Joseph Smith - Early years

Joseph Smith: the early years

Two basic hypotheses (narratives) have arisen about Joseph Smith's early years.

1. Faithful: Joseph Smith as ignorant farm boy who couldn’t even write a letter, chosen by God because of a sincere prayer and his future potential.

2. Critical: Joseph Smith as clever treasure-digger trying to make money, and well-versed enough in Christian thinking to compose and dictate a religious text.

There are numerous variations of these two narratives. Advocates of each can cite historical facts that, when filtered through their assumptions, inferences and theories, support their respective hypotheses (the FAITH model of analysis).

The book The Rational Restoration proposes a reframe of Joseph Smith's early years. The reframe views the events in Joseph's life as God preparing him for his future role as translator and prophet.

The reframe incorporates all the historical facts and sees Joseph Smith as a religious seeker from a young age. This is a pragmatic approach, based on historical evidence but also common human experience. Although this is a relatively naturalistic approach, it supports and does not contradict Joseph’s claim that he translated an ancient record.

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Among the books on sale at the bookstore was an 8-volume set of the works of Jonathan Edwards, the most prominent American theologian in the 1700s. Edwards was highly influential on other Christian authors and ministers, particularly in New England and New York. His work was republished in pamphlets, newspapers, magazines, and books.

The 8-volume set was published in 1808. Much, if not most, of the non-biblical language (words and phrases) in the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Joseph’s personal writings can be found in the works of Jonathan Edwards and James Hervey. E.g., see the database here: https://www.mobom.‌org/‌‌‌nonbiblical-intertextuality-database and the annotated chapters from the Book of Mormon here: https://www.mobom.org/jonathan-edwards.

We can see that the Lord prepared Joseph to translate the Book of Mormon through his family's instruction in the Christian religion, together with his searching the scriptures and his intimate acquaintance with different denominations. 

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To itemize all the facts would take a much longer post, but we can separate a few facts that everyone can agree upon and see how assumptions, inferences and theories lead to the respective hypotheses (the FAITH model).

Any list of accepted historical facts would include these.

1. Joseph’s leg surgery and recuperation, and his reference to that event when explaining the Restoration.

2. Joseph’s proximity to Dartmouth College during his recuperation and his brother Hyrum’s attendance at a boys' preparatory school located there. (Assumptions and inferences about the extent of Hyrum’s education vary.)

3. Joseph’s early years in Palmyra, his exposure to ministers from different denominations, and the ready availability of Christian writings, including the works of Jonathan Edwards and James Hervey.

4. Joseph’s aversion to writing, as well as his abilities to exhort, preach, and narrate stories.

5. The intensity of Joseph’s religious seeking, reflected in his 1832 history and his mother’s history.

Some commonly cited “facts” about Joseph Smith are questionable. For example, many people cite Emma Smith’s 1879 “Last Testimony” as though it relates facts. We can all agree with the fact that the document exists, but whether it accurately relates historical facts is a separate question.

The “Last Testimony” is in Joseph Smith III’s handwriting. Emma died shortly after the interview and never publicly acknowledged it. The testimony was published six months after her death. The parts of the interview regarding plural marriage were directly contradicted by others who were present at the events; Eliza R. Snow suspected that Emma did not even provide the statements in the document. When Joseph Smith III later discussed the translation, he didn’t even cite the “Last Testimony.” Not only did Joseph III not mention the Last Testimony in his later writing but explicitly rejected SITH in favor of what Joseph and Oliver taught about the plates and interpreters.

These and other aspects of the “Last Testimony” undermine the credibility of the document’s truth claims, suggesting it was more of an apologetic statement and leaving its interpretation as a matter of assumption, inference, etc.

For example, Emma’s “Last Testimony” claims Joseph “could neither write nor dictate a coherent and well-worded letter.” But Joseph did write at least two coherent letters, one to his uncle before beginning the translation, and one to Oliver Cowdery shortly afterward. https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/letter-to-oliver-cowdery-22-october-1829/1. The annotated version of the letter to Oliver shows a variety of influences. https://www.mobom.org/annotated-js-letter-to-oc

Although we have only a few documents in Joseph’s handwriting, the earliest known extant example is Alma 45:22 in the Original Manuscript, presumably written in April or May 1829, which shows Joseph’s cursive handwriting to be easily legible. See a close-up image here: 

https://www.mobom.org/church-history-issues

The parts of Joseph’s 1832 History that he wrote also demonstrate clear, precise penmanship that comes only with practice.

Joseph was far from an ignorant, illiterate farm boy.

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We should expect Joseph's early life to include evidence of God's tutoring to prepare Joseph for his future roles as translator and prophet. The available historical sources support and corroborate this narrative, which also teaches us that the Lord prepares each of us for our respective life missions.

After his leg surgery when he was about six years old, Joseph Smith was taken to the seashore in Massachusetts for recovery. 

Samuel Deane had given "Four Sermons to Young Men, from Titus II." The sermons were compiled into a pahmplet printed in Salem, Massachusetts. Whether Joseph read the pamphlet is unknown, but the sermons contain nonbiblical vocabulary, including phrases, that later appeared in the Book of Mormon. This suggests that these sermons may have been one step in the preparation of Joseph Smith to become a prophet and translator.

In the version below, nonbiblical Book of Mormon language is highlighted in red.

FOUR SERMONS TO YOUNG MEN, FROM TITUS II. 6. PREACHED AT FALMOUTH, BY SAMUEL DEANE, A. M. JUNIOR PASTOR OF THE FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST IN THAT PLACE.

SALEM: PRINTED and SOLD by SAMUEL and EBENEZER HALL. 1774.

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https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=evans;cc=evans;rgn=main;view=text;idno=N10442.0001.001

DEDICATION TO THE YOUNG MEN OF THE FIRST PARISH IN FALMOUTH.

IT is fit and reasonable that I devote and dedicate the following Sermons to you; because they are already your own, in several respects. And though I wish them to serve the best interests of other sorts of persons, as well as other persons of your standing, it is confessed you have by far the greatest interest in them.

THOUGH it is possible that the subject of them might have been handled, even by me, in a manner less exceptionable to the learned, if I had expected they would ever have had the opportunity to criticise on them: yet as all who are candid, when they perceive the design to be evidently laudable, will be disposed to overlook small faults, and to speak as favourably as possible of greater ones; I have, after serious deliberation, determined to give them to you and to the publick, without any material alterations, additions or amendments: because Page  iv I should otherwise have given you an opportunity to charge me with unfairness, in not granting in fact the thing you requested of me, a copy of the sermons I preached to young men.

THE method and sentiments are as entirely my own, as it is possible for you to conceive: and yet it is highly probable I may have said the same things, in my poor manner, which many excellent writers have favoured the world with, in a most elegant and pleasing dress. For I suppose it is impossible to treat this subject with any tolerable propriety, or so as to be any ways useful, without saying many things that have often been said before; and next to impossible to say any thing very pertinent that is new. I have neither followed, nor knowingly shunned, in any degree, those who have gone before me; nor could I have done either, if I had been so disposed, as I had no book of this sort by me; nor near me that I knew of. But very seriously and in the fear of God, I delivered to you, without any strict regard to method, what was prompted by an heart anxiously concerned to promote your happiness, and much devoted to your service. And this not with any design or view of recommending myself to the publick, as I had not any expectation, when I composed these discourses, of their becoming more publick than once preaching would make them: but with a pure intent, I hope I may say, to serve your spiritual and eternal interests.

Page  v I AM aware that many will be ready to call me rash and unadvised, for venturing this imperfect performance abroad in the world, after the many excellent publications upon subjects nearly the same: and especially, after an extraordinary genius, of our own country, has published a great number of sermons upon the very same text. But as the books I speak of are not in your hands, and perhaps never will be; this is, at once, a reason why you have requested it, and an apology to the publick for my consenting to yield to your request of the publication of this work; especially as none can blame me for my disposition to gratify you in every thing that is reasonable. The zeal you have shewn in this matter, makes me entertain a pleasing hope, that you will seriously attend to the very important religious truths, which are here laid before you; and thereby, with the blessing of God, gain some real and lasting benefit from them. If this end can but be answered, I am the less concerned for my reputation as a writer.

IT is often said, and perhaps not without reason, that the world is already too much filled with books of divinity. But this saying chiefly refers, I suppose, to those which are speculative and polemical; of a nature and tendency very different from this; in which disputed principles and theological niceties are avoided. But if the multiplication of books upon practical subjects will be a probable means of Page  vi increasing practical religion, which is so much wanted among us, who will be against multiplying them? And if the oftener young men are exhorted to attend to the important affairs of their souls and eternity, the more ground of hope there is that they will do so, who can think any minister's endeavours to this purpose needless? And that this little book will be diligently perused by you, because of the unmerited regard I find many of you have for the author, I have doubtless good reason to expect.— As also, that you will be disposed to do all in your power, to cause others to give some attention to it. And it is strange, if even an unprejudiced attention to the matters herein contained will do you no good. If these discourses may, among the other means of grace that you enjoy, contribute any thing towards making serious and lasting impressions on you, and other young persons into whose hands they may come, I shall think my labour well spent. For no man has a deeper sense than I of the necessity of early piety, and of the importance of the rising generation. And with regard to you, my dear friends, in particular, I may say as the Apostle Paul did to the Philippian Christians,

God is my record, how greatly I long after you all, in the bowels of Jesus Christ.

And that none of you may "fail of the grace of God," is the fervent prayer of

Your friend and servant, THE AUTHOR.

Page  [unnumbered]

SERMON I. Of the Nature of internal Sobriety, AND Motives to persuade young Men to it.

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SERMONS to YOUNG MEN. SERMON I.

TITUS II. 6.

Young men likewise exhort to be sober-minded.

THIS Epistle was sent by the apostle Paul, to Titus, a minister of the gospel and evangelist, then in Crete, to direct him, not only how to conduct himself towards the Judaizing teachers; but more especially how to behave in his ministry; both in ordaining church-officers, and in preaching the gospel.

IN the paragraph where our text is inserted, directions are given to Titus, in what manner to exhort several sorts of persons; that so he might

rightly divide the word of truth, and give to every one his portion in due season.

In the first place, he is directed how to address himself to the aged men; then to the aged women; and nextly, in our text, how to exhort the young men.

BY young men, I make no scruple, the apostle meant all men under middle age. For it is most likely, as he mentions old and young men near together, that he meant to include all the men under Page  2these two kinds. If otherwise, it would follow, that some of the men Titus is not directed here to exhort at all; which appears highly improbable, when we consider how many different sorts of people are mentioned as the subjects of his particular addresses. Therefore I shall consider myself, in the following sermons, as speaking to all the males of the congregation, who are arrived to manhood, and are not yet come to what is commonly esteemed the middle of life. But I shall have, all along, a more special regard to those who are yet in their youth; and who are, in common speech, denominated young men.

THE Cretan young men, you see, were to be exhorted by their minister to be sober-minded.— Doubtless then it is the duty of every minister of Christ, in like manner, to exhort all the young men, who are under their pastoral care. And it is equally the duty of young men, in every Christian society, candidly and seriously to hearken to such exhortations. The former infers the latter; for to what end are ministers to exhort, if they are not to be attended to? While they exhort according as they are directed in God's word, their exhortations ought to be received, "not as the word of man, but as the word of God."

BUT I hope none of my readers will think themselves uninterested in the ensuing exhortations. For religion is substantially the same in all persons; and it is impossible to teach young men their duty as Christians, without teaching, at the same time, the duty of all persons. I must especially be allowed to hope for the serious attention of young women; Page  3for I know of no argument I can use, to perswade young men to be sober-minded, that does not hold good why young women should be so too.

THE method I propose in discoursing on this subject is,

FIRST. To shew what is to be understood by being sober-minded.

SECONDLY. To exhort and perswade young men to be so, by several arguments and motives. And

THIRDLY. To direct those what methods to take, who desire to obtain and cultivate inward sobriety.

FIRST. I am to shew what is to be understood by being sober-minded.

THE original word, which is here rendered soberminded, is sophronein. The meaning of which is, to be sober, or to have a 〈◊〉 mind. But

SOBRIETY, according to the use of the word in some passages of scripture, means the opposite to all sinful lust, of which, by the way, it is likely young men are, upon the whole, in greater danger than other sorts of persons. Appetite in them is very strong; and reason, wherewith they should curb and restrain their appetites, is not yet arrived to its highest pitch.

To be sober, as the word is used in the first verse of the context, means, at most, to avoid all those sins, irregularities and excesses, into which our senses and natural appetites are apt to hurry us; or it is avoiding gluttony, drunkenness, concupiscent uncleanness, luxury, and the like. And this is the most common and familiar sense of the word.

Page  4 BUT avoiding these, and all other outward acts of sensuality, is not alone sufficient to denominate a man "sober minded." They who would deserve this character, must have a frame and temper of mind habitually correspondent to external sobriety. They must not only avoid all outward debauchery; but they must be chaste and moderate in their tho'ts and meditations. The man who cherishes unclean and sensual desires, designs and affections in his heart, sins against the laws of sobriety, as really, though it may be, not so grossly and heinously, as if he had committed the outward acts. For our blessed Lord has told us,

whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

And we are thus cautioned by the wise king Solomon,

look not thou on the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright;

that is, avoid those things, which tend to excite an inordinate appetite in you, for wine or any other strong drink. A mind that dwells much upon forbidden pleasures of sense, is not a sound mind; but a mind sadly disordered, and full of corruption; and so it is directly the reverse of what is required of young men in the text.

AND if the heart must be regulated, surely the tongue must also, which is the index of the heart. If the tongue is full of "filthiness, foolish talking and jesting," which the apostle cautions us against; or even taken up with inquiring "what we shall eat and drink," or how the senses are to be immoderately indulged, in any respect; it will but too Page  5surely prove that the heart is debauched, and that we are destitute of internal sobriety; for

out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

All this, at least, is comprehended in the duty of internal sobriety.

BUT sobriety is often used in scripture, in a more large and extensive meaning. To "think soberly," Rom. xii. 3. is to think dispassionately and impartially. To "be sober," 1 Pet. v. 8. is to have not only our appetites, but our passions under subjection. To "live soberly," Titus ii. 12. certainly means more than barely restraining the sensual appetites and inclinations; even the due regulation of all our appetites, passions and affections. And I am much inclined to think the word sober, in our text, ought to be taken in this latitude; for, as I said before, the original word is construed, to be of a sound mind. And I see not how barely avoiding sensuality can intitle a man to this character; for it seems to me, that pride, anger, malice, covetousness and discontent, which vices are distinct from sensuality, are as inconsistent with soundness of mind as any of the sensual lusts are. For what is soundness of mind, unless it be the healthy and regular state of the soul? Or, in other words, the due regularity of all the lower faculties, appetites, passions and affections?

