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 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 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 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 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
the blessed God and is the gratifying thy lusts equal to these You are receptive of divine Joys and are thy carnal 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 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 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. 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 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
vain Answ. Childhood and Youth continue vain for want of a due use of means appointed for 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 't is 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 't is 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 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 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 't was 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 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 'T is 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 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 't is long of God I am vile still 't is long of the want of means that I am vile still Ah Friend Father Son and Spirit can all say 't is not my Fault that this Child is bad still 't is not my Fault this young Man and Woman is wicked so long 't is 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 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 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 it s 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 't is my fault that I am no better for a Christ and no better for the Gospel my Misery is of my own choosing God has taken pains with me but 't is 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 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 't is 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 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
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 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 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 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 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 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 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
to what is evil 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 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 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 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 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
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 1. Believe how had thou art by nature and bewail it before God Oh 't is 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 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 't is 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 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 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 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