignity that is herein offered to the Lord is exceeding high it is in effect a denying of that God that is above Oh that men would not deal so dishonourably by Religion That whereunto we appeal for our future salvation in the name of God let us therewith consist for our present consolation It was from hence the Martyrs drew all their joyes They justly might and did thank the Lord for it that their Prisons were to them as Palaces their chains as so many bracelets of Gold It was Religion that feasted them in their dungeons that enabled them to write so cheerfully to their Friends as many of them did I am in the esteem of men in hell for outward misery But I am in my own sense as in heaven for all inward comfort in the Lord. And it is from hence that we also if we be not wanting to our selves may as well draw waters of joy for our souls out of the Wells of salvation Dear Children be perswaded whenever you have occasion in the day of your sadness to make use of Religion it may be you may find it your best comforter in the whole world Cheerfulness is indeed that Mannah which nature is so desirous as oft as may be to taste of and God is as freely willing that we should have it He hath provided that for us Ioy is sown for the righteous And he hath invited us to that Rejoyce in the Lord ye righteous and shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart You may soon find in the Lord all apposite and sutable comforts for every condition There is an estate for the poor strength for the weak a Father for the Fatherless pardon for the bleeding sinner healing for the broken in heart a better world for those that are graciously weary of this immortality and blessedness for all that choose and love it Heaven and happiness so transcendent so glorious that we may modestly say the heavens which we here behold are but as earth without form and beauty in comparison of that Heaven of heavens which God hath appointed for the everlasting rest the true home and habitation of his people Such a God and such comforts are enough when ever we are to walk through the valley of the shadow of death we need fear no evil these joyes of the Lord may be an everlasting strength unto us There can be no affliction so sad but you may arise and lead your captivity captive You may make the proudest of them as Adonibezek serve under your Table Or as Tamberlane did by his conquered foes make them draw at your Chariot wheels and serve to the encrease of your triumph Let the fiercest Lion come against you when it will you as Sampson may overcome it and may propose it as your Christian Riddle that out of the eater the most devouring affliction can you fetch meat Religion allows all its true followers to rejoyce in the very face of tribulations knowing that they how unlikely soever yet work for us a far more exceeding eternal weight of
eye that it should not rove after vanity He knows the heart is weak and too prone to be drawn away by it He hears of some that have eyes full of adultery that cannot cease from sin the sad character of too many but he desires to feast his on the good Word of God and then without rowling to or fro to look straight forward and to ponder the path of his feet He sets the like guard upon all his other Senses remembring the sage â—though almost Paradoxal counsel of the Ancients Shut up those five windows that the house may shine the clearer and the noble Inhabitant the soul may rest the safer He then wisely withholds making provision â—or the flesh Lest giving lust its baits it should become as the Sons of Zervia too hard for him Fulness of bread and idleness were Sodoms sins and all unnatural leudness was by and by Sodoms shame Strange and light attire it is to him a thing needless to provide it burdensome to mind it and when all this is done disgraceful to wear it He hath heard the Ancients much condemn it and he doth not desire it But above all he chargeth his heart that it should not dare to dally with any lustful thoughts though never so secretly Sin is sin in the root as well as in the fruit in the thoughts as truly as in the actions and Sâ—tan will soon grow bolder If he once gets footing so far as the heart he will scâ—rce be so modest as to stay long there The fire once kindled there will quickly break out further Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak the hands will act and will noâ— be restrained Or however his danger is still the same where sin seeks most for shelter in the secret chambers of the heart there even there Gods searchers come most God will have the secretest Cabinet opened Where his sins burn most the eye of God shall find him out The unclean person may take it as a Mene Tekel written upon the wall for him I the Lord search the heart and try the reins to give unto every man according to his waies and according to the fruit of his doings Finally He concludes as we all likewise justly may that our bodie ought to bâ— the Temples of the Holy Ghost If he could break away from other considerations and set light by them yet the dread of God comes in and curbs him with this tremendous warning in his ear If any man shall deâ—ile the Temple of God that man shall God destroy Oh Sirs it is no deceiving our selves or dallying with sin God cannot be mocked 9. One that wisely laies up all the memorable experiences and observations of his Youth for the better instruction of his riper years These are that good Treasure so well worth our gathering the safest and trusty guides of life The Eleazars the faithful servants with which the most tender mind as Rebeccah is very inclinable to go along It is by them that so many Arts and honourable Attainments have been hatched up and brought by degrees to any maturity Books and