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and upon that account, the leffer, and con sequently the younger any one is, the easier may he get into it, and pass through it. In a word, it is the path of Vertue, and the high road to Heaven, the Via ad bonos mores; the entrance into which, some say, is never too late, and, I am fure, can never be too foon. For it is certainly long, and laborious ; and therefore, whosoever hopes to reach the end of it, it will concern him to set out betimes; and his great encouragement so to do, is, that this is the likeliest means to give him Constancy and Perfeverance in it. He will not (says Solomon) forsake it when he is old: And fuch is the length of the stage, that it will be fure to hold him in his course, and to keep him going on, till he is grown so.

It is, in my opinion, very remarkable, that notwithstanding all the Rewards which confeffedly belong to vertue in both Worlds, yet Solomon, in the text, alledges no other argument for, or motive to the course here recommended to us, but the End of it: Nor enjoins us the pursuit of vertue in our Youth, upon any other reason mention'd in the words, but that we may practise it in our Age. And no doubt it is an excellent one, and will have many others fall in with it, for the enforcement of the Duty here prescribed to us.

For

For can any thing in nature be more odious and despicable, than a wicked old man ? A man, who after threescore or fourscore years spent in the World, after so many Sacraments, Sermons, and other means of Grace, taken in, digested and defeated, shall continue as errant an Hypocrite, Dissembler and Masquerader in Religion as ever, still dodging and doubling with God and Man, and never speaking his mind, nor so much as opening his mouth in earnest, but when he eats or breathes.

Again, can any thing be so vile and forlorne, as an old, broken, and decrepit Sensualift, creeping (as it were) to the Devil upon all Four? Can there be a greater indecency, than an old Drunkard? or any thing more noisome and unnatural, than an aged, filverhair'd Wanton, with Froft in his bones, and Snow upon his head, following his lewd, sensless amours? a wretch so scorned, so despised, and so abandoned by all, that his very vices forsake him.

And yet, as Youth leaves a man, so Age generally finds him: If he passes his Youth, juggling, shuffling and dissembling, it is odds but you will have him at the fame leger-demain, and shewing tricks in his Age also. And if he spends his young days whoring and drinking, it is ten to one but Age will find him in the same filthy Drudgery still, or at least wishing himself so. And lastly, if Death (which cannot be far off from age) finds him so too, his game is then certainly at the best, and his condition (which is the Sting of all) never poffible to be better.

And therefore, whosoever thou art, who haft enslaved thyself to the paltry, bewitching pleasures of Youth, and lookest with a wry face, and a four eye, upon the rough, afflicting severities of vertue; confider with thyself, that the pleasures of Youth will not, cannot be the pleasures of old Age, though the Guilt of it will. And consider also, what a dismal, intolerable thing it must needs be, for a man to feel a total declension in his Strength, his Morals, and his Esteem together. And remember, that for all the disciplines of temperance, the hardships of labour, and the abridgments of thy swelling appetites, it will be a full, fufficient, and more than equivalent Recompence, to be healthful, chearful, and honourable, and (which is more than all) to be vertuous, when thou art old.

The Propofition then before us is this.

That a strict and vertuous Education of Youth, is absolutely necessary to a man's attainment of that inestimable Blessing, that unspeakable Felicity of being serviceable to his God,

God, easy to himself, and useful to others, in the whole course of his following Life.

In order to the proof of which, I shall lay down these fix Propositions.

I. That in the present state of Nature, there is in every man a certain Propensity to Vice, or a corrupt Principle more or less disposing him to Evil. Which Principle is sometimes called the flesh, sometimes concupiscence, and sometimes sensuality, and makes one part of that, which we call Original Sin. A Principle, which though it both proceeds from fin, and disposes to fin, yet till it comes to act, the Doctors of the Romish Church deny to be in itself sinful. And the Pelagians deny that there is any such thing at all; especially our modern, orthodox, and more authentick Pelagians. For though our Church indeed in her ninth Article positively and exprefly afferts both: Yet there having been given us, not very long since, a new and more correct draught of Discipline, to reconcile us to the Schismaticks; it is not impossible but that in time we may have a new draught of Doctrine also, to reconcile us to the Socinians.

II. The second Proposition is this, That the forementioned Propenfity of the fenfual part, or principle, to vice, being left to itself, will certainly proceed to work, and to exert itself

in action; and, if not hindred, and counteracted,

L

acted, will continue so to do; till practice passes into custom, or habit, and so by use and frequency comes to acquire a domineering strength in a man's Conversation.

III. The Third Proposition is, That all the Disorders of the World, and the Confufions that disturb Persons, Families, and whole Societies, or Corporations, proceed from this natural Propenfity to Vice in particular Persons, which being thus heighten'd by habitual Practice, runs forth into those several forts of Vice, which corrupt and spoil the Manners of men. Whence come wars, and fightings? fays the Apostle, James iv. 1. Come they not bence, even from your lusts that war in your members? And indeed, it is hard to affign any Mischief befalling mankind, but what proceeds from fome extravagance, either of paffion, or defire; from Luft, or Anger, Covetousness, or

Ambition.

:

IV. The Fourth Proposition is, That, when the Corruption of mens manners, by the habitual improvement of this Vicious Principle, comes from Personal to be General and Universal, so as to diffuse and spread itself over a whole Community; it naturally and directly tends to the ruin and fubversion of the Government, where it so prevails: So that Machiavel himself, (a person never likely to die for love of Vertue or Religion) affirms over and