ANOTHER thing, that makes it appear probable that the word is to be understood in this large sense, is that this is all the apostle directed Titus to exhort young men unto. Therefore it is more likely that this one word is a word of large and comprehensive Page  6meaning, containing a great number of duties in it. Other sorts of persons, Titus is directed to exhort to several things, in several expressions; it seems therefore the more unlikely, that young men were only to be exhorted to avoid sensuality. For though this is a sin that more "easily besets" them than others, they are also as liable to commit other sins, as other persons are.

ACCORDINGLY, I shall treat the subject in the largest latitude; as if young men were to be exhorted to get and keep all their appetites and inclinations, passions and affections under the government of reason and religion. This is a duty of vast extent, comprehending in it all the internal part of true Christianity. For to be sober-minded, with respect to the senses, includes an aversion to gluttony, drunkenness, and uncleanness; as well as to extravagance in garb and furniture, and whatever other excess the senses are apt to lead men into:— And on the other hand, an habitual disposedness to use a just and reasonable moderation, in all these things. They who have attained to this virtue have subdued and mortified those evil propensities, which are called in scripture,

the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eye.

And

To be sober-minded, with respect to the passions and affections, is to have our irascible passions excited at nothing, but at what ought to excite them; and to have them raised, when occasion offers, only to such degrees as reason and religion allow and justify. And also to have our concupiscible affections placed on none but suitable objects; and on Page  7them, only in due and warrantable measures. So that this kind of sobriety includes in it a supreme love to God and Christ; the greatest delight in the service of God; hating nothing but sin; an humble, an abased opinion of ourselves on account of our sins; grieving more for our sins, than for our sufferings; desiring grace and glory more than worldly good things; loving our souls more than our bodies; esteeming and loving our fellow-creatures, in proportion as the moral image of God appears in them, and according as they stand in need of our love; rejoicing in nothing so much as in spiritual blessings; hoping for nothing so much as for the favour of God; fearing nothing so much as to offend him; acquiescing in all the allotments of the divine providence; walking by faith, rather than by sight; looking at eternal, with greater emotions of heart than those, with which we look at temporal things; and having an anxious concern, desire and endeavour to avoid all sin and temptation, and to walk "in all the ordinances and commandments of the Lord blameless."

THESE are the principal things included in the good regulation of the appetites, passions and affections. And it is easy to demonstrate that this regulation contains in it the whole vital part of religion. Insomuch that he who has this soundness of mind, this healthy state of the soul, cannot live in the commission of any known sin, nor in the omission of any known duty. He cannot be covetous, unjust, uncharitable, wrathful, cruel, or revengeful. He cannot be habitually intemperate in Page  8any sensitive, animal pleasures. He cannot be profane, unsubmissive to the divine will, regardless of the favour of God, nor careless and negligent of eternal things: Because his heart is right with God; the corrupt bias of his mind is taken away; his soul is renewed after the divine image: so that his "good heart," like "a good tree," cannot but "bring forth good fruit."

IT is this religion of the heart that young men are to be exhorted to, by the ministers of Christ; for this it is to be sober-minded. It is the same, in one word, as to be inwardly and heartily religious; or under the prevailing influence of right and holy principles.—Let me therefore, as I proposed, having sufficiently, though briefly, explained this duty, proceed,

SECONDLY. To exhort and persuade the young men of this flock to be sober-minded, or heartily religious.

I COME to you this day, my young friends, on no other errand than that, on which I am sent of God. Consider me therefore as the messenger of God to you, however unworthy of this high employment. I am going to lay before you several unanswerable arguments and reasons why you should now receive religion into your hearts, and become wholly devoted to the fear and service of God. My errand is chiefly to those of you, who are not yet sober-minded; but place your happiness in "serving divers lusts and pleasures." And to those, who, though they have had some serious impressions, have not yet heartily given themselves to God, but have Page  9prevailing irregularities in their affections. I have the more confidence and hope of success in addressing myself to you, because you are yet young, as it may well be supposed your hearts have yet some natural tenderness. You have not had so much time as other sinners, to sin away all your sensibility of conscience; so that it may be hoped that none of you are hardened in sin beyond a possibility of recovery.

As to some of you, I would fain hope you have already received this divine guest, religion, into your hearts. But if you have, I am sure you still need exhortation and instruction. And it may be good for you to hear an exhortation adapted to the case of those, who are of a worse character: for, alas! I know of none of you who appear to have made so great proficiency in the divine life, as you might, and ought to have done. I might well address you all, therefore, with the exhortation to be sober-minded; for every one of you need it, more or less; because you all need, either to become so, or to become more so. I shall endeavour to perswade you all, by a variety of arguments, and

I. BY this consideration, that God has sent you into this world, not to take your pleasure, and give a full swing to your appetites and passions, those inferior principles of your nature; but, by hearty religion and holiness of life, to prepare for happiness in the approaching eternal state.

CAN you entertain any doubt, whether the present state is a state of probation for another and a better world? Your innate desire of immortality, together with your experience of the unsatisfactory Page  10nature of all present enjoyments, sufficiently evidence, that the present life is only a preface or introduction to another life, which is to be happy and eternal.— And if you read your bibles, every page almost will shew you that you are, at present, candidates for glory and immortality. If this is not the case, why are the means of grace instituted? Why are the holy scriptures given you? which are professedly designed to shew you the way to eternal happiness, and make you "wise unto salvation." Why are ministers ordained and commissionated to preach faith and repentance, and universal holiness? Why does the holy spirit of God strive with you? And why does conscience demand it of you, that you seek and serve God continually? You are assured in scripture, that you shall receive in the eternal world, "the things done here in the body." Surely then, the work God allots for you to do here, is to prepare for an happy futurity. And he has shewed you, in his word, what preparation is necessary.— "Without holiness," you are told, "no man shall see the Lord." And you are required to

cleanse yourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God

—It is not external holiness only, or principally, but heart-holiness that is here meant; even the same that is required of you, in the text. External holiness is necessary; but you must not be all outside in religion, and content yourselves with making

a fair shew in the flesh.

You must not be like painted sepulchres, which appear beautiful to the eye, while they are within full of bones and rottenness. To Page  11 such your Saviour said,

how can ye escape the damnation of hell?

And he has assured you, that,

except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case, enter into the kingdom of heaven.

ATTEND therefore, my friends, to your proper work and business; and let it not be said of you, that you live in vain, and do not answer the end of your present existence. It is never too early to begin upon the business of life. Let not your opportunity of preparing for eternity, be like

a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom;

who has "no heart" to improve it. As you see all other creatures live up to the design of their creation, and answer the end of their being, be ashamed to do otherwise yourselves; for why should birds and beasts, why should stocks and stones

rise up in judgment against you?

—But,

II. ANOTHER argument, which I must be allowed to insist much upon is, that now is the best time for you to endeavour to become truly and heartily religious. The youngest of you are so arrived to maturity of reason and understanding, that you may well be expected to avoid childishness and enthusiasm, in your religion. So that it is full time for you to begin in good earnest; and if you neglect it any longer, it will be the worse for you upon many accounts.— You have all the real advantages for becoming holy now, that ever you can reasonably expect; and if you let slip the present season, it will be attended with so many disadvantages, that it will, most probably, Page  12  be the means of your everlasting damnation. Be perswaded now therefore, to

strive to enter in at the strait gate

of holiness, without any longer delay.—For

1. YOUR affections, which must be engaged in religion, have now some tenderness. You have not yet, it is to be hoped, hardened yourselves in evil courses. You can feel some good motions within you, when you hear or read an awakening and serious discourse. But if you go further on, in the "paths of the destroyer," your hearts will gradually grow harder and harder, your minds blinder and blinder, and your consciences more seared and stupified. For sinners do not remain at one certain pitch of wickedness. The word of God assures us that "evil men shall wax worse and worse;" and this is confirmed by our observation. If you go on to "fill up the measure of your iniquities," you will arrive to such a pitch of wickedness, and hard-heartedness, that the terrors of the Lord will no more affright you; the thunders of the law will not terrify you, and the grace of the gospel will not melt and soften you. And is it not easier, think you, for you to become holy now, than it will be then? At this time of life, you would find it easy indeed, if you had but a will to endeavour after it, with the same zeal and assiduousness, with which you strive to gain this world's advantages. But then it will be next to impossible.

Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good, who are accustomed to do evil.

Jer. xiii. 23.

At your time of life, Page  13you can hardly commit any great sin, without some reluctance: but if you are suffered to grow old in iniquity, you will come to commit it with greediness, and without blushing or remorse. If you should live to old age, in your sins, it is much to be doubted whether you would then have any inclinations to repent: But if you should, you will not find in your hearts to go about it. Men are not wont, at that period of life, to engage in any new undertaking; especially in any thing so opposite to their own long continued practice. It is to be feared therefore, on this account, that your delaying to become holy in youth, will be the means of the irretrievable perdition of your precious souls.— For it is said, and not without reason, that by far the greatest part, that ever are savingly converted, are converted before they have got beyond your age.

2. THE scriptures give greater encouragement to you, than to older sinners, that your endeavours to return to God shall be crowned with success.— David said to his son Solomon, when he was a youth,

if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will forsake thee.

And the words of wisdom to this purpose, in the Proverbs, are these, "they that seek me early shall find me." How precious, O young men, should these promises appear to you? You may depend on it that it is now a finding time. If you now

strive to enter in at the strait gate,

with all possible zeal and earnestness, you will assuredly enter. And will you not be prevailed with, to enter while you may? The bare possibility of success is enough, in all Page  14 reason, to put you upon all possible endeavours after things which are of eternal consequence to you; how much more the abundant encouragement that is given you, equal, to all valuable intents and purposes, to a full assurance of success. Will you not ask, when it is but ask and have? But choose to disregard and slight so important a blessing till hereafter, when God gives you little encouragement to hope that the most strenuous endeavours will prove successful? If this is not folly and madness, it is impossible to say what is so. As long as life continues, indeed, it is thought there is some ground of hope; at least in common cases. For the whole of life is a time of probation, with the generality of sinners. But how many instances can you find in scripture, of the efficacy of late endeavours?—Will you mention the penitent thief, who had the honour to die with Christ, as an instance? His repentance, though late in his life, does not appear to have been in old age. And you should consider that he took, for ought that you know, the first opportunity he had of embracing Christ and his religion; and that he gave himself to Christ on a cross, whereas you reject him on his throne. So, there were probably some aged sinners among the multitudes, converted by the first preaching of the Apostles; but then you should remember, that they had not become so, under the light of the gospel.— How slender grounds of dependance then have you, if you neglect your souls concerns till old age, and then begin to seek, that ever you shall find mercy? Seize therefore, I pray you, if you love your souls, Page  15 the happy moments of your youth: employ and use them to the important purposes of religion; lest you hereafter go down to your graves, and to hell, seeking and crying out in vain, for that mercy and grace, which you now disregard, or put away from you.

Seek ye the Lord, while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near,

Isai. lv. 6.

3. As you have no assurance given you that late seekers shall find grace, so the reason of the thing renders it doubtful; and therefore it is dreadfully hazardous for you to postpone your seeking to a late season. As grace is very freely offered, in God's word, to all who will accept of it, it seems to follow as a just inference, that there is some time of life, in which men, if they are not slack in their endeavours, may find grace. Youth is pointed out to be such a season; is it not therefore very doubtful, whether age is a season to become holy? Besides, God, you know, deserves to be served with your best; that is, with the flower and bloom of life. Your best vigour and activity are most justly his due.— Dare you then entertain one thought of putting him off with the dregs of life, after you shall have spent all the best of your days in vanity and sin? Can you flatter yourselves that he will stand ready to accept so miserable and worthless a sacrifice at your hands? If you will serve sin and satan, 'till you can serve them vigorously no longer, what virtue will it be in you afterwards, to consent to serve God? This may well be thought to be offering a gross affront to your Creator, who commands you to "remember" him "in the days of your youth."— Page  16 Do you think he will take up with the world's leavings, and with the Devil's leavings? If you depend upon this, you are madly presumptuous.— Be persuaded then to mind religion now, before it is too late; before you shall have squandered away that time and strength, which God has given you for no other end, than to be employed in his service; and before you shall have provoked him to

swear in his wrath, that you shall not enter into his rest.

4. THE present time is best, as it is the only time you are sure of. Time present you may call your own; but not so that which is future. A certain opportunity is better than a precarious one, in which to transact any proposed business of indispensible necessity. Let this then be another weighty motive with you, to be speedy in admitting religion into your hearts. That which you know you must do, you had better do at present, while you may, than leave to the mercy of future contingences. I suppose you have, at least resolved, or promised yourselves that you will become truly holy and heavenly, before you leave the world. You could not have kept your consciences so easy as you have kept them, without making some such resolves and promises, from time to time. But are you not aware of the dreadful fallacy of this? Will you not seriously consider, that time and opportunity may fail you? And that if it should so happen, you are as much lost and undone forever, as if you had never had one serious thought of ever returning to God.

O that I could once convince you how imprudent, how presumptuous and dangerous it is, to Page  17  procrastinate the vast work of preparing for eternity! Millions of sinners have been dashed to pieces against this rock; and yet, oh the stupidity! it makes but little impression on the rest. Thousands are going to hell every day, who promised themselves, as you do, that they would repent and live to God, some time hence. Sinners see such of their comrades dying around them, as they cannot but know die in their sins; and yet they are so lost to all prudence and forecast, that they promise themselves it will be soon enough to repent, some time hence. This is the trap, by which Satan gets the greatest numbers of souls from among mankind.— And it is not a concealed snare; for every one might see it, if they pleased. Men are like those filly fish, that will bite at the bare hook. They have reason enough, if they would but use reason, to shew them the madness and folly of delaying the great, and infinitely important work of religion.— But sinners wilfully shut their eyes against the clearest light; they will not be so wise as to number their days, and

"consider their latter end."

YOU can see, my dear friends, the danger and folly of procrastination in others. Alas! why can you not be sensible of it in yourselves? If you happen to see a fellow-creature labouring under a mortal distemper, or even in the latest decay of age, thoughtless of eternity and profane, doubtless it shocks you. You are ready to lament over him, and to say,

how can this wretch, with one foot in the grave, be so stupid and unconcerned?

But pray, how much better is the part you are acting Page  18 yourselves? Have you any more assurance of the continuance of life another day, than such an one has? You know you have not. You could tell, with no certainty, which would go first into eternity, you or he.

THE most florid youth, the highest health and vigour, you may easily assure yourselves, are no security against the stroke of death. If persons of your age, and in your condition are more likely, in general, to continue in life, than the sick, the aged and infirm; still individuals have no security at all of it. It would not be thought by survivors a very strange event, if the youngest and healthiest young man among you should be a corpse before tomorrow. Now a bare possibility of your dying to-day, you must allow, to be a sufficient reason for your not postponing your preparation till to-morrow. Will you say it is impossible, O young man, that to-day should be the last day of your life? No, you are ready to confess you are every day mortal: every hour liable to be called off the stage of life. Yea, you all confess, not only this liableness, in your serious moods, but that nothing is more uncertain and precarious than the continuance of your lives. Will you then be so unaccountable, and inconsistent in your conduct, as to risk your eternal happiness in so uncertain a bottom? Will you dare to let your souls hang over the bottomless pit any longer, by so brittle a thread as the present life is? What rashness and fool-hardiness can you be guilty of, equal to this?