bare reading may render us nicely witty and ingenuous for airy discourse but it is still left to further experience to settle and furnish us out more solidly for real affairs We may reckon and not misreckon neither as Affranius the old Poet in hiâ— famous Inscription upon the doors where the Roman Senators so frequently met If Wisdom be the Child Experience seems the Parent that brought it forth and Memory the Mother in whose bosome it rests and still lies It runs much in all our minds naturally to say as he in the Gospel Except I see I will not believe Knowledge it seems must come in by the broad gates of the Senses ere it can have its access to the mind or any private audience in those inward Chambers The ingenuous Young Man hears all this And what Historians tell us was ingraven of old upon Plato's Seal he is freely willing it should be the sententious Motto of his Arms Experience when all is done is the great Governess that beareth the best rule in all things And therefore that he might not lose the surest means for his good information or live upon trembling uncertainties all his daies he agrees heartily with himself to get the best and â—ullest satisfaction that he can as an eye-witnâ—ss in all things And therein resolves more particularly 1. To keep a Diary and just account of all the sore judgments of God upon wicked men in his time For they are indeed as the severity of God upon Shiloe as devouring flames upon our neighbours house and may well be a near warning to us They are as the stroke upon the two first Captains and their Fifties that we might fall upon our faces and say Oh my Lord let my life be precious in thy sight I will henceforth fear and not dare to do thus presumptuously 2. Of all the Lords tender mercies toward his faithful servants The hidden Mannah wherewith he inwardly so often feasts them The manifold sweet outward deliverances wherein he so remarkably in their greatest straights owns them Which makes him cry out as the Queen of Sheba Blessed are these thy servants oh Lord Happy are they that are in such a case whose God is the Lord. Oh! that I may be also as one of those upon whom thine eyes are thus for good continually 3. He is as desirous to preserve the Register of all the Lords dealings by him in particular and whatever befals him from his Youth Herein the Lord plainly chargeth him as Moses of old adjured the Israelites Thou shalt well consider in thine heart and remember all the way that I have hitherto led thee to try thee and to prove thee that thou mightst in the following part of thy life know and acknowledge the God of all thy mercies Dear Children these things I commend unto you with the utmost Cordialness that I am able He is a Scholar indeed that is Gods Scholar and he learns indeed that meditates in the Works as well as in the Word of God Here you may see all things as in a glass before you Here you may gather every one of you a little History of your own wiâ—h great delight and profit Be oh I pray be you truly careful herein and it shall be a sweet means to make you wise in your Generation as men to establish you in a great composure of Spirit in all your profession as Christians 10. One that willingly bears in mind that great Memonto which the Lord hath so particularly given in charge to Young People Rejoyce oh Young Man â— if so thou darest and thine heart can serve thee to sport securely in thine own ruine but know that for all these things God will bring thee into judgement This is that day that shall come as a snare
and nobleness cuts off â—iâ— right hand and plucks out his right eye for Christs sake this oh â— this is the true Disciple indeed We may say here as God once said of Abraham By this we know that he feareth God seeing he hath not withheld his dearest his darling Isaac from him Oh! be you perswaded to turn â—way your eyes from bosome vanities Set your greatest watch where you â—ie in greatest danger Flee youthful â—usts but follow after righteousness Fourthly Take heed yet further â—hat you neglect not your day of grace Let Esaus loss be your warning Time was when he carelesly slighted that which afterwards he sought with tears with bitter tears but sound no place for repentance Such tears you will see dropping from many eyes another day There are two Rocks whereat most miscarry in this matter 1. By slumâ—ering and taking no notice of Gods call 2. By faint promises which never ripen to performance Take you great heed of both Concerning the first There are those golden opportunities of mercy wherein the Lord seeks to save that which is lost I gave her saies God a space to repent This great gift it may be the Lord in much mercy sets before you And your selves are best privy to those choice seasons wherein the Lord comes upon this great occasion and knocks at your door Sometimes by Sickness sometimes by Parental Counsel sometimes by more publick Ordinances sometimes by his more remarkable divine judgments upon sinners While the Lord is thus speaking to you your hearts as those Disciples even burn within you your very Souls telling you it is the voice of Christ graciously calling you to repentance Oh! seek the Lord while he may be found True opportunity in most cases is a rare thing and comes but seldom but had need be imbraced with both hands when it comes It will be too late said the Ancients to tender our Sacrifice when the appointed time is past and gone Behold this is the day of your visitation oh that it may prove the day of your regeneration and true acquaintance with the things of your everlasting peace Your Father your Master calls you in the Morning and you arise and go about his work Well Sirs let me also counsel you as Eli once counselled Samuel listen diligently