Besides that youth hath a great sense of honour and virtue, of praise and commendation, which are of great force to engage young perfons to attempt worthy and excellent things: for hope and confidence, ftrength and courage, with which sense of honour and defire of praise are apt to infpire them, are admirable inftruments of victory and mastery in any kind: and these are proper and moft peculiar to youth: I write unto you, young men, (faith St. John), because ye are strong, and have overcome the evil one. And, befides the fpirit and vigour of youth, young perfons have several other qualities which make them very capable of learning any thing that is good. They are apt to believe, because they have not been often deceived and this is a very good quality in a learner. And they are full of hopes; which will encourage them to attempt things even beyond their ftrength; becaufe hope is always of the future, and the life of young perfons is in a great measure before them, and yet to come. And, which is a good bridle to reftrain them from that which is evil, they are commonly very modest and bashful: and, which is alfo a fingular advantage, they are more apt to do that which is honeft and commendable, than that which is gainful and profitable; being in a great measure free from the love of money, which experience, as well as the Apostle, tells us, is the root of all evil. Children are very feldom covetous, because they have feldom been bitten by want. 4. This is the molt acceptable time of all other, because it is the first of our age. Under the law, the first fruits and the first-born were God's in like manner, we should devote the first of our age and time to him. God is the first and most excellent of beings; and therefore it is fit that the prime of our age, and the excellency of our strength, fhould be dedicated to him and his fervice. An early piety muft needs be very acceptable and pleafing to God. Our bleffed Lord took great pleasure to fee little children come unto him; an emblem of the plea-. fure he takes that men fhould lift themselves betimes in his fervice. St. John was the youngest of all the difciples, and our Saviour had a very particular kindness and afVOL. III. fection X fection for him; for he is faid to be the difciple whom Jefus loved. It is a good fign that we value God as we ought, and have a true esteem for his service, when we can find in our hearts to give him our good days, and the years which we ourselves have pleasure in; and that we have a grateful fenfe of his benefits, and of our mighty obligation to him, when we make the quickest and best teturns we can, and think nothing too good to render to him from whom we have received all. It is likewife an argument of great fincerity, which is the foul of all religion and virtue, when a man devotes himself to God betimes; because it is a good evidence that he is not drawn by thofe forcible constraints, or driven to God by that preffing neceffity which lies upon men in time of fickness and old age. And, on the contrary, it cannot but be very difpleafing to God, to be neglected by us when we are in the flower and vigour of our age. When our blood is warm, and our fpirits quick, and our parts are at the best, then to think ourselves too good to ferve God, what an affront is this to him, who hath deferved fo infinitely well of us, and beyond the best and utmost that we can poffibly do? Besides that there is a peculiar kind of grace and lovelinefs in the worthy and excellent actions of young per fons, great things being hardly expected from them at that age. Early habits of virtue, like new cloaths upon a young and comely body, fit very gracefully upon a ftraight and well-fhap'd mind, and do mightily become it. As there is joy in heaven at the converfion of a great and old finner; fo it cannot but be a very delightful fpectacle to God and angels, and to the fpirits of juft men made perfect, to fee a young perfon befieged by powerful temptations on every fide, to acquit himself glorioufly, and refolutely to hold out against the most violent affaults: to behold one, in the prime and flower of his age, that is courted by pleasures and honours, by the devil, and all the bewitching vanities of this world, to reject all thefe, and to cleave ftedfaftly to God; nay, to frown upon all these temptations, and to look down upon them with indignation and fcorn; and to fay, Let thofe those doat 5. and lastly, This age of our life may, for any thing we know, be the only time we may have for this purpose; and if we caft off the thoughts of God, and defer the bufinefs of religion to old age, intending, as we pretend, to fet about it at that time, we may be cut off before that time comes, and turned into hell, with the people that forget God. The work of religion is the most neceffary of all other; and must be done one time or other, or we are certainly undone for ever. We cannot begin it too foon; but we may eafily delay it too long; and then we are miferable past all recovery. He that would not venture his immortal foul and put his everlafting happiness upon the greatest hazard and uncertainty, must make religion his first business and care, must think of God betimes, and remember his Creator in the days of his youth. I have now done with the three things which I propofed to confider from these words. The inferences from this whole difcourfe fhall be thefe two: 1. To perfuade those that are young, to remember God their Creator, and to engage in the ways of religion and virtue betimes. 