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you have any Regard, good Philotheus, to your own Eternal Happiness it ought to be your chiefeft Care to ferve and glorify God. 'Tis for this End God both made and redeemed you: And two excellent Rales he hath given you in Holy

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Scripture; by the confcientious Ob fervation of which you will be able, thro' his Grace, to dedicate your ten der Years to his Glory.

The one teaches you what you are to do, Remember now thy Creator in the Days of thy Youth, Eccl. xii. 1. The other teaches you what you are to avoid, Fly youthful Lufts, that is, all thofe Sins which are ufually incident to young Perfons, 2 Tim. ii. 22.

You cannot imagine the unfpeakable Advantages a pious Youth gains by the Practice of thefe two Rules; and how many Ghoftly Dangers that Soul efcapes, which is feafon'd betimes with the Fear of God, before he is fullied with ill Company, before he hath contracted vicious Habits, which will coft him infinite Pains to unlearn; before his Affections are too far engaged in the World, to be eafily recall'd; and before the Devi hath got too ftrong a Hold in him, to be fuddenly difpoffefs'd.

O Philotheus! do but ask any one old Penitent, what Fruit, what Satiffaction, he hath purchas'd to himfelf,

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by all thofe Pleasures of Sin which flatter'd him in his Youth, and of which he is now afhamed! Will. he not fadly tell you, he has found them all to be but Vanity and Vexation of Spirit? How will he befool himself, for the many good Opportunities he hath loft, and with a thoufand Times that he were to live over his mifpent Days again? And how bitterly will he, with David, bewail the Sins of his Youth? Pfal.

XXV. 7.

Learn then, good Philotheus, by the dear-bought Experience of others, to accuftom your felf to bear Chrift's Yoke from your Youth, and his Yoke will fit eafy on your Neck; for your Duty will grow natural to you by beginning betimes.

Do but confider, how welcome a young Convert is to God: It was to young Samuel that God revealed himself, and that at fuch a Time too when the Word of God was precious and very rare; to fhew how much God honoured a young Prophet, 1 Sam. iii. 1. And you know A 5

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that St. John, the youngeft of all the Difciples, is the only Perfon of all the Twelve, who was permitted to lean on our Saviour's Bofom, at the laft Supper, as deareft to him in Affection, and who is emphatically called the Disciple whom Jefus loved, John xiii. 23. And this is fuitable to that gracious Promife which God hath made to encourage all young Perfons to ferve him; I love them that love me, and they that Seek me early fhall find me, Prov. viii. 7.

Ó Philotheus, let this Heavenly Promife excite in you a great Zeal to feek God, and feek him early; for if you do feek, you are fure to find him; you are fure, when you have found him, he will love you; and you fhall reap all the happy Effects of God's infinite Love, and of an early Piety.

An early Piety! than which nothing will make you a greater Comfort to all your Friends, or a greater Bleffing to the very College where you are bred! Nothing will make you more univerfally efteem'd, and

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