their old Age may be accepted of God tho they spend their Youth in sinning against him What an unparallel'd presumption For a Man to neglect to make provision for his everlasting Bliss at present only because 't is not absolutely impossible that he may do it in time to come To refuse the present improvement of the Time of Grace God is now pleas'd to allow him because the Divine Goodness can afford him the like advantage hereafter tho 't is very improbable that he will grant it to so presumptuous a Criminal Will any Man fall without fear upon the point of his Sword because 't is possible he may not receive a mortal Wound by it Is any Man so mad as to poison himself with the most subtile Venom because he thinks there is some possibility of his obtaining an Antidote Or will any one in his Wits carelesly suffer his Body to languish under a violent Disease without seeking for Cure till his strength is almost quite exhausted and he 's ready to expire thinking himself secure enough of Recovery because 't is not utterly impossible that a Man may be restor'd to Health when almost reduc'd to the last Gasp by violent Sickness No Men are more careful of their Bodies than to hazard 'em at this rate how careless soever they are of their Souls They are prudent in the Affairs of this Life but act after the most absurd and improvident manner about the great Concerns of the World to come But whether we will act reasonably or no what has been argu'd does abundantly demonstrate that it is both highly reasonable and advantageous for young Persons to devote themselves to the Service of their Creator in the Days of their Youth and that 't is as dangerous as 't is unreasonable to defer that important Work to the Days of old Age which are very uncertain in that we know not whether we shall attain them or not and if we do will prove so evil if this great Business of our Lives be till then neglected that we shall have occasion to complain that we have no pleasure in them I shall now endeavour to improve the things I have insisted on by way of Application And shall address my self 1. To those that are advanc'd in Years 2. To those who have not yet exceeded the Days of Youth First As for you that are advanc'd in Years What has been said must needs offer you an occasion to enquire of your own Consciences Whether you have dedicated your selves to the Service of God or not Whether you have yet remember'd your Creator in the sense of our Text and are truly converted to him If you have not so remember'd him consider 1. How extremely dangerous your Case is Can you be secure on the very brink of Destruction Surely 't is more than high time for you to awake lest you sleep the sleep of Death It will be a Miracle of Grace if ever you be recover'd out of the Snare of the Devil who have been so long led Captive by him at his Will It has been your great folly to defer to Lay up in store for your selves a good foundation against the Time to come till now but your folly in deferring it longer will still increase together with your guilt and danger of which if you are sensible seek immediately to escape Fly from the Wrath to come which is hastening toward you for tho you may carelesly slumber your Damnation slumbers not but will soon overtake you if you don 't speedily awake to righteousness and to the serious remembrance of your Creator for the Wicked shall be turned into Hell and all the Nations that FORGET God If any of you have vainly flatter'd your selves all your Days with the presumptuous thoughts of having still time enough before you for the great Work of your Conversion Let me warn and exhort every such person in the words of the Apostle Peter to Simon Magus Repent of this thy Wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of thine Heart may be forgiven thee For I perceive that thou art in the gall of Bitterness and in the bond of Iniquity And to Day while 't is call'd to Day remember your Maker lest any of you be further harden'd through the deceitfulness of Sin 2. If you are convinc'd of the folly and sinfulness of your Neglect Do not absolutely conclude 't is now too late to obtain Mercy nor continue that neglect by Despair which you have long persisted in by Presumption As you cannot set limits to the Iustice of God so neither can you measure his Long-suffering and Goodness Therefore you ought not now to say His Mercies are quite gone for ever and he will be favourable no more Encourage your selves to turn to God and to rely on his Mercy at least with the same Argument the famish'd Lepers us'd to engage one another to throw themselves on the Compassion of the Syrian Army Why sit we here say they until we Die If we say we will enter into the City then the Famine is in the City and we shall Die there And if we sit still here we Die also Now therefore come and let us fall unto the Host of the