LESSONS CHIEFLY IN PROS E. The Advantages of early Piety. YOUNG TILLOTSON. YOUNG Years are tender and eafily wrought upon, apt to be moulded into any Fashion; they are like moift and foft Clay, which is pliable to any Form; but foon grows hard, and then nothing is to be made of it. It is a very difficult Thing to make Impreffions upon Age, and to deface the Evil which hath been deeply imprinted upon young and tender Minds. When good Inftruction hath been neglected at first, a conceited Ignorance doth commonly take Poffeffion, and obftruct all the Paffages through which Knowledge and Wisdom fhould enter into us. Upon this Confideration the Work of Religion fhould be begun by Times, because it is a mighty Advan Advantage to any Thing to be planted in a Ground that is newly broken up. It.is juft the fame Thing for young Perfons to be entered into a religious Course, and to have their Minds habituated to Virtue before vicious Customs have got Place and Strength in us: For whoever shall attempt this afterwards will meet with infinite Difficulty and Oppofition, and must dispute his Ground by Inches. It is good therefore to do that which must be done one Time or other, when it is easiest to be done; when we may do it with the greatest Advantage, and are likely to meet with the leaft and weakest Oppofition. We fhould anticipate Vice and prevent the Devil and the World, by letting God into our Hearts betimes, and giving Religion the first Seifin and Poffeffion of our Souls. This is the Time of fowing our Seed, which must by no means be neglected. For the Soul will not lie fallow; Good or Evil will come up. If our Minds be not cultivated by Religion, Sin and Vice will get the Poffeffion of them: But if our tender Years be feafoned with the Knowledge and Fear of GOD, this in all Probability will have a good Influence upon the following Course of our Lives. The Precioufness of Time. T TILLOTSON. IME is the Seafon and Opportunity of carrying on of any Work, and for that Reason is one of the most valuable Things; and yet nothing is more waftefully spent, and more prodigally fquandered away by a greater Part of Mankind than this, which, next to our immortal Souls, is of all Things most precious; because upon the right Ufe or Abuse of our Time, our eternal Happiness or Mifery does depend. Men have generally fome Guard upon themselves, as to their Money and Estates, and will not with Eyes open fuffer others to rob and deprive them of it: But we will let any Body almost rob us of our Time, and are contented to expose this precious Treasure to every Body's Rapine and Extortion, and can quietly look on, while Men thrust in their Hands, and take it out by whole Handfuls, as if it were of no greater Value than Silver was in Solomon's Days, no more than the Stones in the Street. And yet when it is gone, all the Silver and Gold in the World cannot purchase and fetch back the leaft Moment of it, when perhaps we would give all the World for a very small Part of that Time which we parted with upon fuch cheap and eafy Terms.. "The Guilt of Lying. TILLOTSON. T RUTH and Faithfulness are divine Perfections; but Lying and Falfhood are the Properties of the Devil, and the predominant Qualities of Hell. No Man can be cruel and unmerciful, falfe and treacherous, without a very high Degree of Guilt; because these Sins are contrary to the chiefeft and moft effential Perfections of GOD. Lying is a Sin that would fly in the Face of an Heathen, because it directly contradicts thofe natural Notions which every every Man hath of GoD and Religion; therefore we find that there is hardly any Thing that Men are more afhamed of than to be taken in a Lie, and it is esteemed the highest Reproach to be charged with it; it argues fuch a direct Contrariety to that which is the Rule of Perfection, "the Nature of GOD," and confequently fo much Imperfection and Bafenefs; he that tells a Lie out of Fear, is at once bold towards GOD, and base towards Men. The Evil of corrupt Communication. TILLOTSON. A LL corrupt and filthy Communication is a notorious Abuse of, one of the greatest and beft Gifts which God hath given us, and does directly contradict the natural End and Ufe of Speech. Our Tongue is our Glory, as the holy Pfalmift often calls it, who had duly confidered the Excellency and Use of this Faculty, and took great Care to employ it to the Purposes to which God gave it, and is herein an admirable Pattern to us. The two great Ends for which this Faculty of Speech is given us, are to glorify GOD our Maker, and to edify Man our Neighbour: But all corrupt Communication contradicts both these Ends; because, instead of praifing GOD with pure Hearts and Lips, we do greatly dishonour him, by polluting our Tongue with lewd and filthy Talk. For hereby we offer a direct Affront to his holy Nature and Laws. This renders us altogether unfit for the Worfhip and Service of Almighty GoD, who is "of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity" and For how can we think Kind. and Impurity of any that he will accept thofe Prayers and Praises, which are offered to him by fuch impure and unhallowed Lips? when we dishonour GoD with the fame Mouth that we pretend to glorify him? and commit Sin with the fame Tongue that we confess it? How can we hope that he will accept the Sacrifice of fuch polluted Lips, out of which proceed Things fo contrary and inconfistant ? Against Profanenefs in Ordinary Converfation. TILLOTSON. S all Kind of Profaneness is unprofitable, so more especially cuftomary Swearing in or dinary Converfation, upon every Occafion of Pafit may be withfion, or any other trivial Cause, nay out Cause, out of mere Habit and Cuftom. Now what can poffibly be imagined to be the Profit or Pleasure of this Vice? Senfual Pleasure in it there can be none, because it is not founded in the Tem per of the Body: A Man may be naturally prone to Anger or Luft; but no Man I think is born with a fwearing Constitution. And there is as little Profit as Pleasure in it; for the common and trivial Ufe of Oaths makes them perfectly infignificant to their End, and is so far from giving Credit to a Man's Word, that it rather weakens the Reputation of it. The |