I as young as I am have to do all this hard work in which is the point I am on Young Man if Death overtake thee thou canst not put it off till thou set about the work thou hast neglected all the cryes in the Word will avail nothing Bethink thee then if Ahijah had not been good betimes he must have been eternally undone so it may be thy Case O Child of ten years old if thou dost not get Grace before thou art a Year older or it may be a Month or Week older thou must dye graceless Doth not the Word tell thee of some who dye in youth and their life is among the unclean Job 6. 14. Shall that be thy Case canst thou bear it be perswaded now to fix thy thoughts on such things as these Shall I Lye or Swear now who may be dead within a Month Dare I prophane this Sabbath who may be dead within a Week yea my next sin may be the last act of my Life How can I live without Christ a day longer when I may dye to Night shall I delay to know and love and fear my God who must do it soon or never I am sure if I do not fear God before I dye Hell will be my place and I am not sure of a Week to attain this Fear of God Did the youngest of you know your frailty you would tremble at delays you would not dare to sin you would blush at your slothfulness in any good Work Oh then hear this Sermon as one that may never hear another Pray the next time as one that may never Pray again When thou art next tempted ask thy self Would I yield to this if I were to dye to morrow Will you believe this and walk as them that believe it even Youth is too uncertain for any wise one to venture to sin or neglect his Salvation as if sure of time to repent and repair his neglects 2. Vanity is taken in a moral sense viz. as it regards the minds and manners thus Eph. 4. 17. the Spirit of God warns us against walking in the Vanity of the Mind Vanity is oft put for all sins 2 Kings 17. 15. several sins are expresly called Vanity and this Name is applyed partly with respect to the Nature of some sins but chiefly from the tendency and consequence of every sinful course Every way of sin is vain and sin deserves the Name of Vanity from this consideration that it is committed to no valuable purpose yea it ends in what is destructive and far worse than meerly unprofitable In this sense I shall improve the Text and it includes these things 1. Young people are prone to many sins that are notoriously vain 2. Young People are apt to live to very low and unprofitable purposes which is Vanity 3. Young People are apt to live to evil and destructive purposes which is the heighth of Vanity Before I enter on these things let me ask you young Folk Is not this a true Charge and is it not as awful a description of your State as true Obj. But how comes this to be laid so universally that all young People are thus vain Ans. 1. Because the generality of young People are vain For one that is sober how many are wild for one that is pious there be many prophane A religious Child is become a wonder Godliness in youthful years is very rare The body of your ordinary young People is sottish the generality of witty Youths are atheistical and irreligious When the Disease is so common the charge is proper as against the whole Ans. 2. All young Persons are inclin'd to be vain Vanity is the Temptation of that Age your Constitution and want of Experience do especially expose you to this mischief though Grace may deliver some of you from the power of Vanity yet it hath not cleansed you from all disposition to Vanity it hangs about you and liveth though restrained Your stumbles will be at this stone and your Faults will be under this head of youthful Vanity Young People you see why the Charge is so common Will you then apply what I shall say to your selves When I describe the Disease say This is my Disease When I propose the Remedy speak to thy Soul This is proper for my Case this is necessary to my Condition Thou Child say I am a Child and therefore apt to be vain Thou young Man say I am a young Man and therefore I am apt to be vain I must deny my Age or own this Charge Nay further reason awfully with your selves Most young People are under the power of Vanity The wicked Youths are a hundred to one that 's pious Oh my Soul what is my Condition is not there more danger that I am one of those hundred wicked ones than that I am that One pious young one I shall now return to consider the three particulars under which I included the Moral Vanity of young People 1. Young People are prone to many sins that are notoriously Vain There be some particular sins that in their Nature argue more Vanity than other sins they inferr a very vain mind in the Persons committing them Young ones have many of these sins and Lusts strongly prompting thereto I shall reduce your sins to eight particulars and give you some Directions under each to help you against that particular sin But remember each of these are sins every sin defileth thy Soul and bindeth thee to undergo the Punishment threatned if it be not repented of and mortified Nor canst thou hope that these sins will be put away unless thou follow the Methods which God hath directed for that end He will not Convert thee as a Bruit that regards nothing thô he must consider thy weakness as a Sinner and therefore exert his Power by the Means thou attendest 1. Young People are subject to Folly The Spirit brands our tender years with this Crime Prov. 22. 15. Folly is bound up in the Heart of a Child Is this limited to Children No A young Man void of understanding is too often seen Prov. 7. 7. This fault is not a want of that Wisdom which is unexpected from your Age But it is such Folly as in your Years might have been healed and it 's made up of blindness and mistakes against that light which God hath afforded you God hath given you reason to govern your selves by you are under the Means of Wisdom whereby you may know your true end and the proper means to that end Nevertheless most young Persons are Fools Dost not thou place thy Interest in things which are vain and destructive Dost not thou think Jollity thy only Heaven and the pleasing thy Lusts the only real Paradice What is enjoying God or glorifying God to thee these are things thou art unacquainted with and unconcerned for Obj. Perhaps thou wilt say I desire to be saved and I do something towards it how then do I mistake my end or means Ans. 1.