and it shall come to pass if the Lord thy God shall thus call thee thou shalt answer Speak Lord for thy servant heareth Concerning the second our evasions and procrastinations with the Lord we must all freely confess delaies and faint promises for the future they are but the artificial excuses of an unwilling mind for the present Like the goodly words of the Son in the Parable that saies but never goes into the Fathers Vineyard How piously did St. Austine bemoan the treachery of his own heart for a due warning to all posterity in this matter I begged saies he longer day promising presently Lord By and by have but a little patience with me and I will come But oh saies he that Presently lingred beyond all bounds of modesty and this By and by proved a long day and loth to come Dear Youths if these vows of the Lord be upon you defer not to pay them And cast not your selves by delaies upon that sad Dilemma That your own Promises should be as your hand-writing to the Obligation and yet your Conversation render you guilty of non-payment Fifthly Take heed yet again of the sins of the Times wherein you live All Ages all Places have their peculiar reigning sins And most men will needs vainly follow the present fashion in sins as well as cloaths though they lose their very souls by it These last daies are the sad receptacle of almost all precedent corruptions The Lord himself hath told us they are and will be very perillous daies Daies wherein that undesirable thing Sin will every where too much abound Nature the Satyrist could long ago observe grows now in its old age very degenerous we had need watch to the utmost and keep our garments The Boat usually goes full of Passengers and carries multitudes down the stream with it And who so in the fear of God or love of righteousness departeth from the iniquity of the times that man maketh himself a prey in the gate Aristides his justice costs him his life and Socrates his fidelity to one only as the true and living God in the rage of a giddy multitude procured his death So dangerous alwaies is it to dissent from present times be they never so vicious But as for you my Friendsâ— be ye careful indeed you oppose no man wilfully but be ye still as careful that you follow no man in evil courseâ—s wickedly It was not without cause told us The whole world as now it is lieth in wickedness And if any man will be the friend of this world he enters that friendship upon very hard terms he must thereupon become the enemy of God So difficult and even impossible is it for any man to serve two Masters In these sore straights Young Man what wilt thou do Before thou resolvest to sin with the world now seriously ask thine heart this one question Canst thou be content to fare as the world fares to be condemned and suffer with it hereafter Ungodly men will wonder it will be a piece of strange and amazing news that others run not with them to the same excess of riot that others are not vile and vain as well as they but you are Travellers whatever others do on the right hand or on the left you must not turn aside but mind your journey The Nations might do as they would by their Idolls but Moses plainly tells Israel The Lord their God had not suffered them to deal so by him Not durst Ioshah soon after judge the Iews strange uncertainty his sufficient excuse or security If saies he it seems evil in your eyes and the case is there hard indeed where the righteous service of the Lord seems evil to any yet saies Ioshuah however I and mine are bound to serve the Lord. Noah had perished in the waters if times had carried him Lot had burnt in Sodom if the Multitude had swayed with him The sins of times Gods people may alwaies be pious mourners for them but never profane practicers of them Be ye whatever others are righteous in your generation before the Lord. Sixthly Take heed yet further that you enter not upon Religion at first superficially slightily or carnally Religion is solemn and had need be solemnly and reverently approached unto Mistakes here are very easily run into but more hardly redressed the forest mistakes in the whole world And yet saies the Father there is scarce any thing more common then for men to deceive their own souls and go as the Prophet expresseth it with a lie in their right hand all their daies Their Religion they judge is good and they
you Factious they are it may be loâ—h you should be Superstitious but still they would have you Pious See then Sweet Youths I how little of real discouragement lies before you Your nearest Friends are ready to say unto you as once Cyrus to the trembling and willing Iews Go up and the Lord your God be with you Be ye then I pray you toward God Children of great willingness toward your Parents blameless and without rebuke drawing the love of all unto you in the Families wherin you dwell CHAP. XI The Conclusion of the whole by way of Exhortation ANd now what hinders but that all this might be willingly imbraced faithfully practised the life of grace cordially espoused and your Souls for ever saved Your Friends they desire it Your own everlasting welfare is bound up in it And God himself from Heaven calls unto you for it What answer can you now tender but as Christ in the Psalms Loe I come to do thy will oh God! Concluding with the Father He were justly worthy to be cut off by death that should refuse on such sweet terms to close with a gracious life Oh! require not the Lord and your own Souls so unkindly Give not your years to vanity nor your precious time to that which will not comfort in the end Sins in Youth will most certainly become sorrows in Age. It is usually said Youth laies in and Age lives upon it The one sows the other reaps Oh! sow that now which may