2. To urge thofe who have neglected this first and best opportunity X 2 opportunity of their lives, to repent quickly, and return to a better mind, left the opportunity be loft for ever, and their cafe become defperate and past remedy. 1. To perfuade thofe that are young, to remember God their Creator betimes, and to engage early in the ways of religion and virtue. Do not fuffer yourselves to be cheated and bewitched by fenfual fatisfactions, and to be destroyed by eafe and profperity. Let not a perpetual tenure of health and pleasure foften and diffolve your fpirits, and banish all wife and ferious thoughts out of your minds. Be not fo foolish and unworthy, as to think that you have a privilege to forget God when he is most mindful of you; when the candle of the Lord fbines about your tabernacle, and you are enjoying the health, and itrength, and fweetness of life. No man knows what he does, and what an invaluable treafure he prodigally waftes, when he lets flip this golden feafon and opportunity of his life; whilft he is yet innocent and untainted with fin and vice, and his mind is clear of all bad impressions, and capable of the best; not inflaved to evil, and at liberty to do well. Confider, that the ways of religion and virtue are nothing fo difficult and unpleasant now, as they will be hereafter; and that the longer you forget God, and the more you are estranged from him, the more unwilling you will be to think of him, and to return to him; that your lufts will every day gain more ftrength, and your hearts by degrees will contract fuch a stiffness and hardnefs, that it will be no eafy matter to work upon them. Therefore remember your Creator in the days of your youth; to day, whilst it is called to day, left any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of fin. When will you think of beginning a good courfe, if not now? You have a great work before you, which cannot be done in a little time, which cannot be begun and finished at once. Your whole life is no more than fufficient for it, to do it to the best advantage, and as it ought to be done. Do not then think of crowding it into a corner of your life, much lefs of putting it off to the very end of it. When that night comes, no man can work. Confider further, if we will deny God the hearty and vigorous fervice of our beft days, how can we expect, that that he will accept the faint and flattering devotions of old age? Wife men are wont to forecast and provide some stay and comfort for themselves against the evils and infirmities of that time; that they may have fomething to lean upon in their weakness, fomething to mitigate and allay the troubles and afflictions of that dark and gloomy evening; that what they cannot enjoy of prefent pleafure and fatisfaction, may in fome measure be made up to them in comfortable reflexions upon the past actions of a holy and innocent, an useful and well-fpent life. But, on the other hand, if we have neglected religion, and forgotten God, days without number; if we have lived an ungodly and vitious life, we have treasured up fo much guilt and remorfe, fo many aggravations of our forrow and anguish against an evil day; and have foolishly contrived to make our burden then heaviest, when we are least able to ftand under it; and have provided and laid in infinite matter for repentance, when there is hardly any space and opportunity left for the exercife of it, and when we shall be utterly difheartened from setting about fo vaft a work, of which we can fee no end, and yet have fo very little time for it, that, if we do any thing at all in it, we fhall be forced to huddle it up in fo much hafte and confufion, as will, I doubt, fignify but very little, either to our prefent comfort or our future happiness. Confider this in time, all ye that forget God in the day of your profperity, and in the best age of your life, and yet, when the day of afflction and the infirmities of age come upon you, would be glad then to have God mindful of you, and merciful to you. But if thou wouldst not have him caft thee off in thine old age, and forfake thee when thy ftrength fails, do thou remember him in the days of thy youth, in the prime and vigour of thine age: for this is the acceptable time, this is the day of falvation. Therefore acquaint thyself with him, and remember him now, in the days of thy youth. Defer not fo neceffary a work, no not for one moment. Begin it juft now, that fo thou mayeft have made fome good progrefs in it before the evil days come; before the fun, and the mocn, X 3 and |