Syrians if they save us alive we shall Live and if they kill us we shall but Die Reason with your selves after the like manner Why sit we still in a state of the greatest danger If after the sense of our danger we return to our former Course of Life we must perish if we remain in our present posture and neglect to try the Father of Mercies whether he will commiserate such inveterate Sinners we inevitably perish too Let us cast our selves at his Feet if he 'll save us we shall live eternally if he refuse we can but perish Say as David did in another case It may be the LORD will look on our Affliction Venture to prostrate your selves at the Throne of Grace as Queen Esther did at the Feet of the Persian Monarch with an If I perish I perish And who knows but the Scepter of Divine Mercy may yet tender you a Pardon 'T is possible that the Prodigal may be accepted tho he return late to his Father's House and that God may place you among the rare Instances of his free and soveraign Grace And if you are deeply sensible of your past Iniquity and earnestly groan for a Change in your Souls for a New and Pure Heart and a right Spirit 't is to be hop'd that God whose Compassions are infinite has now at last open'd your Eyes that you might not sleep the sleep of eternal Death has made you hunger and thirst after Righteousness with a design to satisfy you and has wounded your Spirits by a Godly Sorrow with a purpose to heal them with the Oil of Ioy with the Comforts of his Free Spirit You have run a strange Venture to
of God so that we could extend it many Years beyond the ordinary Course of Life or if we had the certain fore-knowledg of the limits which the Almighty has fix'd to our Days if we knew the number of our Months and any of us could read our selves antient in the Book of the Divine Decrees this could by no means justify or excuse our Negligence if we should thereupon presume to delay our Conversion till towards the Close of our Time because of the uncertainty of the continuance of the Day of God's Patience and Grace For as the Days of our Lives are uncertain so is the Day of Grace too and as those are very short so this may be much shorter and we may soon out-live the Time of our Visitation from Heaven and so the things that belong to our Peace may be finally hidden from our Eyes 'T is infinite Mercy in the Great and Holy God to give a wretched Sinner one Smile one single offer of Reconciliation and 't is great Ingratitude and Folly in a guilty Creature but once to refuse to hearken to so Gracious a Call But what words can express the Goodness and Condescension of the Almighty to a miserable Worm when he importunately repeats the Terms of Peace to invite nay to beseech him to be reconciled to him And how provoking must the guilt of that Sinner be who after all this kindness of God towards him stops his Ears at his Counsel like the deaf Adder that will not hearken to the Voice of Charmers charming never so wisely And therefore 't is not to be wonder'd at if his abused Patience and Mercy be turn'd into Indignation and Wrath And thus it often comes to pass Because Men receive not the love of the Truth that they might be saved God sends them strong Delusion that they should believe a Lie and that they all may be damned who believe not the Truth but have pleasure in Vnrighteousness And the Word of God instead of being the savour of Life unto Life becomes the savour of Death unto Death to them Thus the Righteous God sets his Face against them that stiffen their Necks against him and hardens their Hearts in Judgment who themselves have harden'd them against the offers of Mercy If the declining Church of Ephesus was threaten'd with the removal of her Candlestick in case she refus'd to hearken to the Voice of our Saviour when he call'd her to Repentance how justly may every impenitent Sinner fear the speedy ending of the Day of Grace to him And if at one Sermon of the Apostle Paul's as some of the Iews his Auditors were converted so others of them were judicially sealed up in hardness of heart and blindness of mind the most dreadful punishment on this side Hell and the Gospel which they had rejected and despis'd was suddenly snatch'd from them to be carried to the ignorant Heathen Is it not still to be fear'd that they that defer to yield themselves to the obedience of Faith when the glad Tidings of Salvation have been again and again publish'd to them may utterly fall short of Happiness by this their Obstinacy and Vnbelief And if profane Esau who for one morsel of Meat sold his Birth-right was afterwards rejected when he would have inherited the Blessing and found no place of Repentance tho he sought it carefully with Tears How justly may God reject them who have often resisted the Spirit of Grace And suffer them to mourn at last without pity in their greatest Distress who have