METHINKS you could not dare thus to hazard the eternal interest of your souls, if you did but seriously Page  19consider and lay to heart what you pretend to be convinced of, the great uncertainty of your lives. The truth is, you are not practically convinced. You feel so much life and gaiety: you have such a brisk flow of animal spirits, that whatever you confess with your mouths, you are not apt to realize in your hearts, that you shall ever die. Your gay minds tell you,

to-morrow shall be as this day.

—Let me entreat you to be a little more conversant with such melancholy scenes, as will be apt to put you upon considering your latter end.

Go to the houses "of mourning;" for it will be "better" for you, than to

go to the house of feasting;

because

by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.

Attend, as often as you can, the funerals of persons nearly of your own age; for you have often opportunity of so doing, and even of attending the funerals of those who are younger than yourselves. Visit young men of your acquaintance, who have been your play-fellows, when they lie languishing on their death-beds; and see if such spectacles will not give you a more affecting sense of things, than ever you had before; try if they will not set you about mortifying your lusts, and living to God in earnest. The poor languishing creatures may say something to you, that will serve to awaken you: but if not, their not being able to say any thing, their groans, their aspect, their panting breath, their faultering limbs are enough to do it. And when you see how loth they are to die, and how dreadful and tormenting their thoughts of eternity Page  20are; or hear them lamenting the past folly and sinfulness of their lives, consider what a wonder of divine mercy it is, that you are not in the same, or a worse condition. If by these, or any other means, you could but keep your frailty in view, nothing would be more likely to set you to

working out your salvation with fear and trembling.

Such solemn scenes as these, are more effectual than preaching on them can be, to convert and save you.

BUT after all, some harden themselves, amidst the most awakening providences, by promising themselves that they shall have leisure on their death bed, to repent and prepare for futurity. This, I must tell you, is the most forlorn hope that any poor sinner can venture his soul upon. What! will you hope to do the greatest work at a time, when you are unfit for so much as the least?—But you are far from being sure that you shall have this opportunity. You cannot rationally expect that God will give it you, when you shall have lived in rebellion against him all your lives.

You see that many die by violent accidents, so instantly that they have not time to make one single prayer to God for his grace.—And among those who are brought to their end by lingering sickness, how few are ever fully sensible of their danger, while they have any reason and understanding left? How often are they flattered with the hopes of recovery, by their physicians and friends, in the beginning of their disease, that their spirits may not sink; 'till at once, all comes to be too late, and nothing can be done for soul or body, to keep the one from the grave, Page  21or the other from hell?—But supposing you should be ever so much alarmed at the near approach of death, and ever so attentive to the things of your peace, in your last sickness, it is but little that you can do, amidst the various aches, uneasinesses, medical applications and visitings, that will then take up your attention, and distract your meditations.

Upon the whole, the hazard of your trusting to a death-bed preparation is so great, that it is next to taking up a resolution, that you will never take any care of your soul at all. It is almost as fatal, as if you should now leap headlong into eternal burnings.—I will not assert the utter impossibility of a death-bed preparation. But I believe, not one in a thousand, among those who neglect religion till then, is enabled truly to repent on his death-bed.—But supposing what is so very unlikely should take place, in any of you; that you should become new creatures, in this last extremity; you would have no reason to expect, in such a case, that you could gain any comfortable evidence of it. And if not, you must expect to die in the most extreme horror. The fear of dying such a death, if this were all, you must allow to be alone sufficient, in reason, to perswade you to enter immediately upon an holy life. For who can tell how soon you may be laid upon a bed of sickness? upon a bed of death? And what would you not then give, think you, for such a blessed opportunity as you now have in your hands?

THE present, O young men, is your best time to become sober-minded, as you have more reason Page  22 now to hope for the absolutely necessary assistances of the divine Spirit, than you will have hereafter.— I hope you are sensible, that without him, you can do nothing to a saving purpose; and that if he departs from you, all your own strivings will leave you destitute of grace and salvation.

No man can come unto me,

saith Christ,

except the Father draw him.

—You will consider also, that the blessed Spirit does take an everlasting flight from some sinners, while they remain in this world.—For we read of some, whom

God gave up to vile affections,

and "to a reprobate mind." And our Lord mentions the sin "against the holy Ghost," which shall never he forgiven. Accordingly the apostle Paul speaks of some, whom

it is impossible to renew again unto repentance;

one reason of which is because

they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to open shame.

As you would dread, therefore, to be forsaken of the Spirit of God, be convinced that now is your time to receive religion into your hearts. Can you expect that the Holy Spirit will always strive with you? Is it impossible for you, by continuing in sin, so to grieve him as to make him utterly forsake you? Do you not fear you shall so quench him, that he will never kindle any more holy desires in you?— This divine guest is now knocking at the doors of your hearts; moving you to let him in, that he may take up his abode there. If you will suffer him he will enter, and thence forward abide in you, and enable you to

cleanse yourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit,

and to perfectPage  23"holiness in the fear of God." But if you continue to withstand, or neglect his motions, or refuse to concur with his operations, he will be more and more grieved, until he leaves you to yourselves. And if this should come to be your case, your damnation will be as inevitable, as if the sentence, "go ye cursed," were already pronounced against you.— Will you not be aroused by the danger of this that you incur, by continuing in sin? Or can you flatter yourselves that God will not soon give you over? He is indeed rich in mercy; but it is

to them that call upon him.

He is said to be

long-suffering, and slow to anger;

but has not his patience been already lengthened out towards some of you, even to long suffering? Judge whether it is fit and reasonable, and whether you have any right to expect that he should continue his blessed motions on your hearts, after you have been, year after year, opposing all his strivings. If the Holy Ghost were as easy to be offended, as one of the most benevolent of men, you have, many of you, done enough already to provoke him to take his final leave of you. Where is the man, that will always persist in offering you a great favour, after you have persisted in refusing it, so much as you have persisted in grieving and opposing the spirit of God?— Especially when you add the greatest affronts and indignities to your refusal?

THUS I have shewed you, O young men, two of the many powerful motives there are, to perswade you to become sober-minded, or heartily religious, while you remain young men.

Page  24 THESE arguments, if they had their due weight with you, would be sufficient to over balance all your present aversion to holiness.—But I shall further pursue my present design of exhorting you to internal sobriety, as soon as it shall please God to give me another opportunity.

The END of the FIRST SERMON.

Page  [unnumbered]

SERMON II. Containing more Arguments to persuade young Men to be soberminded.

Page  27

SERMON II.

TITUS 11.6.

Young men likewise exhort to be sober-minded.

MINISTERS are concerned to comply with this exhortation: for in it Titus, and through him all succeeding ministers of Christ, are directed to exhort young men to be sober-minded, or heartily religious. As this flock contains many young men, I hope I shall not be thought tedious, if in a long address to them, I urge them by a variety of motives, rational and scriptural, to do the work and business they are sent into the world to do, while the best, and I had almost said, the only season for their doing it continues.

IN the preceeding discourse, after I had explained the nature of the duty to which young men are to be exhorted, I endeavoured to persuade them to get and cultivate internal sobriety, by shewing them,

I. THAT God sent them into the world, that by hearty religion and holiness of life, they should prepare for happiness in the approaching eternal state.

Page  28 II. THAT now is the best time, upon many accounts, to set themselves about the great work of religion.

I AM now to go on farther with the same general exhortation, by urging several other motives upon them; that if possible, they may feel the weight of some or other of them; or at least, that by the force of them all in conjunction, with the concurrence of the spirit of grace, they may be made willing to part with all their lusts, and become sober-minded. To proceed then,

III. CONSIDER farther, my beloved young friends, that your becoming religious in your youth will render you greatly useful in the world, and make you blessings to mankind.

THE best that can be said of an irreligious and wicked life is, that it is useless, in comparison with an holy and virtuous one. All the wicked are either nuisances and pests in society, or else they stand almost like ciphers, and answer few valuable purposes; unless it be accidentally and undesignedly. This may well be expected to be the case, when we consider that worldly self-love is their predominant principle. I will not suppose you at present to be so far gone in wickedness as to be scourges to mankind; though if you will not be persuaded to be religious, you may soon become so: for the way of sin is down-hill. But you are to be considered as almost void of usefulness, in comparison with what you might be, and as answering not many valuable purposes, by your existence. Consider this, I beseech you, that you may awaken Page  29an holy ambition in yourselves, and so engage in the service of God, that you may become great blessings to your fellow-men. Even the youngest of you are now arrived to those years, in which you might be very useful, if God's grace had admittance into your hearts. And since God has put it in your power to be rich blessings to mankind, this is a sufficient reason why you should be so. If you have any philanthropy, any true benevolence in you, you will think it is time to exert yourselves, according to the dictates of religion, in doing good to all around you. To what purpose are all the noble powers and faculties of body and mind, with which God has endowed you? unless you use them as he directs you. Why has he suffered you to escape all those fatal accidents, to which childhood and early youth are obnoxious, and helped you thus to ripen into manhood? It is not that you should live wholly unto yourselves; but partly that you should answer valuable purposes to the community, with which you are connected. God has assigned each one of you your station; and nothing like Christian sobriety will enable you to act your parts well.

THE religious and virtuous man is a benefit to all around him, by his governing his own appetites, passions and affections according to the will of God, and the dictates of conscience. For these lower principles are not suffered to stand in the way of his doing those duties to his fellow-creatures, which God requires him to do. He is charitable to the indigent and miserable; just and righteous Page  30towards all men; unkind and injurious to none; extending his benevolence to his enemies, and the whole human race. He allures his observers to virtue and piety, by his good example. He obtains blessings on the community by his prayers. His righteousness prevents impending judgments falling upon a sinful people. So that he is, on several accounts, an important advantage to the publick.

HAVE you no ambition, my young friends, thus to become publick benefactors? It is glorious to love your country. It is fashionable to profess this love. It is necessary that you abound in it, in the present distressed and alarming state of our publick affairs. You can no way so much befriend your country, I am sure, as by your being truly religious. It is "righteousness that exalteth a nation." Your goodness may extend to more countries than that of your nativity. You may thus become like gods on earth, without any expense, or trouble, only by being and doing what is best for yourselves. You cannot reasonably refuse, or withhold so cheap a sacrifice to the publick welfare.

This leads me to say,

IV. A religious life is more pleasant and happy, than a life of sin and vanity: and this I would urge upon young men as a motive to persuade them to be sober-minded.

If I could convince you, my young friends, of the pleasantness of religion, I am persuaded you would soon embrace it; for you are no way deficient in loving pleasure. You have a quick taste Page  31for pleasure; and you would be glad to feel happy, every remaining day of your lives. Let me then put you into the most likely way to obtain the thing you desire. That I may do this, you must permit me to convince you of the truth of the royal preacher's observation, that religious

wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness;

and for this reason, because it is so much greater a source of present pleasure and happiness.

YOU cannot be happy, so long as conscience is vexing, galling and stinging you. Conscious guilt is enough to keep you continually uneasy; and it really robs of their repose all who are going on in the ways of wickedness. But an approving conscience is a constant spring of peace. The Psalmist says,

great peace have they that love thy law, and nothing shall offend them.

Yea, it is a foundation of continual rejoicing.

Our rejoicing is this,

says the apostle Paul,

the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world.

THE wicked and licentious endeavour to put on the appearance of happiness; and some of them are often boasting that they enjoy themselves better than the sober and precise. But this is always false, and often feigned. They are certainly uneasy in their own company, though they would have it thought they are men of pleasure. Therefore it is that they cannot abide solitude, nor be easy without frequent diversions and amusements. They Page  32 find they must do something to drown thought, and silence the clamours of conscience; therefore they rush into scenes of gaiety, or into revelling and debauchery.—But the sober-minded can be happy, without the help of such violent amusements. They cannot only bear to converse with themselves; but they can enjoy great pleasure in solitary meditations, and in self-recollection and reflection. While the minds of the

wicked are like the troubled sea, whose waves cast up mire and dirt;

the souls of the righteous are like pure and healing fountains, or rivers of pleasure.

WICKED men, I confess, have joys: but they are impure, sudden, too violent to last, and leave stings behind them. Even

in the midst of laughter, their hearts are often sad.

But the godly and virtuous enjoy pleasures sincere and refined: suited to the nature of the soul. They are of an even tenour, and such as can be reflected on with pleasure. What is the pleasure of a riot or debauch, to compare with the pleasure of communion with God, or with the pleasure of resembling him in temper and conduct? The former is baser than the happiness of a swine; the latter resembles that of the blessed angels. If the blessed are happier than the damned, it follows that the virtuous are more happy than the vicious, in this life; for the happiness of heaven is the natural fruit of holiness, and the torments of hell are created by sin.

MEN cannot but think of God some times; for all things around us declare his being, perfections and providence. But the wicked cannot seriously Page  33 think of God, without horror and dread; whereas the righteous have great pleasure in meditating on his nature, attributes and works. The former cannot be quiet within, until they banish him out of their minds; the latter have ineffable pleasure in retaining the idea of him. The former can take no pleasure in addressing themselves to him; the latter have heavenly joys, in their hours of communion with him.

ETERNITY will some times force itself into the minds of sinners, in spite of all their endeavours to prevent it; and as often as it does so, it fills them with a panick; as well it may. But the godly look forward to that state with pleasure; for it is there that they place their happiness. It is there that they expect to enjoy God fully, after all their temporal joys and sorrows are ended. The former, when they look forward to that state, see nought but trouble and darkness; an horrible and amazing prospect, which robs them of their present repose and pleasure: The latter solace their minds with an anticipation and fore-taste of those joys, which are prepared for them in the upper world. And this sooths all their cares, abates their griefs, and enables them patiently, and therefore more easily than others, to bear the unavoidable evils of life.

THE righteous are more happy than the wicked in their temporal enjoyments. They are more contented with that portion of worldly good things, which they possess; and hereby they become more happy; for our present happiness does not bear proportion to the degrees of our wealth, but to the Page  34degrees of our contentment. So that

the little that a righteous man hath is better,

more conducive to happiness,

than the treasures of many wicked.

ALSO, whatever good things they enjoy, it is a satisfaction to them that they have reason to believe God sends them in love, and that the divine blessing attends them. But the wicked, amidst all their worldly good things, have reason to apprehend that the curse of God attends them; that they are like bullocks fatting for the slaughter, and that their "prosperity" will contribute to "destroy them" eternally. The righteous have the promise of temporal prosperity, so far as shall be for the glory of God, and their own everlasting good; and more than this they cannot, in reason, desire.

Wait on the Lord, and keep his way,

says David,

and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off thou shalt see it.

