VeR. 9.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 89
chastised me, and I was chastised,' <fcc., but afterwards, David, though he began with God betimes, Ps. xxv. 7, yet prays, ' Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgression;' and Job xiii. 26, 'For thou writest bitter things against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth.' Old bruises may trouble us long after, upon every change of weather, and new afflictions revive the sense of old sins ; they may stick by us. We think tricks of youth are not to be stood upon : you may have a bitter sense of them to your dying day. (4.) You will every day grow more useless to God : the exercise of religion dependeth much on the vigour of affections. Again, it is very profitable ; it brings a great deal of honour to God to begin with him betimes. All time is little enough to declare your respects to God. And it is honourable for you. Seniority in grace is a preferment : they were ' in Christ before me,' saith Paul. An old disciple is a title of honour. To grow grey in Christ's service, and to know him long, it maketh the worlv of grace more easy. The dedication of the first-fruits sanctified the whole lump : Lam. iii. 27, ' It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth,' to be inured to strictness betimes. Dis- positions impressed in youth increase with us. Again, it will be very comfortable when the miseries of old age come upon you. As the ant provideth in summer for winter, so should we provide for age. Now what a sweet comfort will it be, when we are taken off from service, that while we had any strength and affections, God had the use of them ! Then our age will be a good old age.
Use 1 is for lamentation that so few youths take to the ways of God. No age doth despise the word so much as this, which hath most need of it. It is a rare thing to find a Joseph, or a Samuel, or a Josiah, that seek God betimes. Go the universities, and you will find that those that should be as Nazarites consecrated to God, live as those that have vowed and consecrated themselves to Satan : Amos ii. 1 1, * And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites,' &c. The sons of the prophets in their youth were bred for a more strict discipline in their holy calling, separated from worldly delights, to be a stock of a succeeding ministry. But, alas ! they spend their time in vanity, bringing nothing thence but the sins of the place, and vainly following the sinful customs of the country. How few regard the education of their youth in knowledge or religious practice ! Families are societies to be sanctified to God, as well as churches. The governors of them have as truly a charge of souls as the pastors of churches. They offer their children to God in baptism, but educate and bring them up for the world and the flesh. They be- wail any natural defect in them, if their children have a stammering tongue, a deaf ear, or a withered leg ; but not want of grace. We have a prejudice, and think they are too young to be wrought upon ; but God's word can break in with weight and power on young ones : Luke xi. 1, ' One of his disciples said unto him. Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples ;' and Mat. xxi. 15, 16, ' When the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna* to the son of David ; they were sore displeased, and said unto him, Hearest thou what these say ? And Jesus said unto them, Yea ; have ye never
90 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. XL
read, Out of the mouths of Labes and sucklings thou liast perfected praise ?' They learned it of their parents : Mat. xsi. 9, 'And the multi- tudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the son of David.' We should often be infusing good principles in youth. Corruption of youth is one of the saddest symptoms of approaching judgment.
Use 2 is exhortation to young ones. You that are to begin your course, begin with God : you have no experience, yet you have a rule ; you have mighty lusts, but a stronger spirit. No age is excluded from the promise of the Spirit : Joel ii. 28, 29, 'And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh ; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions ; and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my Spirit.' Of John the Baptist it is said, Luke i. 15, ' He shall be filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb ;' and Mark x. 14, ' Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the king- dom of God.' There is power to enlighten you, notwithstanding all your prejudices; to subdue your lusts, notwithstanding the power of corruptions : 1 John ii. 13, 14, ' I write unto you, young men, be- cause ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little chil- dren, because ye have known the Father,' &c.; and see Gen. xxxix. 9. It will be a great comfort to you when you die that your great work is over. Oh, what a sad thing is it that, when the body is going to the grave, the soul hath not yet learned to converse with God ! Hosea viii. 12, ' I have written to them the great things of my law ; but they were counted a strange thing.' God hath written an epistle to us, and we will not read it nor consult with it ; are wholly strangers to it. But now, when acquainted with God, it will not be so irksome to go to him.