often griev'd the Holy Spirit in gratifying their sinful Inclinations And seeing he has said his Spirit shall not always strive with Men who knows how soon he may shut up his tender Mercies in Displeasure against those that have long rebell'd against him and swear in his Wrath that they shall never enter into his Rest How soon he may accomplish that terrible Threatening he has pronounc'd against the Impenitent He that hardens his Neck being often reprov'd shall suddenly be destroy'd and that without Remedy 3. There is not only a possibility or a bare likelihood of the expiration of the Day of Grace to those that spend the best of their Time in Rebellion against their Maker before they arrive at old Age But on the contrary there is only a possibility and no likelihood that the Holy Spirit should continue to strive with them at the winding up of their Days who through the greatest part of their Time have resisted his Counsels and Motions And 't is not only Reason that furnishes us with proofs of this from the Soveraignty and Justice of God consider'd with the great Aggravations of Impenitency under the means of Grace or the Threatnings in the Holy Scripture that plainly include this danger as appears from the last Head insisted on but Experience joins issue in this matter and evinces that what our Saviour says of Rich Men may with as much reason and force be applied to old Sinners namely That 't is easier for a Camel to pass through the eye of a Needle than for such to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven And if this Saying seem severe to any in respect of these last as it did to the Disciples of Christ in regard of the other it cannot justly be soften'd with any farther addition than that which our Saviour subjoin'd to qualify his words in the first case viz. That nothing is impossible with God 'T is a thing possible because all things are so to God but very unlikely and not to be often expected and when at any time it comes to pass God may be said to make a step out of the ordinary method of the Dispensation of his Grace somewhat like that he makes when he works a Miracle in the Sphere of Nature In this matter I say one may safely appeal to Experience Let any one that is acquainted with a considerable number of pious and aged Persons ask each of them from what time he dates his Conversion and for one that has had that happy Change wrought on his Soul since he became Old he shall find many that turn'd to God in the strength and verdure of their Youth And can there be a greater instance given then of the deceitfulness of Sin and of the bewitching power it has over the common Sense and Reason of Mankind than we have in the vain promises of Repentance in old Age wherewith so many flatter themselves and by which they seem to hope to render God propitious to them Is any kind of Folly so great in its Degree or so dangerous in its Consequences as this For Mortals to lull themselves asleep in Sin and sing a stupifying Requiem to their Souls while they hang on the brink of eternal Perdition when their vain Hope has merely this uncertain foundation That there is a bare possibility that
after that abstracted manner And is it not as easy as 't is reasonable to reply That 't is a foolish Scrupulosity to be so careful to avoid Singularity as to run from it into a Common Destruction To refuse to be holy and happy and to choose Sin and Misery because the way to Life is narrow and unfrequented and the way to Damnation broad and full of Company Is not this a vain affectation of Conformity to the World for you to follow a Multitude to do evil tho their Ways lead to Hell and go down to the Chambers of Death to abandon your selves to the Torrent of evil Examples tho they drown you in Perdition to sacrifice your own eternal Interest in complaisance to the Custom and Humour of other Men and to walk in the Counsel of the Vngodly tho you damn your selves for Company And because some rather seem to pity or even indulge than blame many of the Follies of Youth partly from the Consideration of their Vnexperience and giddiness of Mind and of their great Propensity to carnal Pleasures partly because Custom has render'd the Vices of Youth familiar to the World and partly because many of those that are advanc'd in Years instead of reflecting on their youthful Vanities with Sorrow are yet so insensible as to look back upon them as excusable Follies or as Sins of small consequence must therefore an Opinion that has so rotten a foundation obtain Credit in the World as if it were a Maxim of undoubted Truth Does the Holy Scripture or Reason allow Youth any such Dispensation for Sin Is so great an Evil to be at any time indulg'd Is any scope in Vice allowable to the Time of Youth any more than to the Time of Old Age Is not Sin always evil and always to be avoided Can you think it deserves