And the apostle Paul assures us, that

godliness is profitable unto all things, having the promise of the life that now is.

—But the ungodly have no such promises to rely upon.

So that you may see, religion is every way productive of present happiness. As you love happiness then, my young friends, be persuaded to admit religion into your hearts and live by its dictates.

YOU have suffered yourselves to be prejudiced against a religious life, by suggestions that it will be contrary to your present ease and happiness.— You have abused yourselves with such an opinion, which is as false as any of Satan's suggestions can Page  35be.—Religion does not require you to part with any manly and rational pleasures and enjoyments. It only requires you to refrain from those indulgences and excesses, which are contrary, and a scandal to your rational nature; and in return gives you the noblest intellectual pleasures: and these latter are as much above the former, as heaven is above the earth. If you must give up the pleasure you enjoy in the society of your wicked companions, you will obtain the society of the wise and good, which is more than a balance. If you deny yourselves the gains of wickedness, you will find "godliness is gain," as the apostle assures you, and an incomparably more beneficial kind of gain.

I AM sensible there is no making you realize, that the pleasures of religion exceed those of sin, 'till you learn it from your own experience. But let me prevail with you to pay some regard to the authority of God, who declares this to you. And I beseech you, give some credit to that which experienced Christians tell you they have found, by long trial. Be so far influenced by these things, at least, as to make the experiment whether it is not as I tell you. If you were once to taste the sweets of holiness, I am persuaded nothing could induce you afterwards, to abandon them for the pleasures of sin. For you would find that

in keeping the commandments of God there is a great reward;

as well as an infinite reward in reversion.

THIS life is not so happy, at best, that you need to deny yourselves the highest pleasures that are to be enjoyed in it; as indeed you will, if you neglect Page  36the pleasures of religion. If you desire to enjoy all the pleasures that is possible here, you must become holy in early life. You have lost some of your time already, in sin and vanity. Many of you have gone so far in the ways of sin, that you cannot but have observed its pleasures are unsatisfactory and vexatious. Squander away no more of your precious moments, I beseech you,

lest you mourn at the last;

for the time is coming, when you will think all the time lost, and worse than lost, which you have not spent in the service of God. You are yet so young that you have a blessed opportunity for enjoying much of the pleasure of religion: for according to the course of nature, you have more time before you to exercise yourselves in holiness, than many others. And besides, your affections have not yet lost their spring; so that you are capable of the most lively and sensible joys of religion. These are advantages for happiness, that are peculiar to persons of your age: but they will abate and diminish, as you advance in years. Seize this golden season therefore; and so secure the highest, and most durable pleasures you are capable of, on this side heaven.

O THAT you could have such a view of these things, as they have, who begin to be religious in the afternoon of life! Could you but know the regret they feel, on account of their having missed the delights of religion in their youth, you would now spring forward without delay, and serve God with all your might. You would give your lusts and corruptions quarter, not a moment longer.— Believe me, my friends, you will, one time or other, Page  37lament it bitterly, if you devote not your early days to God. There is a dreadful probability that you will have to lament it forever, when it is too late to do you any good.—Not only will religion promote your present happiness, but,

V. NOTHING else can be so much for your honour and reputation in the world, as to be soberminded, or heartily religious in your youth.

YOU are doubtless desirous of honour, and would be glad to be much respected, and highly praised by your fellow-creatures. For the love of fame is truly said to be an universal passion. Youth is the time of life when ambition commonly rises highest; and it is a laudable ambition, to desire to be in honour and repute for piety and virtue. You may be allowed to indulge this desire, to a certain degree; only you must take care that you love not "the praise of men, so much as the praise of God;" and that, whenever they come into competition, you are governed by the latter.

SUFFER me to take hold of your ambition, as a handle to lead you into the paths of holiness. Consider how much eminently holy men are reverenced and celebrated, by all who have any taste for moral beauty. Observe how respectfully they are spoken of, in almost every company. See the veneration shewed them, where they are present. Hear the encomiums that are passed upon them, in their absence. Then ask yourselves if you would not gladly share in their honours.

IT is true, that some few of the most profane and abandoned love to speak against holy men, and Page  38  endeavour to despise them in their hearts. But there are very few, even of the wicked, who do not venerate them in their minds, and even wish, at some seasons, to be like them. But all whose praise is any honour, are unanimous in praising all who appear to be truly religious and virtuous. And they will praise them the more in proportion as they approach nearer to perfection, in all the amiable graces of Christianity. If you are truly religious, all the good will esteem and speak highly of you; yea, and the greater part of the wicked will do the same. For but few are so abandoned as not to perceive and approve what is good.—And even those of the wicked who hate you for your goodness, will hardly dare to do otherwise than speak well of you; because it will be unpopular, and apt to hurt their own credit.

THE eminently holy and virtuous, of every age and standing in life, are honourable: but eminently pious and sober youths commonly receive double honour. It is so rare a thing to see young men abound with grace, that those who evidently do so are singularly celebrated. Most persons are often speaking in their praises and mentioning their attainments with admiration. They seldom fail to become famous, not only in their own times, but in succeeding ages. Yea, some such obtain an indelible and everlasting reputation. Those holy young men, Samuel and Josiah, Shadrach, Meshech and Abed-nego, Daniel and Timothy have their extraordinary piety recorded in deathless registers; and their same shall be handed down, Page  39 through all the remaining generations of the world. Will not a consideration of the fame of these pious youths inspire you with an ardent zeal to follow their bright examples? Imitate their virtues, and you may obtain similar honours. Many will

rise up and call you blessed,

while you live, and your names shall be had

in everlasting remembrance.

VI. IF you love to excel and shine in any business that you undertake, enter upon a religious course now, that so in that most important business, you may make great proficiency.

YOU will never, it is probable, arrive to great attainments in religion, unless you begin betimes. Can you be willing to grovel as long as you live, and never attain to any extraordinary degrees of holiness? It is likely you intend to get, some time or other, religion enough to fit you for heaven.— But is it not desirable to exceed the lower forms of Christians? Is it not worthy your ambition to aim at the highest improvements in the divine life? I would fain suppose that you think so. It is high time, therefore, for you to begin your journey heaven-wards. For the way to do extraordinary service for God, is not to spend the first, and best of your time in idleness. If you would be before others, you must start earlier than others; because religion is a progressive work. I never knew any very improved Christians, who were not religious from their youth. But if you begin in youth, you will have all possible advantage for doing more than others. Thus you may come to be Page  40 grown men and strong, while many of your seniors are but babes in Christ. You may arrive to the full assurance of faith, while they are struggling in the narrows of regeneration. You may come to be filled with

joy and peace in believing, while they remain in bondage, through fear of death.

If you did but realize one half of the advantages of high attainments in grace, you would devote your early days to God, lest you should never arrive thereunto.

VII. CONSIDER whether you are not bound by the strongest and most indispensable ties of gratitude to God to devote your youthful days to him.

GOD is your creator. His almighty fiat bro't you out of nothing into being, and furnished you with all your powers of action, both corporal and mental. And who should you serve, but him who made you? You owe him all that you are and have; and you cannot be too early in giving him his own, especially as he demands it of you. If you do not speedily devote all your powers to his service, where is your gratitude. Is it not a shameful thing to deny him any of your time? Refuse him not then your youth, in which you can serve him best.

HE has also fed and cloathed you,

nourished and brought you up as children.

Yea, he has been doing this, while you have been forgetting and forsaking him; or else affronting and provoking him, with horrid rebellion against his sacred authority. Instead of destroying you, according to your deserts, he has been loading you

with his benefits.

Will you then persist any longer in Page  41making so vile a return for his goodness, as to deny him your service? He observes your conduct; he takes notice how you requite him, and highly resents your ingratitude. He calls heaven and earth to witness to the ingratitude of such as you have hitherto been. "Hear, O heavens," saith he,

and give ear, O earth! for the Lord hath spoken: I have nourished and brought up children, but they have rebelled against me.

WHERE then can words be found to express your ingratitude, if you continue in sin, when you know that Christ died an ignominious and most painful death, to

redeem you from all iniquity, and purify you unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works?

Titus ii. 14. Has he died on the cross to obtain pardon for all true penitents, and will you not repent? Has he suffered the curse, that he might send you the sanctifying Spirit, and will you not improve his assistance? If this is your case, no other kind of ingratitude is fit to be compared with your's.

YOUR glorious Prince has died in your stead; because his infinite compassion towards you would not permit him to see you suffer the destruction to which you were obnoxious. And will not this prevail with you, to make you throw down the arms you have taken up against him? If not, your guilt will rise beyond all parallel. You will be ranked with those, who are said to

crucify the Son of God afresh:—no more sacrifice

will be admitted for your unmeasurably aggravated sin;

but there remaineth a certain fearful looking for Page  42of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour

you. You must expect a far

sorer punishment,

than the despisers of the law of Moses underwent, who were put to death

without mercy,

without redemption or reprieve.

THE more means God has used, and the greater expense he has been at to bring you to himself, the more atrocious is the guilt of your unthankfulness. If you had never heard of Christ, the ingratitude of your sins would have been really inexcusable; for the heathen nations are truly said to be

without excuse,

Rom. i. 20. But how much more so are you, who have the free offer of salvation by Christ, and live under the clearest light of the gospel? You have, in this land, all possible advantages of grace. You enjoy a degree of religious liberty, which is denied to far the greater part of Christendom. You are generally taught, in your childhood, the principles of religion; and your ministers are continually wooing and beseeching you to "be reconciled to God." Let not all the labour that is laid out on you be lost; for if you will not after all be persuaded, you must expect a most aggravated damnation. For Christ has said,

that servant which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.

[servant which]

The people of Sodom and Gomorrah, though their crimes were such as you abhor, will have a lighter doom than you in the day of judgment, unless you repent. O let these alarming considerations prevail with you to make a speedy surrender of yourselves to God.

Page  43 VIII. You must also consider, that early piety is the means of advancing the glory of God most effectually; therefore that you should now become sober-minded.

IT was for the manifestation of his glory that you, and all other creatures and things were created. Surely you should make that a design of your actions, which was God's design in giving you power to act. The promoting his glory, therefore, should be an abiding and powerful motive to duty with you. If, by early religion, you can best promote this design; let the desire of this engage you to be religious, while your youth continues. And that this is really true, I hope to convince you.

"HEREIN is my Father glorified," says Christ, "that ye bear much fruit." But you cannot expect to bear much, if you remain barren trees in God's vineyard, until you begin to wither away. Let the fruits of internal sobriety and holiness, then, be found upon you in youth, as ever you hope to be filled with the fruits of righteousness and holiness, which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

BY early piety you will not only glorify God in your own persons, but be the means of its being done by others. "Your light" will

so shine before men, that they may see your good works;

and this will excite them to endeavour to follow your bright example, and thereby

glorify your Father which is in heaven.

YOUR truly religious conduct will be such a continual reproof of the careless and irreligious lives of Page  44 your seniors, that it will be one of the most effectual means to awaken their consciences, and bring them into the way of holiness. It is highly probable they will be hereby led to reflect, and consider how shameful it is, that they are so backward in their preparation for eternity, when they see young persons so forward; and that the necessity is great that they begin the great business of life, without any longer delay, as they are probably so much nearer than you to the end of their probation state.—But you will not be apt to leave them wholly to their own reflections. You will modestly remind them, as you have opportunity, of the evil of sin, and of the unreasonableness and danger of neglecting their most important concerns, and of living as "without God in the world." And the idea of your youth, if you reprove and exhort wisely, will give a peculiar force to such applications.

ALSO, you will be likely to become the instruments of reclaiming your equals to religion and virtue Your good examples will have an almost irresistable influence upon them; and you can hardly fail of doing them much good. You will do much to shame them out of their vices, and to allure them into the way, in which they should walk. For young persons are much influenced by examples, and seldom fail to become like their companions. Therefore if you desire that God should be glorified in the conversion of your acquaintances, begin to serve the Lord betimes. If the young men who are here present would become as exemplarily religious as they ought, I should expect it would be the Page  45 means of a general revival of religion among us.— You have it in your power to do much in this way for the honour of God. Do it then, because you can do it. This is a sufficient reason; for you are obliged to do all you can for the honour of him, who is the owner of your bodies and spirits, and the giver of all your time and talents.

MOREOVER, they who have the honour of God and the welfare of religion at heart, will be so rejoiced to observe your early piety, that they will not cease to give thanks, to praise and glorify the name of God, for his grace appearing in you. As the churches of Judea "glorified God in" the apostle Paul, when they heard of his conversion to Christianity; so will Christians glorify God in you, or on your account, when they perceive your conversion to holiness.

CHRISTIANS will bless God, not only for what you are, but for the prospect he gives them in you, of much good to the rising generation. Our attention is turned upon you, my young friends; for we cannot but look upon you, as upon persons that are to be of great importance in years to come, when our own day is over. It lies much with you, whether the cause of religion is to revive and flourish, or farther to sink and decay. The youngest of you, if God spares your lives, are soon to be heads and governors of families. And how thankful shall we be, if we can see reason to believe that you and your houses "will serve the Lord?"—But on the other hand, it will depress our spirits to see you rising up to be the chiefs and leaders of a careless Page  46and ungodly generation.—How do you think your aged Christian friends can die in peace, so long as they have too much reason to think their places will be supplied with young men who cast off the fear of God?

Be religious therefore in mercy to them, lest you

bring down their grey hairs with sorrow to the grave. [Gen 44:29, 31 and 1 Ne 18:18]

You cannot think how those of you who are most evidently ungodly, wring the hearts of your good parents, and other pious Christians. As you know not what high pleasure and satisfaction you would give them, by an early walking in the ways of God: so you cannot conceive how you pain them by your contrary practices.

IX. As you would lay a foundation for an happy close of life, be persuaded to mind your main concern in your early days.

THAT is a true saying,

a well-spent life makes a pleasant old age.

Be real Christians from this time forwards; and if you should live to the otherwise cheerless days of age, you will then have the best comfort, when other comforts lose their relish; the delights of virtue and communion with God, exercises of the soul a-kin to heavenly bliss, and a comfortable retrospect on a life well-spent. These will be most important supports to your spirits, which you cannot well be without, when your "flesh and heart" is failing, and you feel yourselves tottering on the brink of a fathomless eternity.— You canot conceive what a relief it will be to you, if you are able then, like Hezekiah, to look up to God saying,

remember now, O Lord, I beseech Page  47thee, how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight.

IN your serious moments, you are doubtless ready to pray like Balaam,

let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his.