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
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
People are pleased that the Beast should rule the Man they quietly yield up themselves to the Empire of this brutal part they can bear no check to it they are afraid it should come under restraints But Oh young Man thou art carnal or spiritual as thy Appetite or sanctified Reason govern thee much of a Christians Warfare consists in the struggle between these the inordinate appetite is a great part of that Flesh which lusteth against the Spirit and is contrary to it Gal. 5. 17. Is it not high time thou shouldst set thy self to contend with this Enemy and attempt to bring it into subjection This is Temperance when thou canst restrain its irregular motions and deny its cravings Oh then daily quench this fire and press after that Sobriety which implies a moderation of Soul to the objects of sense and a Government of our Life by the Will of God and not by fleshly desires Let it then be thy business in every duty to weaken this Tyrant and the scope of thy Life to deliver thy self from the power of thy Appetite 2. Make no provision for the Flesh to fulfill it's Lusts Rom. 13. 14. It 's afflictive to behold some Persons contriving for their Bellies as if carefull for nothing else it 's the design of their labours and the thing that makes Riches valuable with them is that they may pamper the Flesh and fulfill it's desires But resolve with thy self thou wilt not minister to this flame nor live as if catering for the Flesh were thy principal employment in this World Prepare what is meet for thy Body it 's a mercy in our Pilgrimage to have the conveniencies of Life but excesses are fittest for them who dare brutishly say Let us eat and drink for to morrow we die 1 Cor. 15. 32. Poor Worms is there nothing after Death that they should live in preparation for yea is not Life it self as bad as Death whiles it serves to no higher an end nay these voluptuous Courses do often so enfeeble Nature and multiply Diseases that Life is a burthen and some beginning of Hell in bodily Torments 3. Avoid Temptations according to thy weakness to resist them He that 's prone to slip ought the more carefully to look to his ways Is Gluttony thy Crime be afraid of Feasts Art thou apt to be Drunk look not at the Wine when it sparkles refrain the Company in compliance with whom thou hast so oft offended Knowest thou not that the companion of riotous persons shameth his Father Prov. 28. 7. It 's in vain to pretend I will not be drunk though I do associate with them that will perswade me to it How oft hast thou resolved and yet complyed Nay thy delight in the Sin is plain in the choice of such Associates and thy Lust is strong enough to prevail when the Temptation offers if it be able thus before hand to lead thee into the occasion 4. Force thy self to an abstinence from just liberty for some time when the strength of thy Lust is found to abuse what is otherwise lawfull Some People are so exorbitant that if they drink any Wine they must drink to excess if they go into a Tavern at all they cannot forbear Drunkenness if that be thy case do not despise it as below Vertue for a while to drink no Wine at all or wholly to forbear a Tavern or Alehouse it is thy misery that what is to another Man lawful is to thee a snare but it is thy Duty and Wisdom to manage thy self with a regard to thy weakness that thou mayest by degrees get rid of thy wickedness 5. Be content by watchfulness and hard struggles to oppose thy Lusts till time and frequent repulses abate their power An appetite long indulged is not soon brought under the power of the Soul it will be importunate and uneasie even after it's dominion is removed much more whiles the contest for Superiority between it and Grace is undecided Therefore sink not as if it were in vain to strive nor let the uneasiness of the struggle tempt thee to give it over for as yielding to the flesh makes it more impetuous so frequent denying it will abate the strength of its motions Many Drunkards after a while become rid of all Inclinations to be drunk and Sobriety grows so habitual to them as if excess had never been their Temper Oh Children never make your Cure hard by beginning a wicked Custom Oh young men that are ensnared grieve not to be at due pains nor patiently to wait the stopping the Course of sin which thou hast strengthned by frequent compliances Thou must cease to be a Drunkard or thou art miserable for ever And thou must be at all the labour and be willing to continue it till thou art reformed or a Drunkard thou wilt be still 2. Quest. How shall a young Man be delivered from Uncleanness The former Directions are proper to this Case I shall apply somewhat of them and add some more Rules 1. Awe thy Soul with the Purity and Perfection of Gods Law as it referrs to this Sin It 's a great snare to mistake a Precept and confine it below God's explication of it or intention in it yet how many Young People allow themselves in degrees of Uncleanness as innocent not seeing that these things are comprehended in that Precept Thou shalt not commit Adultery Therefore Young Man examine the Word more strictly and thou wilt find that God hath provided against every degree of uncleanness and against all that leads thereto Are thy hidden thoughts and motions free No the thought of foolishness is sin Prov. 24. 9. And our Lord reproves the Pharisees as Hypocrites because their hearts were full of uncleanness Mat. 23. 27. Evil concupiscence inordinate affections c. are to be mortified Col. 3. 5. Are thy lustfull Gazings on a Woman allowed No our Saviour expressely saith He that looketh on a Woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart Matth. 5. 28. Mayest thou talk Obscenely No Neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting are convenient nor to be once named among Christians Eph. 5. 3 4. If the Command of God reach to these lesser degrees sure thou art not so stupid as not to see that all grosser acts are forbidden as more abominable And if Marriage be the remedy against Incontinence thou darest not think that God allows thee other wayes to gratifie thy lust and so frustrate the great ends of that Ordinance and the aptitude of humane Nature for it 2. Be watchful against all occasions of Uncleanness Nourish not Lust by an intemperate Diet. He had need be free from fleshly Inclinations who dare strengthen the assaults of the Flesh against his Chastity The Spirit of God tells thee that if Wine prevail thine eyes shall behold strange women Pr. 23. 32 33. Be not in the reach of a Woman that will entice thee Ioseph escaped the snare by flying from his Mistress
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