the very best of your Time and that your Creator is unworthy of such an Offering You have heard it sufficiently prov'd that Youth is the most proper Time of all and Old Age the most unfit for the great Business of Conversion to God that 't is the greatest proof of the Reality of our Self-denial when we restrain the vicious Inclinations of our Youth that are so eager after sensual Pleasures And that an aged Sinner is so far from being likely to be a true Penitent that the long Time he has been hardening himself in his Wickedness renders the Change of his Heart impossible without a more than ordinary effort of Grace which God is seldom pleas'd to grant to them that are grown old in Wickedness Will you say after this God whose Mercies are infinite is Gracious enough to receive us into his Vineyard at the last hour of the Day and to give us a place in Paradise if like the Thief on the Cross we begin to repent when we are ceasing to live and we may hope to die happily tho we have liv'd viciously After having so largely detected the Vanity of such Hopes as these as we have already done we need not add much more Is not this to build an imaginary Happiness on a thousand Uncertainties And what a daring presumption is it to continue in Sin that Grace may abound Because the Gracious God has given one Example in his Word of a Sinner converted at the last hour of his Life is it reasonable for every Sinner to conclude That he may expect the same extraordinary favour and so may safely defer his Repentance till he is ready to expire No this great Instance of Mercy in the crucified Malefactor was given to prevent a true tho late Penitent from despairing not to encourage any bold Sinner to turn the Grace of God into Lasciviousness by his presumption And how many fatal instances might be given of the Vanity of such hopes as these How few of those daring Sinners have arriv'd at the Time which they pretended to devote to religious Purposes How very few of those that have reached old Age have become sensible of their Guilt and Danger after a long Life spent in the Service of Sin Have they not generally supinely doz'd away their last Moments as they vainly spent their first without awaking till they have found themselves in everlasting Burnings Or if they have receiv'd some Convictions of their Guilt these have not always produc'd on them the Characters of a Repentance to Salvation but have sometimes fill'd their miserable Souls with Despair and Horrour and their former delusive Hopes of obtaining pardon at the last hour have only issued in a certain fearful looking for of Iudgment and fiery Indignation to devour them Learn therefore before it be too late so to number your Days as to apply your Hearts to Wisdom Will you after all that has been said still perswade your selves that 't is yet time enough for you to remember your Creator and that you may safely enough defer the securing of your Salvation yet some time longer if not quite to the evil Days of Old Age that 't is best for you first to establish your selves in the World as firmly as you can and to make provision for your temporal Interest and afterwards at your leisure to think on the Affairs of another Life These things have been also sufficiently answer'd before let me further add That as your Time is very uncertain on the one hand so your Resolutions are yet more fickle on the other For how common a thing is it for Men to assume a purpose of Repentance and presently to relinquish it again How often do they violate their Promises to God and to themselves while they are perpetually fixing a new future season of Amendment So deceitful is the Heart of Man and so desperately wicked who can know it And how preposterous is the Course you take to endeavour to provide for your Bodies before your Souls and to secure your Temporal before your Eternal Interest Hearkening rather to the deluding Suggestions of the Father of Lies who tempts you with the gilded Vanities of this perishing World than to the Counsel of him who is Wisdom it self who advises you to seek first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and assures you that then the things of this World i. e. so far as may conduce to your Welfare shall be superadded Since therefore your Creator requires your present Time 't is your Prudence your Interest and your Duty without conferring with Flesh and Blood immediately to obey him to seek him while he may be found and to call upon him while he is near and while he calls upon you lest if you persist to slight and forget your Maker and his Counsel any longer he should so remember your Iniquity and visit your Sins as to pronounce on you this dreadful Sentence Because I have call'd and ye refus'd I have stretched out my Hand and no Man regarded But ye have set at nought all my