Let me remind you, that in order to obtain this favour of God, you must live a life of evangelical holiness. The oracles of God point out no other way. Live like the righteous, and then you may hope, thro' the mercy of God in Christ, that you shall die like them. —You may die safely indeed, if you should enter late upon an holy life; but it will be strange if you should die cheerfully. You cannot die comfortably, unless you attain to a full assurance of your gracious state: and this is not to be expected, because not ordinarily obtained, but as the fruit and reward of a long course of holy living. How inexpressibly dreadful must it be, to be forced away to the tribunal of God, without any firm assurance of the safety of your state? This may be called dying the death of the wicked, whether you are the children of God, or not. As you would shun such an exit, let me prevail with you to embrace your present happy opportunity of beginning a godly life. For the sooner you begin, the more likely it is that you may obtain "the full assurance of hope," which is so necessary to enable you to face "the king of terrors."

X. AND lastly, I shall propose to you, my young friends, one motive more, to persuade you to mortify your lusts and be sober-minded. It is the prospect of higher degrees of glory in heaven, which Page  48 the more eminent and improved servants of God shall obtain.

IT is very plain from scripture, that the greater our degrees of grace are here, the greater will be our rewards in the upper world. And, as I have said before, the earlier you begin to serve God, the greater improvements it is likely you will make in religion, and the greater meetness for glory will you obtain. It follows, that by early piety you may hope to be laying up extraordinary treasure for yourselves in heaven. Each day you spend in your warfare against lust and sin, will serve to enhance your glorious reward. Every hour you spend in serving God, you will find the benefit of to all eternity. All that you do more than others will add, proportionably, to your "eternal weight of glory." For though you are not to be rewarded for your work, as you can merit nothing of god; still you are to be rewarded,

according as your work shall be,

Rev. xxii. 12. Each degree of increased glory is to be considered as an eternal benefit: who will then be so foolish as to refuse to begin early in his Lord's work, when the reward annexed, thro' grace, to every part & portion of his work, is eternal?

PERHAPS you will say, the lowest place in heaven is the utmost of your desire. I grant that the lowest saint in heaven will be completely happy, as all his desires will be satisfied. But since there are different degrees of glory, why should you not aspire after the highest? And why is this made known to you, in the word of God, unless it be his will to excite an holy emulation in you. I am sure you Page  49are not capable of a more glorious piece of ambition, than to aim at obtaining the highest rewards of grace; though you should always remember they are "of grace," and that you will always be unworthy of the lowest.

BUT, by what was said in the first discourse, it appears to be very doubtful whether you obtain any place at all in heaven, unless you seek it in your youth. I may therefore exhort you to seek the highest, that so you may be sure of some place in the mansions of the blessed. God's children think they cannot stand too high in his favour, nor receive too many marks of it. As it is their temper, to press forward to the highest improvements in grace, can it be thought they have no desire of the greatest tokens in heaven of God's love & kindness to them?

YOU see, my young friends, what a long exhortation I have given you, in a cheerful compliance with the requirement in my text. An exhortation chiefly adapted, as the text is, to the case of those of you who are yet unregenerate; but not improper to be attended to by every one of you. I might have used several other motives with you; particularly, I might have represented to you all that the scripture teaches of the joys of the blessed, and the torments of the damned. But as these motives are often presented to you in addresses to people in general; and as they are not so peculiar to persons of your age as the most that I have used, I have not distinctly urged them. But enough has been said to leave you without excuse, if you remain unreclaimed. If you reject this exhortation, I shall Page  50have too much reason to suspect that you will never be reclaimed. Let me not, I beseech you, lose this labour upon you, as I have reason to fear I have lost much heretofore. Must I return and say, "Lord, who hath belived our report?" Must I leave you with the melancholy prospect that this earnest address will not move, but harden you? And dare you run the venture of its rising up in judgment against you at the last day, and aggravating your condemnation? This, alas! will be the event, if you cannot be persuaded to

turn and live.

BUT I hope better things concerning some of you. I observe with pleasure, that some of you seem to be endowed with very amiable, and I hope truly gracious qualities. Several of you have unquestionably begun to be sober-minded: I would hope others are now resolving that they will become so. These have need of direction and assistance, that they may keep what they have gotten and go forward.—On this head you may have opportunity to hear me soon. In the mean time think of the serious truths you have now heard, "and the Lord give you understanding."

Page  [unnumbered]

SERMON III. Containing Directions to those young Men, who desire to be sober-minded.

Page  53

SERMON III.

TITUS 11.6.

Young men likewise exhort to be sober-minded.

IN the two preceeding discourses, I explained what it is to be sober-minded; and then exhorted our young men to become so, with a variety of arguments and motives, which were chiefly adapted to persons of their standing, and especially to those who are not yet in a sanctified state. I flatter myself that some of them have so felt the weight of these arguments, either before or at this hearing of them, as to be inclined to give up themselves to the service of God, and begin a warfare against their lusts and corruptions.—But as young persons are commonly much at a loss how to demean themselves, when they begin to be seriously affected with the things of religion, it was proposed,

THIRDLY. To give young men directions what methods to take, if they desire to obtain and cultivate inward sobriety.—This therefore is what I shall, depending upon divine assistance, apply myself to at this time.—And,

I. LET me direct you, my young friends, to Page  54avoid evil company, and associate as much as possible with good and virtuous persons.

I MENTION this first, because it appears to me to be of the greatest importance. A young man will not only be esteemed to be much the same as those he is most familiarly acquainted with; but it is most likely, if he is not so at present, he will soon really be so. Young men are pliable; those of the best natures not less so than others, but often more; so that they will easily take the impression that is given them, by those with whom they most frequently converse. Insomuch that, as good company will be likely to do them the greatest good, so evil company will probably do them the greatest hurt. Solomon was fully convinced of this, which made him say, in general terms,

he that walketh with wise men shall be wise; but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.

Take notice how those improve in goodness, who consort with holy men; and how fast those "wax worse and worse," [2 Timothy 3:13] who are familiar with sinners; and you will be convinced of the truth of this saying, from your own observation.

LET me insist upon it therefore, that you immediately break off all unnecessary familiar acquaintance with those who have not the fear of God before their eyes; unless they will now turn with you into the right ways of the Lord. Your precious souls will be in the greatest danger from such connexions. Therefore your all-merciful God, who desires not your destruction but your salvation, has repeatedly warned you in his word, against Page  55keeping such company. The divine cautions are such as these;

walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path, Prov. i. 15.

Go from the presence of a "foolish," that is, a wicked

man, when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge,

Ch. xiv. ver. 7.

Make no friendship with an angry man, and with the furious thou shalt not go, lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul,

Ch. xxii. ver. 24, 25.

Be not thou envious against evil men; neither desire to be with them,

Ch. xxii. ver. 1.

ATTEND, I beseech you, not only to these cautions, but also to the conduct of holy David; who says,

I have not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in with dissemblers. I have hated the congregation of evil doers; and I will not sit with the wicked.

Take notice also of his promises and resolutions, in this respect. "I will not know," says he,

a wicked person;—he that worketh deceit shall not dwell in my house; he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight.

YOU had better be quite solitary, than have none but wicked companions. You had better dwell alone in a wilderness, than associate with those who fear not God. But, thanks be to the grace of God, this is not the doleful alternative; either to converse with wicked companions, or abandon society.— There are some, I hope a good number, even in this wicked place, who are fit companions for serious Christians, and whose intimate acquaintance will not hurt you, but do you good. Since men are made sociable creatures, and you find something Page  56 in you strongly demanding a friendly and familiar intercourse with your fellow-creatures, the refusing to gratify which will be attended with great mortification, and real disadvantage, be persuaded to seek the acquaintance of those who are truly religious. The example of David it is best you should follow; who says,

I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts.

CHANGING of old acquaintance for new will doubtless be attended with some difficulty; but this can be no sufficient reason for your paying so little regard to your own spiritual interest, and the express commands of God, as to neglect doing it.

YOU may be even ready to think it impracticable, in many cases, because of your necessary business and connexions. But I am sure you had better let any temporal business suffer, if one or the other must be, than risk an intimacy with the profligate and ungodly. This duty however, is not so to be understood, as if you must have no sort of dealing and communication with such persons. For it is observable, that where the apostle warns the Corinthians

not to company with fornicators,—of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters,

he makes this exception,

yet not altogether;—for then ye must needs go out of the world.

He did not require them so entirely to shun such wicked company, as not to do needful business with them, and interchange common civilities. You may be friendly and courteous to the worst of men, and even religion requires you to be so, without holding any intimacy with them, and choosing them for your bosom-companions.

Page  57 THE greatest difficulty in this case will probably arise from relationship: for the want of intimacy with relatives, especially with those of the same household, will be apt to breed uneasiness and jealousy. But you should quit the houses of wicked relatives, and even of wicked parents, if you are not in your minority, and under their lawful command; unless you can prevail with them to forsake their practices; excepting in such cases, where their need of your help renders it a work of piety to abide with them.

LET me seriously advise those of you, who are at liberty to choose your places of abode, to enter, if possible, into families where religious orders are observed; and where the morning, and evening sacrifices are not neglected. This will be a means of keeping up in your souls a wakeful sense of divine things. Avoid prayerless houses as you would infected ones: for such families, it is to be feared, are not in the way of God's blessing. You may well fear God's judgments, if you dwell in such places: for divine fury, you may justly expect, will be poured out, sooner or later,

on the families that call not on his name.

YOU can hardly conceive how much depends upon your making a wise choice of your most intimate companions. Religious friends will be continually guarding you against temptations; reminding you of the unreasonableness, vileness, and odiousness of sin; prompting and quickening you to the practice of every holy duty, and Christian virtue.

AND of all companions, choosing a bosom friend Page  58of the other sex for life, is a matter of more serious importance than most young men seem to imagine. Let those of you who have this yet to do, be careful to do it considerately, and prayerfully, in the fear of God, and with an eye to the welfare of your souls. For if you should form this dear connexion with such as are not governed by religious principles; with such as affect every thing in fashion, let it be never so unreasonable and sinful; with such as have no command over their appetites, and passions, farewell to all your serious impressions. Whatever pious resolutions you have formed, they will be likely to vanish as the morning cloud. But if you choose those who are actuated by the love and fear of God, and whose ornament is "a meek and quiet spirit," they will help you forward in religion, guard you against sin and temptation, and sweetly attract you to the love and practice of universal holiness.

THE great apostle Paul did not think it beneath him, to direct and exhort men on this head.

Be not unequally yoked, says he, with unbelievers:

and elsewhere,

let him that marrieth marry in the Lord.

—And I should think it advisable for you to choose to match, other things being equal, with those who are, by education or choice, of the same denomination of Christians with yourselves: because doing otherwise has often proved to be the means of great inconveniences, if not of the alienation of affections.

THOSE of you, my young friends, who have been left to lead apparently wicked lives, may be in some doubt, whether religious persons will Page  59 suffer you to become their intimates; because they are warned against an intimacy with the wicked. But they are obliged to avoid you no longer than you remain wicked. If you repent, and acknowledge your sorrow for your sins, they are welcome, yea, they are obliged to "restore" you to their affections, "in the spirit of meekness." And they will be so rejoiced, when they see you

bring forth fruits meet for repentance,

that they will love and caress you as much as if you had been serious from your cradles: perhaps more; for a remarkable change in your conduct, and that humility which appears in your condemning your own former courses, will be considered as additional proofs of your sanctification, beyond what those who are sanctified from infancy can produce. So that you need not doubt being able to form as large, and as intimate an acquaintance with religious persons, as will be advantageous to you.

I MUST not close this direction, without recommending to you a practice which young men some times go into, of assembling in some private place, to assist and edify one another with exercises of devotion. I cannot but think that an evening spent, now and then, in this manner, would be of some spiritual advantage to you. It would, at least, help to wear off that shyness and bashfulness concerning religious matters, which is so common among you, and hurtful to you. You would be likely to encourage and strengthen one another to persist in your good resolutions; and it would serve as a school to prepare you to carry on the worship of God in Page  60 your own families. On this last account, I have known some, from their own experience, give a frank and full testimony in favour of this practice; who were persuaded they never should have been brought to perform family prayers, had they not been members of such a religious society. It would rejoice the hearts of many, if some of our young men would engage themselves in such a design.

II. THE next piece of advice I would give you, in order to your obtaining and cultivating hearty sobriety, is, that you be constant and fervent in your secret devotions.

SECRET prayer is so strictly instituted, or plainly commanded, by the divine person who died for you, that you can have no reason in the world to think yourselves true Christians, so long as you live in the neglect of it. He bids you

enter into your closet, and when you have shut the door, pray to your father which is in secret.

And the motive he adds, to encourage you to this duty, is so full of grace and goodness, that it seems strange that such needy, impotent creatures as men are, can ever choose to neglect it.

Pray to thy father which is in secret, and thy father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

Matth. vi. 6. Such a promise of God's hearing your prayers will render your neglect of praying in secret a foolish, and inexcusable piece of disobedience. You cannot but know that you want to receive of God many good things, both for soul and body: and yet, when you can have them for asking, will you neglect to ask? Can you desire to have your wants supplied, upon any easier terms?

Page  61 Is not this the highest honour and privilege that can be vouchsafed you? If you might have a secret interview with your earthly sovereign, as often as you pleased, and were assured that he would grant you any thing you should request of him, would you not value yourselves upon it? Would you need any other motives to make you accept of such a favour? You would be thought madmen, if you did. How much worse than mad are you then, if you slight, and neglect such an intercourse with the King of kings? especially as he will punish you with eternal destruction, if you neglect it.

I SUPPOSE few, or none, of you wholly neglect secret prayer: but I would have you constant, and fervent in it. You should have your daily, stated times for this duty, and let no small thing ever put you by: and you should be as much in earnest, and as affectionate as possible in your address to God. This is the right way of praying: the only sure way to obtain what you ask. You must

continue in prayer, and watch in the same,

Col. iv. 2.

As it is not in your own power to become heartily religious, you must go to God to make you so. Fervent and persevering prayer is the most important and likely means to obtain this necessary favour of God. There is a good old saying that you ought to consider,

praying will make thee leave sinning, or sinning will make thee leave praying.

This is doubtless true, if we understand fervent and importunate praying. So that you must not abate the frequency, nor the fervency of your prayers, if God does not immediately, or if he does not for a long Page  62 time, grant the things you pray for. God will send an answer in the fittest season, and that season may not be at hand. Sometimes God sees it is fit that your patience and perseverance should be tried, before your requests are granted. Christ

spake a parable to the end that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;

in which he gives you reason to expect that unceasing importunity will finally prevail. Take heed then that you do not faint in this duty; but let God's delaying to bless you make you more and more importunate For if you give over, your good beginnings will end in destruction: but if you persist, the work of grace will doubtless be wrought.

CRY mightily to God then, and do not despond. Resolve as Jacob, that you will not let him go till he blesses you. Cry as David did,

create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit in me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.

Say unto him, Lord, subdue the lusts and corruptions that are in me. Take away that bias to evil that has hitherto governed me; and make me a partaker of the divine nature; that so, for the future, I may live such a life as becomes a rational creature.—The greater variety of expressions you use, in your addresses to God for renewing grace, the more likely you will be to affect yourselves with your need of it, and the higher will your desires after it arise: and, in proportion, you will be the more likely soon to obtain it.