be worth the reaping afterwards How loth would you be to have your own life now become your death hereafter To have the foolish sins of your Youth to stand between you and your everlasting real happiness Your present vain pleasures made your arraignment your condemnation your utter undoing in the day of Judgement This would prove like the Roman Souldiers Grapes short pleasures sorry pleasures joyless pleasures dearly bought and dearly paid for Thus might you feather the Arrow that wounds you from your own wing and in the end sit down with that sad number who all the year long sigh over this doleful note For a few short pleasures have we purchased to our selves innumerable and everlasting torments Well however I pray know you cannot be so slighty so careless now but you shall be as solemn and perplexed then Sin cannot please so much in the commission but it will torment far more when it comes to be suffered for and the Sinner to be brought forth to execution Go Christless before the Lord and there shall be no Parent there able or willing to countenance you no excuse there to be made for you no hope no comfort left in your own consciences to relieve you Oh! treasure not up to your selves wrath against that day that dreadful day of wrath How tremendous and heart-piercing are the Examples which God hath set as so many flaming swords before you that you might take timely warning and not rush upon your own destruction Ishmael scoffs at Religion and is cast out of his Fathers house and the house of God for ever Absalom proves rebellious against his Parents and shortens his own life untimely by it The Children mock the Prophet and die under the fierce anger of the Lord while they are doing of it I tell you Sirs God will be avenged of Children as well as Elder people of poor of rich of any if they shall dare to sin against him Let not the Devil deceive you oh slatter not your selves These things hath God written for the particular admonition of young people and will expect that you should bear them in mind Oh! lay such memorials upon your hearts and receive instruction from them But if after all any of you should be secretly unwilling and all this counsel from the Lord should be a burden and weariness unto you you must then once more go with me to the door of the Tabernacle that I may there reason further with you before the Lord. And truly I must now even heartily chide with you Oh Sirs do but consider what you do How unreareasonable how unrighteous it is How unanswerable how unsafe it is like to prove Will you have Bibles and will you not believe them Will you be called Christians and will you live like Heathens Have you immortal souls shining with such bright raies of the sacred Image of God upon them and will you needs wilfully damn them Hath God given you religious Parents tender of you as of the apple of their own eye and will you not be counselled by them Are you resolved to be a shame to your Friends in Life and a terrour to your selves in Death Can it possibly enter into your minds to think that ever any good will come of sinful courses Or that ever you should have cause to repent your selves of any thing heartily done in obedience to the Commands of God for the good of your Souls Hath God solemnly sworn The soul that sinneth be he who he will that soul shall die and can you suppose he will break his word for you Can you so much as imagine that the most holy God who is a God of pure eyes and hateth iniquity can you any way encourage your selves to hope that he will open Heaven Gates at the last day to the impenitent to the ungodly who scorn their duty who slight their mercy Do you expect a new day of Grace when this is gone that you make such waste of your present time Do you think everlasting burnings are so easily undergone that you make such slow haste to flee from the wrath that is to come Is it not enough that you were born in iniquity but you will stubbournly die in your sins also Nay then Ichabod Ichabod your glory and our hopes are both departed Sons of Belial against all the sweet counsels of God to the contrary will you needs wretchedly make your selves Children as the word too sadly imports that have broken the yoke becoming henceforth altogether unprofitable both to your selves and others never likely to emerge or rise more to any glory Then may Satan justly enough take up his taunt and triumph as the Father represents it He a Servant of thine No Lord It is my work that he all the day does it is my sinful motions he chiefly delights in There can be no plea made for him He is whatever he may vainly think of himself not thine but mine Yea then your Parents though loth such words should ever come from them will be enforced to cry out How have we brought forth to the grave and our breasts given suck to the Destroyer Then may Davids mourning be heard again in their Tents Oh Absalom my Son my Son how art thou fallen and dying as the sinful dieth in the crimson guilt the bloudy gore of all thy sins At these sad rates are the righteous counsels of the Lord rejected and set at nought But ere we thus part I