God bears to us as our Creator includes his Providential Care for our Preservation That God who is our Maker is also the Preserver of Men. As it was impossible that we should give Being to our felves so 't is beyond our power to continue our selves in Being And as we owe not our Existence to any Being Inferiour to God so neither does the Duration of our Being depend upon any other than him It was the Will of God that produc'd us consequently 't is the same Will that preserves us Before he actually will'd our Production we could not exist and if he should cease to will the Continuance of our Being it would immediately discontinue and be annihilated 'T is but for him to withdraw his Hand to suspend the Influence of his Power and we sink into Nothing So that we are kept by the Power of God in regard of our Natural as the Apostle affirms we are in respect of our Spiritual State And since the Divine Will is equally the Cause of our Being and of the Duration of it the term of Creator attributed to God in our Text may be fitly extended to both our Preservation being a Continuation of God's Creating Work for in this respect as well as that mention'd before of the formation of successive Generations of Men according to the words of Christ God worketh hitherto And as from him our Being is deriv'd so in him alone we Live and Move and have our Being still who upholds all things by the Word of his Power And not only We but all other Creatures lean on the Almighty Hand for their Preservation to which they all equally owe their Existence 3. The Term Creator may further include that God is the Restorer and Reformer of Man 'T is true it does not necessarily follow that because he has made and preserves us therefore after we had undone our selves by Sin and effac'd the Image of Holiness he impress'd on us in our Original Frame and Constitution he also must needs actually Reform us But it does thence follow that none but God can restore a Degenerate Creature and that all those whose Corrupt Nature is reform'd derive that Blessing from the Almighty Author of their Being The same Divine Goodness Wisdom and Power that at the Creation of the World said Let there be Light which Operative Word produc'd Light immediately is necessary to illuminate the benighted Minds of Men who are by Sin become the Children of Darkness and to call them out of that Darkness into the Marvellous Light of Divine Truth Therefore the Apostle Paul assures us that it is that God who at first commanded the Light to shine out of Darkness that shines in the Hearts of such to give the Light of the knowledg of the Glory of God in the face of Iesus Christ. He alone who made all things very Good in their kind at the Creation and who then made Man upright is able to rectify the perverseness of his Will and to purify his Heart from the Pollution it has contracted To create in him a clean Heart and to renew a right Spirit within him Nothing less than our Creator's own Divine Goodness could move him to restore deprav'd Sinners nothing less than his own Divine Wisdom could contrive the Method of their Restoration and nothing less than his Divine Power could put it in Execution and accomplish it He contriv'd the Scheme of this Glorious Work He appointed and prepar'd the Means and He renders them effectual to the End designed Who but our Creator is able to restore us and reform us from Sin seeing Sin is a Privation of Sanctity a Nullity oppos'd to the Being of Holiness Nay a state of Sin is a state of Rebellion against God a State of Enmity and Opposition to the Author of our Being therefore worse than Annihilation it self because that which is not as it can do no Good so does no Evil as it is not for God so is not against Him But a sinful Creature commits his Sins against him even against Him as the Psalmist emphatically repeats it and does Evil in his sight actually opposes and disserves Him who is the supreme Being and sole Author of the whole Creation Therefore tho' the Word of God brought us out of Nullity and gave us Being nothing less than the Blood of God could avail to redeem us from that Abyss of Iniquity and Misery we were sunk into by our Apostacy from Him Who but He that establish'd the World by his Wisdom and stretched out the Heavens by his Discretion and Vnderstanding could have form'd the Method of our Restoration so as to glorify his Holiness and Iustice as well as his Grace and Mercy by it so as to make Mercy and Truth meet together and Righteousness and Peace to kiss each other as he hath done by recovering fallen Man by the Sacrifice of his only begotten Son What Depths of Wisdom appear in this Stupendous Mystery of Godliness God manifested in the Flesh That Sin should be punish'd with the utmost Severity and yet the Sinner spar'd by Infinite Mercy That our Saviour who knew no Sin should be made Sin for us that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him