Is there any need of my adding this caution, that Page  63when you find God has changed your hearts, you are not to lay aside prayer? It is to be expected that you will then have your hearts so engaged in the exercise, that you will continue in it of your own accord. Prayer is the very breath of the regenerate. Saul was no sooner converted, than it was said of him, "behold he prayeth."

BUT the regenerate have their dull frames, when prayer appears burdensome: they are therefore to be reminded of their constant need of this holy exercise. It is as necessary for their improvement, and perseverance in holiness, as for their beginning in it. As long as you are needy and dependent, so long will prayer be necessary for you: and that will be as long as you live. As you will always need supplies of grace, you must always go to the fountain-head for them. Religion is a continued warfare; and you are not to expect you shall conquer your spiritual enemies, unless you repair to the Captain of your salvation, that you may

receive of his fullness.

You must go to him for daily assistance in your daily conflicts with Satan, the world, and lust.

ONE thing is to be remembered in your secret converse with God; which is, whenever you pray, to make confession of your sins to God, a part of your addresses to him. This is the way to make you modest and humble in your requests for mercies: it is agreeable to scripture-examples of praying; and it will make you sensible of the propriety, and necessity of putting up all your petitions in the name of our glorious Mediator.

Page  64 YOU should also, in your prayers, give thanks for mercies received. This is the more effectual method of begging. You will always have abundant reason for thanksgiving, before, as well as after your real conversion to holiness. And if you appear ungrateful, or forgetful of past mercies, how can you expect to obtain new ones? The apostle Paul directs men to join thanksgiving to petition in their prayers. "In every thing," says he,

by prayer, and supplication, together with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God.

III. IF you desire to attain to true sobriety, guard, as much as possible, against fashionable vices. When vices become fashionable, they cease to appear frightful and alarming to inexperienced and unsuspecting youth. If you hear of a crime in any, that is but seldom committed within your knowledge, you are immediately shocked; and your hearts rise with such detestation of it, that you are in little or no danger of following the example. But vices that are commonly practised before your faces, gradually appear less and less disgustful, 'till you lose sight of the deformity of them: and then you are in immediate danger of falling into the practice of them. Or else, if you have seen them practised from your infancy, they never shocked you at all. Here it is that your greatest danger lies; here then you have need of the greatest caution.

NOTHING can supersede the necessity of your keeping a constant guard against vices of this kind; unless no vice were become fashionable. But this Page  65 is so far from the truth, that it is not to be questioned. It is lamentably true, that some vices are practised by so many, that they must be called fashionable, though there are many who avoid them: just as some modes of dress are fashionable, though there are many who will not run into them.— Under this head, I must caution you,

1. To be upon your guard against all profane swearing and cursing; using the sacred name of your Maker with irreverence, and other ways of speaking that are evidently contrary to that simplicity of speech, which our blessed Saviour enjoins. The tongue is so active a member, that it will be apt to run into profanity, with very little temptation, if it is not strictly guarded. And indeed, it seems there is as little temptation to commit this sin, as any that is practised. It is shocking to think how much of this horrid language is to be heard in our streets; and how many of our dear young people have learnt to profane the holy and awful name of the great God, without remorse. As you would guard yourselves against this, remember those awful words delivered by God upon mount Sinai,

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

Profane persons are absolutely shut out from mercy, while they remain unreclaimed; shut out both by law and gospel. God "will not hold them guiltless:" even the blood of Christ, through which penitent sinners are held guiltless, will not avert the wrath Page  66 of God from profane persons, nor remove their guilt, till they cease to be what they are. God will not consider it as a sin of infirmity, which is compatible with a state of grace.—Consider also how your blessed Lord has explained this command, in his sermon on the Mount: where he makes it prohibit swearing either by God, or any of his creatures, in common conversation, as well as false swearing and breach of vows: and how he guards this commandment, by saying,

Let your communication be, yea, yea; any, nay: for whatsoever is more than these, cometh of evil:

that is, content yourselves with using a repeated arfirmation, or negation, in your common intercourse with one another; for all beyond this is wrong. The due consideration of this will make you careful, not only to avoid false and profane swearing; but all profane interjections and exclamations; all needless and irreverent mention of the names and titles of the supreme being, or what relates to him; all light speaking of sacred things; all pawning of your faith, souls, salvation, word, or honour; and whatever other ways of speaking evidently bordering upon profaneness, and tending to lead to it.

2. ANOTHER sin I would here warn you against, is that deceit which is too commonly practised in conversation: particularly, against backbiting, on the one hand, and flattery, on the other; which are some of the most fashionable sins of the tongue. A sort of persons that are very numerous, are such as will be so fair and bland to your faces, that you Page  67are ready to think them your best friends; but say so much against you, behind your backs, that others take them to be your worst enemies. I mention these two vices in conjunction, because they are commonly found in the same persons, and both are founded in deceit. Flattery is a detestable vice, not only as it shews a bad mind, and commonly some selfish, base design, but as it produces baneful effects. We are not so apt to detest our flatterers as our slanderers; though the former will probably do us as much mischief as the latter. But both are evil workers, and both are condemned in God's word. Pro. xvii. 15.

He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord.

— As you would keep clear of flattery and detraction, make it your rule to praise the good in their absence, rather than in their presence; and to condemn the bad, rather in their presence than when they are absent. Or, to say no evil of any person behind his back, that you would not more willingly say to his face: and to say no good of any to his face, that you would not rather say behind his back.

3. EXCESSIVE drinking is another too fashionable vice, of which I would here warn you, my young friends, to beware. For this is so much practised, that you will be often in the way of its temptation.

I HAVE the pleasure to think, that but few of you have been grossly faulty in this matter hitherto. It is not common, for those who are very young, to go any great length in this wickedness. But as you Page  68grow older, your danger from this quarter will increase. Cultivate then, I beseech you, such an early abhorrence of it, and keep at so great a distance from all temptations to it, that, as you grow older, its allurements may not be likely to endanger your virtue. Believe me, this is one of the most comprehensively destructive of all vices: as well as most directly contrary to that Christian sobriety, to which I have been exhorting you. If you once get into this way, you will see an end of all your religious impressions, and good resolutions: it will transform you into the most vile of all irrational creatures: it will deaden all the sensibility of your consciences: it will unfit you to serve God, your brethren, or yourselves: it will lay you open to a multitude of temptations; and it will be destructive to your estates, reputations, health, families, bodies and souls. This, as well as all other sins, may be forgiven upon repentance: but it renders repentance more hopeless than almost any other sins; for but very few, who have gone far in this way, are ever reclaimed. They are generally,

led captive by Satan at his will,

till they are plunged into remediless ruin.—As you love your souls then, let me persuade you to keep at the utmost distance from this sin, and fly all occasions and temptations thereunto: for you are assured in God's word, that "drunkards shall not inherit the kingdom of God."

I WILL proceed no further with this head of discourse, lest some may be tempted to think me censorious, in representing too many vices as fashionable. Page  69I wish I could say, There are no others nearly as much so, as these which I have mentioned: but from these, and all the rest, I would hope my young hearers will keep themselves, through the restraining and assisting grace of God.

IV. I WOULD advise you, my dear youths, especially to beware of those vices, to which youth is especially prone. Men are most inclined to some particular sins in one stage of life, and to others in another. Youth, middle age, and old age have their peculiar vices. It is incumbent upon you to be most upon your guard where your danger is greatest: that is, against those enormities, into which it may be feared your youthful blood will be apt to hurry you. Whatever you do, you must see that you "flee youthful lusts:" the apostle Paul thought it necessary to give this exhortation to young Timothy, tho' he was an eminently religious youth. You will not therefore be offended, if I think it necessary to urge the same upon you. And here,

1. THE sins of uncleanness may be allowed to stand foremost in the catalogue of youthful lusts. Against these therefore, in every kind and degree, too abominable to bear a distinct mention, I must be allowed, with the greatest zeal and concern, to warn you. Flatter not yourselves that you are in no danger: for many who have thought themselves as secure as the best of you can think yourselves, have been overcome and destroyed by lust.

REMEMBER that these sins are dangerous enemies to your souls. You are therefore commanded Page  70to

abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.

Numberless young men have fell down wounded and slain by them.

CONSIDER that your bodies, as well as your souls, are redeemed by the blood of Christ: and that your bodies are designed for "temples of the Holy Ghost." —You are therefore exhorted to

possess these vessels in sanctification and honour. Know ye not,

saith the apostle Paul,

that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.

IF you burn in the fire of lust here, you shall burn in the fire of Hell hereafter, unless a deep and thorough repentance intervenes. God's word assures you

that no whoremonger, nor unclean person—hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ, and of God:

and that

for these things sake, cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.

As you would shun all gross acts of uncleanness, be upon your guard against every thing that leads thereunto. Avoid that "filthiness" of conversation, "foolish talking," and obscene

jesting, which is not convenient;

and which is condemned by the apostle as unfit, because it kindles the fire of lust, and leads persons to acts of uncleanness.

ESPECIALLY avoid, as you would avoid the worst contagion, the company of persons of light conversation, and justly suspected virtue. Fly from the lap of Delilah.

Her feet go down to the Page  71dead,

as the wise king Solomon tells you,

and her steps take hold on hell:—her house is the way to hell, leading down to the chambers of death:—the dead are there, and her guests are in the depths of hell.

2. LET me intreat you to guard against that irreverence towards parents, and other superiours, which young men are too apt to fall into. Youth is commonly a great deal too forward, assuming, self-conceited, and ready to despise their superiours in age and station; and accordingly to treat them with disrespect. You are not to imagine irreverence towards superiours a venial fault: for it is a downright piece of immorality, and rebellion against God. It is contrary to reason, and nature. The fifth commandment forbids it, saying,

Honour thy father and thy mother.

Only parents are instanced in the command; but, as the decalogue comprehends the whole system of morality, so this command must be understood to require all that reverence, honour, and respect which we owe to our superiours, whether parents or others. If you would do your duty in this respect, consider the reason God has annexed to the command; namely,

that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

So that you see, if you honour your superiours, you may hope for long life, and prosperity in the world, so far as it shall be for the glory of God and your own good. But in case you do contrary to this duty, you are understood to be threatened with the contrary ofPage  72this promise; namely, to be cut off by an untimely death. And this you are the rather to fear, because of a remarkable instance of it, that you find on sacred record; of a company of children who were devoured by wild beasts, because they mocked a prophet of the Lord, saying,

Go up thou bald-head, go up thou bald-head.

3. As the volatility of youth often makes them averse to close application; to diligent employment, either of the head or hands; you should be sure to be upon your guard against idleness. Idleness will not only hurt your temporal interest; but it will be the greatest enemy of your souls. If you do not keep out of idleness, you will not keep clear of sin: for the bare wasting of your precious time is a sin that you must give a strict account of in the day of judgment. And idleness will expose you to numberless temptations. He that is idle has nothing to do, but to serve Satan: and if you are idle, he will soon employ you in his business. Keep yourselves therefore diligently employed, in doing something or other for your souls or bodies; for the good of yourselves, or your fellow-creatures. This will be for your honour and your interest; and it will be an hopeful means of making you sober and religious.

4. BEWARE of angry resentments, and revenge. Youthful blood is generally too apt to be thrown into a ferment, on receiving an affront, or any real or supposed injury. You cannot be sober-minded so long as your angry passions have the dominion over you, and the guidance of your conduct. This Page  73is as opposite to it as any thing can be. True Christian sobriety very much consists in the government of the passions, not only the concupiscible, but the irascible.

TO indulge anger against your fellow-creatures, is the way to make yourselves very unhappy at present: not only as it is an uneasy and painful agitation of the spirits, but as it is apt to hurry men into the perpetration of rash and violent deeds, which make work for a bitter repentance.

INDULGED anger gratifies your grand adversary, and gives him great advantage against you. Therefore you are thus exhorted,

Let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the Devil.

Instead of suffering anger to rankle into hatred, you should take care to make up all differences speedily. To perswade you hereunto, you should often consider how contrary anger and revenge are to the example of your Saviour, which you are bound to follow;

who, when he was reviled, reviled not again, but submitted himself to him that judgeth righteously;

and who poured out his dying breath, in apologizing and praying for the forgiveness of his blood-thirsty persecutors.

YOU should also remember how contrary these passions are to the spirit, and genius of Christ's Gospel; in which you are commanded

not to resist evil; but to overcome evil with good,

with kind and charitable deeds: to "love your enemies" to such a degree as to "feed" them, when they are Page  74 "hungry," and to "clothe" them, when they are "naked;" to stand ready to do good, at all times, "to them that hate you;" and to "pray" for the best of heaven's blessings, even pardon, grace and glory, to be bestowed upon

them that despitefully use you, and persecute you.

LET me remind you, that

a meek and quiet spirit is, in the sight of God, of so great price,

that he will not dispense with the want of it. If you do not shew "mercy" to your fellow-creatures, you will "have judgment without mercy" from God.

If you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.

LASTLY, Avoid sinful ambition: for it is one of the most destructive things to your present happiness, as well as an effectual bar in the way of your becoming sober-minded. I say sinful ambition, because there are kinds and degrees of ambition, that are laudable and beneficial. But aspiring after too high things in the world will make you continually discontented with your station, let it be what it will: it will make slaves of you: it will prevent your using the means of grace with proper attention and diligence: it will draw you into an imitation of the vices of the great; and it will make you stick at no kind of secret wickedness to advance yourselves. If you love either present or future happiness, avoid this lust, and be satisfied with the stations, which God has allotted you in the world. Your ambitious schemes, with which you are apt to amuse yourselves Page  75 in your youth, will most probably be frustrated: but if you should attain to the height of your wishes, you would not increase your happiness by it. For he that is not contented with a middling station, will not be satisfied with the highest.

FOLLOW these directions, my young friends, if you desire to attain to, and improve in Christian sobriety. Several more I proposed to give you; but they must be left till another opportunity.

Page  [unnumbered]

SERMON IV. Containing further Directions to those young Men, who desire to be soberminded.

Page  79

SERMON IV.

TITUS II. 6.

Young men likewise exhort to be sober-minded.

IN the last discourse I delivered upon this subject, I began to give the young men of this congregation directions what methods to take, if they desire to become sober-minded, or heartily religious. I shewed them,

· I. THAT they must avoid evil company, and associate with the virtuous.

· II. THAT they must be constant and fervent in secret devotions.

· III. THAT they must guard, as much as possible, against fashionable vices. And,

· IV. That they must especially beware of those vices, to which youth is most prone.

THESE directions were given them, on the supposition that they were almost perswaded to be Christians; or at least, that they had begun to have some inclination to give themselves up to the service of God. If I may now have their serious attention, I shall cheerfully go on to give them some further directions, the observance of which will be of great advantage to their spiritual interest.

