Ah ! how kindly, how sweetly did the Lord take this at their hands, that they followed him in their youth, while their ' bones were full of marrow,' while they were strong and fit for service, while nature was fresh, lively, and vigorous. In the law, God called for the first of all things ; he required not only the first-fruits, but the very first of the first : ' The first of the first fruits of thy land, thou shalt bring into the house of the Lord thy God,' Exod. xxiii. 19. God is the first being, the first good, and therefore deserves the first of the first, and the best of the best ; the first and the best is not too good for him, who is goodness itself.1 God, in that of Leviticus ii. 14, is so passionately set upon hav- ing the first of the first, that he will not stay till the green ears of corn be ripe, but will have the green ears of corn dried in the fire, lest he should lose his lonjnnrr.
As many young women and sickly children cannot stay till the fruit be ripe, but must have it while it is green ; even so, saith God, my heart, my desires, are so vehemently set upon the first-fruits, the first things, that I cannot stay, I cannot satisfy myself without them ; and what would God teach us by all this, but to serve him with the first-fruits ->f our age, the primrose of our childhood, the morning of your youth. God hath given you of the best, do not put him off with the worst, with the
1 It is truly said of God, that ho is Omnia super omnia-
1 Kings XIV. 13.] apples of gold. 215
worst of jour time, the worst of your days, the worst of your strength, lest he swear in his wrath that ' you shall never enter into his rest,' Heb. iii. 18.
Motive (8). The eighth motive or consideration to provoke you to be good betimes, to seek and serve the Lord in the morning of your youth, is to consider, that This may be a special means to prevent many black temptations, and an encouragement to withstand all tempta- tions that you may meet with from a tempting devil and a tempting world.
An early turning to the Lord will prevent many temptations to despair, many temptations to neglect the means openly, to despise the means secretly ; many temptations about the being of God, the good- ness, faithfulness, truth and justice of God ; temptations to despair, temptations to lay violent hands on a man's self. Temptations to question all that God hath said, and that Christ hath suffered, arises many times from men's delaying and putting off of God to the last ; all which, with many others, are prevented by a man's seeking and serving of the Lord in the spring and morning of his youth.1 It is reported of the harts of Scythia, that they teach their young ones to leap from bank to bank, from rock to rock, from one turf to another, by leaping before them, by which means, when they are hunted, no beast of prey can ever take them ; so when persons exercise themselves in godliness when they are young, when they leap from one measure of holiness to another, when they are in the morning of their days, Satan, that mighty hunter after souls, may pursue them with his temptations, but he shall not overtake them, he shall not prevail over them. As you see in Moses, Joseph, Daniel, and the three children, these knew the Lord, and gave up themselves to the Lord in the prime and prim- rose of their youth, and these were all temptation-proof, Heb. xi., Gen. xxxix., Dan. iii. Satan and the world pursued them, but could not overtake them. When the devil and the world had done their worst, the young men's bows abode in strength, and their hands to resist were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob, Gen. xlix. 23, 24. Ego non sum ego, said that young convert when tempted, I am not the man that I was.
Luther tells of a young virgin that used to resist all temptations with this, Christianus sum, I am a Christian. Early converts may say, when tempted, as he, Tell me not, Satan, what I have been, but what I am and will be ; or as he in the like case, Whatsoever I was, I am now in Christ a new creature, and that is it which troubleth thee ; or as he, The more desperate my disease was, the more I admire the physician.2 Yea, thou mayest yet strain it a peg higher, and say, The greater my sins were, the greater is my honour, as the devils which once Mary Magdalene had, are mentioned for her glory. When Pyrrhus tempted Fabricius the first day with an elephant, so huge and mon- strous a beast, as before he had not seen, the next day with money and
1 Early converts will never have cause to say, as that despairing pope said, the cross could do him no good, because he had so often sold it away.
2 Bernard, Beza, Augustine. Such as thou art now, I was once, but such as I am now, thou wilt never be, said Diogenes to a base fellow that told him he had once been a forger of money.
216 APPLES OF GOLD. [1 KlNGS XIV. 13.
promises of honour, he answered, I fear not thy force, I am too wise for thy fraud.
Ah ! young men, young men, as you would be free from the saddest and darkest temptations, aod as you would be armed against all tempta- t ions, oh labour as for life to be good betimes ! seek and serve the Lord in the morning of your youth. No way like this for the preventing earthquakes, heartquakes, stormy days, and winter nights, &c.
Motive (9). The ninth motive or consideration to stir up young men to be good betimes, to seek and serve the Lord in the spring and morning of their youth, is, To consider the worth and excellency of souls.
A soul is a spiritual, immortal substance, it is capable of the know- ledge of God, it is capable of union with God, of communion with God, and of a blessed and happy fruition of God, Mat. xix. 28 ; Acts vii. 59, 60 ; Philip, i. 23.
Christ left his Father's bosom for the good of souls ; he assumed man's nature for the salvation of man's soul. Christ prayed for souls, he sweat for souls, he wept for souls, he bled for souls, he hung on the cross for souls, he trode the wine-press of his Father's wrath for souls, he died for souls, he rose again from death for souls, he ascended for souls, he intercedes for souls, and all the glorious preparations that he hath been a-making in heaven these sixteen hundred years is for souls, Heb. ii. 13-16 ; Isa. lxiii. 3 ; John xiv. 1-3.
Ah ! young men, young men, do not play the courtier with your precious souls. The courtier doth all things late ; he rises late, dines late, sups late, goes to bed late, repents late.
Ah 1 sirs, the good of your souls is before all, and above all other things in the world ; to be first regarded and provided for, and that partly because it is the best and more noble part of man, and partly because therein mostly and properly is the image of God stamped, and partly because it is the first converted, and partly because it shall be the first and most glorified.1