pray know It is no less than Life or Death that now stands before you waiting for your Yea or Nay It is so small or inferiour matter of little moment of light consequence that you are now to give your answer in It is Heaven it is Eternal life I need say no more it is your own happiness for ever and ever how can you turn your backs upon it Yea further know there have been those among the poor Heathens that never durst think thus lightly of sin as you do They alwaies held it the greatest evil and the sorrows of it the heaviest sorrows in the whole world There have been tender hearted Ninevites that have come to God at one call and gladly closed with their own mercy And there yet are at this day how backward soever you may be thousands filially returning as the Prodigal with tears of joy to their Fathers house longing for him and welcome to him going where there is what they and you likewise want Bread of life and change of Rayment that you might be cloathed Oh why should you stand out against such sweet mercy and harden your selves so unnaturally to your own destruction You might yet further know though it will be sad enough to know it there is never a Companion of yours with whom you have now sinned but shall be ready to witness against you Never a leaf in all your Bible but shall be enough to condemn you Ministers Parents Friends and Foes shall all come forth against you And oh how cutting will it be to be made a spectacle of scorn to God to Angels and to Men How wounding to thy astonished heart to become an everlasting By word upbraided of all pitied of none It is the condition will they say that he hath long ago deserved and let him bear it This as an holy man rightly observed will make thy load and burden heavy indeed Yea God himself who here hath wooed and so often so long even waited to be gracious shall then set every sin in order before you and make your guilty Consciences with everlasting blushings to own them Then saies the Father shall it be said in the audience of Heaven and Earth Behold the man and all that ever he did let it be had in everlasting remembrance whether it be good or whether it be evil Then shall your selves also look back upon that dear Salvation that you have negligently lost that wretched misery that you have wilfully brought upon your selves and sinke down with heart-breaking sighs and horrour at the Bar of Christ. Then may you be ready to take your last leave of all comfort and say Farewell my day of Grace which is now gone and never more to shine upon such a wretch as I am Come in all ye my hainous sins and the bitter remembrance of you The Lord hath sent you to stand as adversaries of terrour round about me Sting as so many fiery Serpents in this bosome of mine and spare not Oh! that you might have leave to make an utter end and rid me out of all my pain Oh how will the tears trickle down to see the Lord so gracious so loving to others and yet so justly severe and full of indignation towards you To see those that prayed while you slept that so willingly kept the Lords Sabbaths while you as constantly profaned them to see those that â—â—isely redeemed that time which you so lavishly wasted to see those very persons so well known to you it may be your near acquaintance in the Kingdom of God and your selves shut out Then though never till then will the heart that hath held out as long as ever it could begin to falter and fail Then shall the lips break forth with that righteous acknowledgment I am undone undone for ever and my destruction is of my self Oh my dear Friends my bowels even yearn for you Hast thou but one blessing oh my Father bless our Young People even them also that they may turn to thee and live But I cannot thus leave you My Errand I confess is now even done but your duty henceforth to be taken up and still carefully carried on I may justly say of this whole Letter as once the Roman Oratour well said to his Son It will be of more or less service to you as you make it truly practicable in the sequel of your life Counsel stored by us in Books and neglected in life it is like the coâ— vetous mans bags of Gold which lie wholly dead and no good use made of them Suffer me then once more for greater sureness sake to rehearse my Message again unto you It is you Dear Youths to whom I am as the Father affectionately said in this Paper to apply my self It is you who have yet seen but the third hour of the day with whom the Message whether it lives or whether it dies must now be finally left You are desired in the higest Name that can be used in the Name of the great and most glorious God who made the Heavens and the Earth and gave you that breath you breathe between your Nostrils You are desired in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ who freely shed his precious bloud in a readiness to redeem and cleanse you from all your sins You are desired in this great and dreadful Name and by all the respect you bear unto it to remember your Creator in the daies of your Youth You are desired to strive to enter in at the straight Gate You â—â—e desired to accept the richest the greâ—â—est gift that God himself ever bâ—stows upon any his own dear Son You are desired to be kind to your own Souls and to lay up a good foundation agâ—inst times to come You are desired to come and live with God for ever Dear Youths what do you purpose to do in this great matter These are not Requests to be slighted these are not Requests to be denied Such a capacity for mercy how would the damned prize it oh let not the living set light by iâ— This short moment how meanly soever you may think of it once wretchedly lost and an Age will not recover Eternity it self as long as it is will never restore the like advantages to your souls again And now are you oh are you at length willing to go about this blessed work and become happy for ever if there may be yet any hope in Israel concerning your case Behold the arms of Mercy are open ready to imbrace you whatever is past how unkind how hainous soever God is ready to forgive willing to forget it He calls Heaven and Earth to record if you miscarry let the blame lie where it ought it shall not be his As I live saith the Lord I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that he turn from his wicked way and live Turn ye oh now unweariedly doth the Lord renew his call turn ye from