The next thing is,

Page  80 V. To direct you to beware of enthusiasm. By enthusiasm I would be understood to mean, the fervour of an over-heated and extravagant imagination, mistaken, either for divine revelation, or an extraordinary intercourse with the spirit of God. Enthusiasm, in this sense, will be allowed by all, to be an enemy to religion. And I am sure, nothing can be more inconsistent with internal sobriety. As it consists in the irregularity of the passions, it is intemperance; and as it is mistaken for miraculous communications from heaven, it is of a very dangerous tendency. For persons of an enthusiastick turn are in danger of placing religion, almost entirely, in extacies and rapturous feelings, in high flights of the imagination and ebullitions of the passions. The consequences of which are, that they overlook and neglect the essentials of Christianity, which mainly consist in uniform, practical godliness, or evangelical obedience; are ready to fall into despair, when they are most calm and composed, because they cannot find those agitations of spirit in themselves, in which they imagine religion consists: and are apt to condemn all persons as carnal and unconverted, who have not experienced their irregular flights; and so become wanting in that charity, which it is the principle design of religion to promote.

THIS distemper of mind is oftentimes mistaken for holy zeal: and the most zealous persons, other things being equal, perhaps are the most likely to run into it. True zeal is an important virtue; Page  81 and it is impossible to be too zealously engaged in religion, so long as our zeal is guided and tempered with prudence. But enthusiasm is so hurtful an excrescence of religion, that you have need to be upon your guard against it.

YOUNG persons, under their first religious awakenings, are more in danger of this, than any other sort of persons: for they have not much religious knowledge to ballast their minds; and they have strong passions, which like too much sail, hurry them into this vortex, and into many extravagances and dangers. If any of you, my young friends, are now just beginning to be religious, be watchful even over those motions of your hearts, which seem to be religious ones; lest through the artifice of Satan, who can transform himself

into an angel of light,

you fall into wild and visionary frames; which may make your case worse than it was before. You should bring all your opinions, your impressions and suggestions to the touchstone, "to the law and to the testimony;" and not rashly take it for granted, that you are so guided by the Holy Ghost that you cannot err.

VI. THE next error I would warn you against, is spiritual pride: which is nearly related to enthusiasm, and often attends it.

WHEN you have formed some good resolutions; and in any measure, have reformed your careless and vitious lives; the next thing that Satan will endeavour to tempt you to, will be to draw up an hasty conclusion that you are savingly converted: That so you may give over your endeavours, concluding Page  82 that all is well with you; so much better than the state of others, that you may be puffed up with pride. Spiritual pride is opposed in holy writ, to sobriety; therefore I may pertinently here warn you against it, in the language of Paul to the Romans;

not to think more highly of yourselves, than you ought to think; but to think soberly.

WHILE you are in an unrenewed state, I suppose it is hardly possible for you to have too low an opinion of your own goodness. For you are odious and detestable in the sight of God, and more vile than the beasts that perish. God compares sinners to the most loathsome and detested things in nature; and the more conformable your opinion is to his, the more just it is. Therefore you should "abhor" yourselves, "and repent in dust and ashes;" confessing that you deserve no good, but every evil at the hand of God.

AND after you find that you are renewed, you must still "put on humbleness, of mind." For you may then well say "what have we that we did not receive? Surely it is no reason why you should value yourselves highly, that you have received more undeserved mercy than others; but on the contrary, the possession of such gifts is, in reason, a constant call to humility and self-abasement. The apostle Paul says to some who were too much elated, on account of some spiritual advantages,

who maketh thee to differ from another? And what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it.

Since it is

by thePage  83grace of God,

that his children are what they are, they are shut out from all boasting, and ought to entertain a low opinion of their own worthiness, even although they had got nearer to perfection, than ever any did before.

BUT another reason for humility is, that notwithstanding the grace of God that may appear in you, you are far from a total conformity to the will and law of God. Your falls into sin are so frequent, after the great change is wrought, and your defects in duty so many and great, that you may well say with David,

if thou Lord shouldest mark iniquities; O Lord, who shall stand?

A sense of these things should keep you so low in your self-estimation, as to direct the eye of your faith in Christ, and make you trust in his merit and worthiness, for acceptance with God.

YOU are chargeable with spiritual pride, when you are insensible of, and unhumbled for your defects in duty; when you assume to yourselves the honour of what is gracious in you; and when you think you are possessed of more goodness than you really are. Against all which you cannot be too much upon your guard; for pride is a sin that easily besets most men; and none are more in danger of it than young persons, who have just begun to be religious. This made the apostle give that direction to Timothy, concerning the appointment of a bishop,

not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the Devil.

LET your seriousness, and religious improvements be what they may, in early youth, it would Page  84be best for you to consider yourselves as but babes in Christ; that so you may not grow indolent and inactive in the work of God, being swollen with a fond conceit of your high attainments: But

forgetting those things that are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, press

forward, as the apostle did,

toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

VII. IF you would obtain and cultivate true soberness of mind, let me advise you to give yourselves much to reading.

READING is absolutely necessary for the improvement of young minds; and especially to store them with a necessary fund of religious knowledge. The apostolick advice to young Timothy was to give himself, among other things, "to reading." It is not only needful for a young minister as Timothy was; but more or less so for every young Christian, let him be in ever so private a station. For they who wholly neglect it are found to be deplorably ignorant of things that concern their salvation.

THERE are none of you, my young friends, but have some leisure for this profitable exercise: at least upon the Lords's days, and during some other intermissions of business and labour.

I DO not mean to encourage you to read all manner of books that come to hand, whether good or bad. There are many extant, consisting of profane and obscene plays and romances, or loose poems and songs; the reading of which tend to corrupt, vitiate and destroy young persons; and the publication of them has done infinite mischief in the world.

Page  85 IT may be well for those of you who have much leisure, to read history, civil and ecclesiastical; and some books that treat on the various arts and sciences; especially on those which will be most likely to be beneficial to you, and fit you to serve your generation the better, in your particular stations of life.

BUT those of you who have little leisure, had better confine your reading chiefly to books on divine and religious subjects. And among these, it will not be best to spend much of your time on those which are controversial; unless you had time to read, and judgment to canvass all that is said on both sides of the question. I accept only those controverted points immediately relating to practice, of which you shall not be ignorant, and concerning which you must be determined.

BOOKS of practical divinity should chiefly take up your attention, which teach you how to demean yourselves towards God and man, and which instruct, assist and excite you to the performance of your duty as Christians. Among these I would heartily recommend to you the writings of Baxter, Doddridge and Watts, which seem to me to breathe the true spirit of primitive Christianity.

BUT after all, the holy bible must be your principal book of devotion. Other books may possibly mislead you, as all uninspired writers are infallible.— The bible is, by way of eminence, the book of knowledge. It is able to instruct you to the best purposes. Be obedient therefore to your Saviour's command, who bids you

search the scriptures daily.

If you neglect it, you will be inexcusably Page  86 guilty. God has been at great expense, if I may speak so, to give and confirm to you the holy scriptures. Will you then be so ingrateful, as not to study them diligently? Unless St. Paul was mistaken,

they are able to make you wise unto salvation, through faith in Christ.

They shew you how you may obtain everlasting blessedness; so that I may say, God is infinitely merciful in giving them to you, and they are of inconceivably great importance to you. How unwise for yourselves will you be, if you will not carefully peruse the sacred volume? The bible will be lost upon you, if you neglect the perusal of it: for what good can it do you, until you find out what it contains? And how can you be acquainted with the contents of it, without frequent reading it. Your attendance on the preaching of the word, and your spiritual conversation with Christians, will not be enough to make you knowing in the scriptures, unless reading be added. All these ways are no more than is necessary. Let no day then pass over you, without your seriously and carefully reading some portion of God's word, with a view to the benefit of your precious souls.

THERE is so much contained in the bible, that it will be necessary to give it your attention, for a long time, before you can be sufficiently acquainted with it. You can hardly be expected to be

mighty in the scriptures,

in your youth; but you may be like Timothy, who

from a child knew the holy scriptures.

Though you cannot be expected to be thoroughly acquainted with the sacred writings, Page  87 while you are very young, yet you may know as much of them as is indispensably necessary to your salvation.

AND now is the time that you ought, above all others, to abound in this study. The knowledge of your duty must be prior to the practice of it; for you cannot change the natural order of things. How can you know in what manner to employ yourselves in God's service, before you have learned from his word what it is that he requires of you? You are not to expect you shall be immediately inspired with religious knowledge, without any care or labour of your own. If God had designed to do this for you, he never would have inspired holy men to write his will in the sacred oracles. It is in the use of the scriptures that you are to look for supernatural illumination.

[7 Behold, you have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me. 8 But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; (Doctrine and Covenants 9:7–8)

22 But now hold your peace; study my word which hath gone forth among the children of men, and also study my word which shall come forth among the children of men, or that which is now translating, yea, until you have obtained all which I shall grant unto the children of men in this generation, and then shall all things be added thereto. (Doctrine and Covenants 11:22)]

BESIDES, youth is the happiest and best time to store your minds with all sorts of useful knowledge. More especially with religious knowledge, which must by no means be delayed; because you know not how short your time is. Your memories are more tenacious now, than they will be when you are advanced in years; and your minds are less taken up with the cares of the world, than it is probable they will be, in the future stages of your lives. Upon these accounts, you have now the happiest opportunity that ever you are likely to have, to push your enquiries in religious matters.

BE persuaded then to be constant and zealous in the study of your bibles. Attend to the sense of what you read, as if it were for your life. It is Page  88 more than for your life; it is for the life of your precious souls. Your daily bread is not of half the importance to you, that it is to have your souls

nourished up,

as the apostle speaks,

in the words of faith and good doctrine.

VIII. YOU must be moderate, and bounded by religion, in your recreations.

IF you are not so, you will not appear to be sober-minded. And to be much addicted to pleasuring; and to fill up your lives with sporting and gaiety, seems to be as diametrically contrary to sobriety as any thing can be.

THERE are some kinds of pastime and recreation in use, which as Christians, and indeed as reasonable creatures, you ought wholly to avoid. Such as are hurtful or dangerous to life, limbs, or health; and such as are disgustful to the religious and devout: together with such, the lawfulness of which appears to be doubtful, you should keep yourselves from intirely. You had better appear singular, and incur the reproaches and emnity of the gay part of the world, than use those recreations which will be apt to offend weak consciences; or give good men an ill opinion of you; or lay a foundation for doubting in your own hands, whether you have been doing what God approves.

As to what is called gaming, I must insist upon your shunning it, in every kind and degree. For I cannot think it is agreeable to the mind of God, that men should so trifle with the substance which he has given them, and intrusted them with as his stewards, to do good withal, as to risk it, or any Page  89part of it, in a meer bet, or game. The time that is thrown away; the uneasy passions that are often, and almost unavoidably excited by gaming, and other evils attending it, if duly considered by you, will be enough to convince you of the unlawfulness of it.

SOME gamesters comfort themselves, that tho' deep gaming is unjustifiable, they never stake more than a trifle. But if this diversion is sinful in kind, as appears evident from what has been already hinted; it will follow, that it is as really wrong to play for shillings and six-pences as for farms and houses. For both are trifling with the substance which God has given us, and both may be likely to excite uneasy, wicked and dangerous fermentations of the spirits. Though the one is more wrong than the other, both are really so; and the lowest degree of gaming tends to lead men on to the highest. If we once begin the practice, it is impossible for us to know where we shall end.

I HAVE not been warning you, my young friends, against this kind of diversion, because I suppose you to be much guilty of it. I am thankful I know of none of you who are addicted hereunto; and I hope once warning will be sufficient to guard you against all the temptations and enticements to gaming, that you may meet with hereafter.

THERE is a plenty of other recreations for you, which are confessedly harmless: and far be it from me to debar you, if I could, from all of every kind. But even in the most innocent, you must be cautioned against excess; because in the most innocent Page  90 excess is criminal. Your recreations will be excessive, when you spend too much precious time in them; when they indispose you for the duties of religion; when they are so expensive, as persons of your station cannot well afford; when they disable you to pay your just debts, and hinder your doing good to the poor and distressed; and when they engage too much of your attention and zeal, and keep out good meditations. They will also be excessive, if you use them any farther than is beneficial to refresh and invigorate your powers, and fit you to do the most possible service for God and your generation. If you pretend to be serious Christians, you must

rejoice as though you rejoiced not;

be very moderate in your diversions; not abounding much in them, nor setting your hearts upon them; but making them subservient to the glory of God, and your own most important interests.

THAT you may persuade yourselves to use a reasonable moderation in your recreations, you should consider, that you must shortly give an account, at the bar of Christ, how you have spent every hour of your time; what unlawful recreations you have used, and how you have exceeded your limits in all the rest. Those words of inspiration should be always fresh in your memories, to regulate your conduct in these respects;

rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thy heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.

You should indulge to pleasure no Page  91 farther, than your consciences tell you that you shall be able to justify, at the tribunal of God.—God allows you to rejoice and be cheerful, in the enjoyment of worldly good things. He allows young men, whose volatile minds cannot bear too long and close an attention to severe duties and labours, a variety of pleasures suited to their various tastes; and in these they may indulge themselves, so far as is consistent with the rules of religion, and with that awful scrutiny which shall be passed upon all their actions, in the approaching day of judgment. But farther than this they are not permitted to go.—Be careful, then, O young men, to take your pleasure no farther than consists with the strictest regard to religion, and with an affecting view of the solemnity of future and eternal things. If you do this, I am sure you will be very sparing and moderate in your recreations. You will not, like too many of your standing, live a life of pleasuring and dissipation; but your chief amusements will be to go from one work and duty to another.

IX. I WOULD earnestly exhort you to sanctify the Christian Sabbath.

IT is very observable, that wherever the Lord's day is not strictly observed, religion declines, and wickedness gains ground. And where will you find a very sober-minded person, who allows himself in profaning this day? Or where will you find one of a contrary character, that pays any great regard to this holy time?

I DO not mean to insinuate that you ought to be tied up to Jewish strictness, in the observation of Page  92 these days: among which people God made it a crime, punishable with death, to do some things on the Sabbath, which we call works of necessity; such as picking up sticks to kindle a fire, and the like. The Jewish seventh-day Sabbath is abolished, and the Christian first-day Sabbath introduced in its stead, by the founders of Christianity; who set apart this day of the week, for holy and devout exercises; and by their example, have taught us thereon to exercise ourselves in those duties, which are immediately beneficial to our souls. As the former was to celebrate the creation of the world; so the latter is to celebrate the redemption of mankind, by the Lord Jesus Christ; a no less wonderful work of God; a proof of the completion of which was, on this day of the week, exhibited to us in the resurrection of Christ from the dead. So that if it was fit and proper to keep the Jewish Sabbath holy, there can be no reason given, why the Christian Sabbath should not be kept holy also. The apostles and primitive Christians were wont to assemble on the first day of the week, for religious exercises.— It is therefore a day to be so spent in holy exercises, as is most beneficial to us upon spiritual accounts.

