youth have more of ingratitude in them than other fins. By the fins of youth, methinks, we fly more directly in the face of the goodness and kindness of God, than by the fins of old age. For we have then but lately receiv'd our being from God; and shall we fo foon forget our Maker, and turn rebels against him, and affront him to his face? The time of youth, is a time of much love from God to us, and fhall it be the time of our hatred and contempt of God? God forbid! Shaft I help you to reckon up fome of the favours and mercies of God to you in your younger years? (they are many of them peculiar and diftinguishing mercies.)

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It is not long ago fince God made you, and made you reasonable creatures: his providence has guarded you from a thousand dangers in your infant ftate, fuch as many others have fallen by: it was a very gracious difpofal of providence towards many of you, that were born of godly parents, and have been bleffed with a religious education, and have had better means of falvation than hundreds and thousands of young perfons in the world: you have always had good examples fet before you, while many other children could learn nothing from their parents but fin and wickednefs you have had many earnest prayers put up for you, by your good parents: you are encouraged to go to God, as your parents God, and to hope that he will be your God too. A

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gain, as to the bleffings of providence, how have you been favour'd? how have you been diftinguish'd from others? how many poor children do you fee about the streets, begging their bread, and hardly clothes to cover them? Confider, this might have been your cafe. Let me tell you farther, that now in your youth is, in all probability, the most pleafant and eafy part of all your lives: though I hardly expect to be believed by young perfons when I fay this; they are apt to expect mighty things in the world, and from the world, when they are once their own masters; but I am well perfuaded that the time of youth is, generally speaking, the easiest and pleasantest part of life. This is the time in which providence does remarkably fmile on you; and can this be the proper time for your finning against God? can it be any excufe of fin that it was committed in youth? no, fo much the worse, there was fo much the more ingratitude in it, and fo much the more contempt of the goodness and kindness of God, and fo much the fadder abufe of his rich and diftinguifhing mercy: furely you can never be under greater obligations to holinefs and obedience to God than now. Let me add this one thing farther, that the time of youth is generally the time in which God is striving with finners by his Spirit: the great and bleffed God feems to bear a special favourable regard to young people,

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for he ordinarily follows them with the strivings of his Spirit, more than he doth old finners: it has been the observation, and the experience of all ages, that by far the greatest number of true converts are converted in their younger years. I would afk my young friends, has not the bleffed God been ftriving with you, one time, and another, under this, and that fermon, and wooing you as it were to become his, and to come under the bonds of his covenant? and will you, in defpight of all his kindness, yet go on to indulge youthful lufts, and difhonour God and rebel against him? Or, will you not reckon yourselves to be under peculiarly ftrong obligations, now in your youth, to remember God your Creator, and to become his dutiful and obedient children? 2.) The time of youth is that time in which we may do moft for God. It is the fittest time of all to fet about religion, and to enter on God's fervice, because then moft may be done. for his honour and glory. Now whilst your natural powers and faculties are strong and lively, and before you are encumber'd with the cares and hurries of life; now is your time to do God fervice, and to mind the great concern of all, and fecure the one thing needful. When you come to stoop under the infirmities of old age, you will find that little can be done then for God and your fouls: the hurries and the bufinefs of middle age will, it may be, leave but little time for religion: D 3 youth

youth is the time to ferve the Lord; and can it ever then be an excufe for a wicked life, that the finner was but young? No furely, but quite otherwife. As early piety is peculiarly pleafing to God, fo the iniquities of youth are peculiarly provoking to him: he made even his beloved fob to poffefs the iniquities of his youth, when it does not appear, that the fins of his after life were imprefs'd with fuch bitterness on his confcience. O Sirs! never make light of youthful fins; God does not make light of them, and you will not make light of them another day. But let us come to another use,

Secondly, If it be fo fad to poffefs the iniquities of youth, how dreadful must it be to poffefs all the fins and iniquities of a long life! Let finners of an advanced age confider this: they have not only the fins of youth, but the fins of forty, or fifty, or threefcore years, or more, to anfwer for at the barr of God. O! what a dreadful long reckoning will you have when the day of judgment comes? how bitter will it be to poffefs, and to fuffer the punishment of a long life of fin and iniquity? But I will return to address myself to young perfons,

Thirdly, Let me exhort you now, as one that loves you, and wifhes your good, let me intreat you to be laying up a better portion againft old age than the iniquities of youth; and that is by devoting your early years to God

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and his fervice. You have heard, in fome measure, what a fad portion the iniquities of youth will prove; how they will be apt to make you unhappy throughout life, uncomfortable in your old age, and miserable for ever; it will be a bitter thing, whether in time or eternity, to be made to poffefs the iniquities of your youth: on the other hand early piety will lay a good foundation of a comfortable life; if you have always peace with God, and the teftimony of a good confcience, then let the world go how it will, you can ne-ver be very unhappy; you may eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry beart, when God hath accepted you, Ecclef. ix. 7. This will alfo lay a foundation for a comfortable death, and, what is more than all, for a joyful and glorious eternity. Now, Sirs, is your time to begin to be happy, and fure that cannot be begun too foon! O that it might be this very day! would you begin this day to live to God, I would not only wish you, but I would venture to promise you a happy new year. Then let what will come, let death itself come, yet you are happy, you are made for ever.

I leave this matter with you, and to your ferious reflections, and will only farther hint two or three directions before I conclude. If you would not be made to poffefs the iniquities of your youth hereafter, then