YOU must not therefore allow yourselves in any worldly meditations, or discourse, on this solemn and consecrated day; unless it be in cases of necessity and mercy. Much less is it allowable for you to walk the streets, or visit your friends for recreation, or amusement. Least of all is it lawful to ride in a journey, or to do any other of your ordinary work, and worldly business, in this holy time, Page  93 excepting in such cases as the before-mentioned.— Our Lord reminded the Jews, that mercy was before sacrifice, when he would abate their severity, and over strict regard to the Sabbath. But where this rule cannot be pertinently applied, you must keep yourselves from all secular business.

AND, on the other hand, you must fill up the whole time with publick and private exercises of religion. For though it is a day of rest, it is not a day for idleness. You are to rest from temporal business, that you may be employed in spiritual. While you are at home, your time should be taken up with reading, religious meditation and prayer. And while you are at the house of God, your whole souls should be engaged in the publick exercise 〈◊〉 devotion. Eccl. v. 1.

Keep thy foot, when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools.

If you are inattentive, or indevout, you offer the sacrifice of fools, that is, "of the wicked," which you have reason to fear will be

abomination to the Lord.

You must neither dare to forsake the assembling of yourselves;

nor let your hearts wander, like "the eyes of a fool," to the ends of the earth,

when you are present before the Lord.

IF your friends and neighbours tempt you to profane the Sabbath, and though your seniors and superiours should set you the example, dare to be singular in this respect. Rather follow apostolick example, than "follow a multitude to do evil." Keep the laws of the land respecting the Sabbath, rather than follow a thoughtless multitude in profaning Page  94it; for you are commanded to

submit to every ordinance of man, for the Lord's sake.

Tread in the steps of your pious ancestors, in keeping the Sabbath, and not in those of the present apostatizing generation.

THOUGH it may not be easy to determine exactly, with what degree of strictness the Christian Sabbath ought to be sanctified; it is certain that ordinary labour and recreations are to be laid aside, and the time employed in religious exercises; because it is a day set apart for the worship of God, and the edification of our souls. It is safer for you to deviate, in this case, towards superstition, than towards licentiousness. For the more strictly you observe and keep the day to holy purposes, the more useful it will be to you, and the more you will honour God in it. You never knew any upon a death-bed repent of keeping the Sabbath too strictly; but many have been heard to lament their profanation of it, and cry out against themselves, for the mispense of holy time.

ALL the truly godly and serious lament to see how frequently the Lord's day is profaned among us. It lies much with you, my dear young friends, whether this day shall be less and less honoured, until it comes to be considered as common time; or whether the strict observation of it shall be revived. Do that which, in your serious moments, you judge to be most for the advantage of religion, and the benefit of your own souls: this is all I ask of you. If you will be persuaded to do this, the Sabbath will be better spent for the future; and with Page  95 the revival of Sabbath-keeping, you may expect to see a revival of religion and virtue among us.

X. IF you live wicked and careless lives, I must exhort you forthwith to break off all your sins and vices, and engage in the practice of every duty required of you, from such motives as you are at present able to be influenced by.

IT is not doubted but you are able to do this, by the assistance of common grace. And though this is not holy, evangelical obedience, it is evident to common sense, that it is greatly preferable to neglect of duty and vitiousness: and it is one of the means, in the use of which you may hope to attain to true holiness of heart. Conscience, as well as God's word requires this of you.

Cease to do evil, learn to do well,

Isa. i. 16. You should always remember, it is better to do well, even from the lowest principles, than to do evil from principles as low. If you do the former you will be less odious in the sight of God, or more lovely, than if you do the latter. When a young man came to our Saviour, who was able to say he had kept all the commandments, though it is certain he was destitute of saving grace, it is said,

Jesus beholding him, loved him,

Mark x. 21. Though he could not love him with such complacency as he had in his true disciples, yet he loved him more than he did profligate sinners. In like manner, you may hope God will love you, when he sees you engaged in reforming your lives, and keeping his commandments: And you will not then be so far from the kingdom of God, as you are at present. But you must take Page  96  care, that you mistake not this reformation for a saving change.

XI. BUT if you desire to be heartily religious, you must make a solemn dedication of yourselves to God, and lay hold on his covenant. You must become his indented servants, if you mean to be faithful servants.

THE most of you were born of professedly Christian parents, which gave you a right to the covenant of grace. You had a federal holiness by your birth, 1 Cor. vii. 14. Accordingly, you were publickly and solemnly devoted to God by baptism, in your infancy. This lays an obligation upon you to renounce the flesh, the world and the Devil: and you ought early to recognize this obligation, by explicitly and openly devoting yourselves to God, and engaging to live as your baptism obliges you, or as becomes the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.

CONSIDER how Christ requires you to "confess" him "before men;" and how he cautions you not to "deny" him, on pain of exclusion from heaven, Matth. x. 32, 33. Remember how the churches of Macedonia "gave themselves first to the Lord," and then "unto" his people, "by the will of God." Think of St. Paul's words,

with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Consider these things, and how all adults were required to profess their faith in Christ, before the apostles would initiate them into the church of Christ, and you will be convinced that God requires you to make an open profession of Christianity. The Page  97 churches of this land have been convinced of it; and their practice is founded upon this conviction.

THIS requisition is not only scriptural, but evidently reasonable; for how can you expect that your baptism will avail to entitle you to the blessings of the covenant of grace, when you was not consenting to your own baptism, and will not declare that you take the obligation of it upon yourselves. You are to fear that your baptism will become as no baptism to you, if you neglect, or refuse to take the bonds of the covenant upon yourselves, by your own voluntary act. If no adults are to be admitted into the visible church, without an open confession, as appears to be the case, from the acts of the apostles; does it not follow, that those who are baptized in infancy ought to make this confession, as soon as they are able to choose the religion of Christ, in order to their being considered as regular members of his church?

A PUBLICK profession of Christianity is not only scriptural and rational, but it will be greatly helpful to you, in promoting the interest of religion in your souls. When you shall have thus publickly and explicitly bound yourselves, it may be expected that you will not dare to

go back, or alter the thing that is gone out of your lips.

It will help you to resist temptations; for you will be able to say, when they beset you, how can I comply consistently with my solemn engagements to God, and to the church? You will also be more under the watch of your Christian neighbours; and this will afford you a farther advantage for holiness of life.

Page  98 LET me entreat you, my young friends, as you have any desire to serve God, thus to give up yourselves to God in covenant, now in your youth; whether you can find in your hearts to come to the Lord's table at present, or not. If you are convinced of this duty, comply with it presently, or give up your pretensions to holiness. For the habitual neglect of any one known duty will be fatal to your souls. Either renounce all hopes of advantage from your baptism, or else own the obligations of the covenant which it seals.

IT may be, that several of you are now saying within yourselves, we would comply with this duty, if it were fashionable for persons of our standing, and if we did not fear we should be tho't singular. Is this then your case, that you fear men more than God?

[7 For, behold, you should not have feared man more than God. Although men set at naught the counsels of God, and despise his words— 8 Yet you should have been faithful; (Doctrine and Covenants 3:7–8)]

the worst sort of men, their blasphemous banter and profane ridicule, more than the wrath of the King of kings? If so, you have need to consider what your Saviour and Judge has told you, Matth. viii. 38.

Whosoever shall be ashamed of me, and of my words, in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father, with the holy angels.

This threatening should come with the greater weight upon the present generation, because we can profess Christianity, without hazarding our lives, or estates, or liberties. For if Christ will reject those who did not dare to profess his name, in a time of persecution, how much more will he reject those who will not do it, when they can with safety? Will you then be able, in thePage  99 day of God, to hold up your heads, and say,

we would have confessed thee before men; but we were young and bashful, and afraid of what the wickedest part of the world might think, or say of us?

If not, confess your faith in him now, in the most publick and explicit manner, while you have opportunity. The unfashionableness of it is no better reason for your neglecting it, than there being few to be saved is, why you should refuse to belong to that little flock.

MISTAKE me not here, as though I were urging you to make a profession of Christianity, whether you can do it with sincerity, or not. I would not be guilty of persuading you to act such a piece of hypocrisy, as to profess a religion you have not embraced in your hearts.—But what I would urge upon you is, to covenant with God first in private, and then nextly in publick. Consider seriously how your duty and interest oblige you to make a solemn surrender of yourselves to God in Christ. Revolve these things in your minds, until you find yourselves inclined to renounce all your sins, and to enter in earnest, upon a course of piety and holy obedience. Then in your closets, with all possible earnestness and solemnity, address yourselves to God, in some such expressions as these.—

I am heartily sorry for all the sins I have committed against thee, my best friend and benefactor; and for my careless and wicked neglect of my duty towards thee. Therefore I now devote myself to thy will and pleasure, in all things. I heartily resolve that I will love thee, and live to thee, byPage  100the help of thy grace, as long as I live in the world. I choose thee as my eternal portion, and place my happiness in the enjoyment of thee. I trust in the merits of thy Son for pardon and acceptance with thee.

[10 And I also thank my God, yea, my great God, that he hath granted unto us that we might repent of these things, and also that he hath forgiven us of those our many sins and murders which we have committed, and taken away the guilt from our hearts, through the merits of his Son. (Alma 24:10)]

I promise to walk in all thine ordinances blameless; and that I will give up myself henceforth to the guidance of thy blessed spirit; resolving that it shall be my most delightful work to serve and glorify thee here below; and that it shall be my highest hope to enjoy thee forever hereafter.

—When you have thus devoted yourselves to God in Christ, as I hope many of you have done already, you may safely make that public profession of the Christian religion, which is required of you. And let me remind you my friends, that if you neglect the one or the other, it is at the peril of your souls.—I look upon myself obliged, in faithfulness to God and to your souls, fully to preach this duty to you, though you so generally neglect it, that I have reason to fear I shall get little thanks from you for my pains. I am afraid I shall prevail with but few of you, as you are so apt to conform to the customs of a vain and wicked world. But the day is coming when you will remember, with remorse, how earnestly I exhorted you to your duty;—and it is too probable that some among you will eternally lament that you did not take the advice I have now given you, agreeable to the word of God.

[25 For I do not mean that ye all of you have been compelled to humble yourselves; for I verily believe that there are some among you who would humble themselves, let them be in whatsoever circumstances they might. (Alma 32:25)]

XII. AND lastly, I must add one important piece of advice more to all young men who desire to be sober-minded: which is, that you forthwith Page  101examine yourselves and diligently endeavour to prepare for taking the Lord's supper; that so you may honour Christ in your youth, by shewing forth his death in that holy ordinance; and at the same time promote the life of God in your souls.

How do "the ways of Zion mourn," that so few "come to the solemn feast?" Is it not the shame of a Christian society, who pretend to be governed by gospel-rules, that by far the greater part of them turn their backs upon this institution, and neglect so easy a duty and so blessed a privilege, as to eat and drink in a devout and thankful remembrance of Christ? Shall it be said, that they who are under indispensable obligations to remember the dying love of their Redeemer, seem to choose to forget him, by avoiding an action which he has commanded them to perform, on purpose to revive and continue the affecting remembrance of him? Shall creatures who owe all they have, are, and hope for to Christ, refuse to obey a command of his, which is so plain and indisputable?

THE heaviest part of this reproach falls upon you, our dear young men: for you, more generally than any other sort of persons among us, live in the neglect of this duty. What a disgrace is it, that not so much as one in ten of you has ever yet obeyed this kind, and reasonable command of your dear Saviour? And how sad a thing is it to consider, that those of you who have any inclination to do it are deterred from it, by the idea of its being an uncommon thing, in persons of your age?

LET me persuade you to a compliance with this Page  102 duty, and an acceptance of this privilege, by a consideration of the great utility of it, in assisting you to cultivate holiness of life; as it is only in this view that my subject leads me to consider it. It is wisely adapted to beget and promote several of the most important and necessary graces in you. As you have here the Lord

Jesus evidently set forth as crucified

before your eyes; the bread representing his body bruised and broken, and the wine his blood poured out for your redemption; you must be dreadfully stupid, if it does not warm you with love and gratitude towards him. So, if any thing can give you a lively sense of the inexpressible evil of sin, it must be to see, as it were, the Creator of the world enduring the tortures of a most cruel execution, to make atonement for it. And, if any thing can make you sorry for your own sins, give you an hatred of them, and make you abhor yourselves on account of them, it must be the sight you may behold at the celebration of this ordinance.— Also, if any thing will induce you to renew your holy resolutions, and put you upon the strictest watchfulness against all manner of temptations, it must be, one would think, your partaking of the symbols of the body and blood of Christ. If any thing, moreover, will serve to strengthen your faith, it must be to have the principal object of it thus made familiar to you, by the help of sensible objects. Upon these and other accounts, an attendance on this ordinance will, through the blessing of God, be greatly helpful to your spiritual welfare. And are not these most weighty motives, to persuade you to this duty?

Page  103 YOU often say, and some of you say it with too little concern, you are not prepared to come to so solemn an ordinance. If this is true, I must tell you that you are certainly unprepared for death, judgment and eternity.

[they were sorry to be the means of sending so many of their brethren out of this world into an eternal world, unprepared to meet their God. (Alma 48:23)]

And how dare you to live a day longer in such a condition, when you know not but you drop to-day into everlasting burnings? —But there is no absolute need of a full assurance of your good estate, in order to your safely coming to the Lord's table. Examine yourselves whether you live outwardly blameless and exemplary lives; whether you have gained a competent knowledge of the nature and design of this ordinance; and whether you have sincerely and without any wilful reserve, devoted yourselves to the fear and service of God, and have resolved to accept of Christ, as the prophet, priest and king of your salvation. If you find that you have done, or do these things, you may safely approach the holy table; and you should not dare to stay away any longer. In the use of this, and other means of grace, you may hope to obtain that assurance, which the best of you are now ready to complain of.

THUS have I cautioned and directed those of our young men who desire to obtain, and improve in Christian sobriety, what courses they must take.— The whole of which amounts to this, that they must use all the means of grace, and seek to God for his blessing upon them. These are the only methods pointed out in scripture; and they are so hopeful methods, that men have need of no greater encouragement, to put them upon striving after grace, than those which God has annexed to them.

Page  104 AND may "the God of all grace" so open the hearts of my young friends, that they may attend diligently to these "things of their peace."—Otherwise even "Paul may plant, and Apollos water" in vain; how much more may I teach and exhort to no purpose? May he so dispose them to use these instrumental duties, or means of holiness; and so follow them with the effectual influences of his spirit, that they may not only obtain the renewal of their minds; but grow and increase in holiness, until they shall receive the

end of their conversation;

even the salvation of their souls with eternal glory.

AMEN.

[10 Therefore I endure all things for the elect’s sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. (2 Timothy 2:10)

2 And that same sociality which exists among us here will exist among us there, only it will be coupled with eternal glory, which glory we do not now enjoy.

(Doctrine and Covenants 130:2)]