And the same Characters of Divine Wisdom that appear in the Foundation are seen also in the whole Superstructure of the Church of God and in every part of this great Work of Restoration Nothing can be more astonishing than that Infinite Mercy that appears in this Mighty Work which can have no other Author than that Infinite Being that hath created us Who but He that made us would or could have so much Mercy on us And who but he that formed us would shew us so much Favour as to rescue us from Sin and the Curses entail'd on it by so endearing a Ransom as the precious Blood of his own Son And as none but our Maker is capable of Redeeming us so the frequent use he makes of the Term Creator in his Word to encourage Men to obey him and to trust in him may well be suppos'd to intimate the Design he had fram'd to restore Sinners to his Favour For had he not revealed himself to be Willing as well as Able to be our Creator in this Sense by taking us into his Hand the second Time to reform us or create us anew there would be no room for us since we have all violated the Laws of our first Creation to hope to offer any acceptable Service to him or to expect any Favour from him There would be no Incouragement to remember him as our Creator in the first Sense exclusive of this latter because our Guilt would fill us with Terror at every due Remembrance of him who as he made us for his Glory so is able to punish us and might justly do it for the Indignities we have offer'd him by our Sins So that whenever
delay a Work of this nature and of this consequence till now but if God has given you deep and serious Repentance he designs you favour and your Contrition give hope of a Pardon Let the wicked forsake his Way and the unrighteous Man his Thoughts and let him return unto the LORD and he will have Mercy on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon But 2. If you are truly converted 't is your Happiness and Honour The hoary Head is a Crown of Glory if it be found in the way of Righteousness But did you consecrate to your Creator the Flower of your Youth Or have you only offer'd him your later Years It may be you began to work in his Vineyard but at the Tenth or Eleventh Hour or at least since your Sun has been declining If so then 1. Admire and adore that Grace of God which kept back your feet from Destruction when you were ready to step into eternal Misery and indulgently pluck'd you out of the way of approaching Ruine as the blessed Angels did Lot to secure him from the impending Shower of Fire and Brimstone which threaten'd Sodom when he linger'd in that vicious and accursed City How can you choose but reflect with astonishment on the Danger you have escap'd and bless that Divine Hand that kindly diverted you from that presumptuous Course that was ready to cast you on a Rock on which you have seen so many dash themselves in pieces Praise him I say who has sav'd you from so great and so near a Death and remember'd you in Mercy when you had forgotten him Days without number 2. Let the sincerity of your Thankfulness and of your Repentance too appear by the improvement of that little portion of Time which you have yet remaining Redeem your Time now at least because the Days are evil Improve the evil Days of old Age with the utmost Diligence since the better Days of Youth are past recalling Evidence both to your selves and to others that your late Repentance is true by such an industrious management of your remaining Days as may convince the World that 't is no small grief of Heart to you that your Repentance was so late Recover your lost Time as much as possible by your present diligence and let none of your precious Moments for the future be heedlesly expended but husband 'em well in working out your Salvation with fear and trembling Let your frequent hours and acts of Devotion make up the long want your selves have had of those sacred Privileges that attend the Exercises of Holy Worship and thereby make restitution as much as in you lies to your Creator for the Sacrilege you have often committed in robbing him of those pious Offerings those continual Sacrifices with which you should daily have furnished his Altar Let your Example be as beneficial to Mankind as it has been injurious And as you have tempted others to Sin strive now to incite them to Piety If you bear the Character of Parents or Masters labour to convince those young Persons who are under the influence of your Counsel or the awe of your Authority of the great Advantages of an early Conversion And let them know you now seriously lament the past Follies of your Youth That as your ill Counsels and vicious Patterns have long made you Partakers of other Mens Sins so your Religious Exhortations and good Examples may obtain on your Acquaintance and those that are under your Conduct so as to intitle you in some sort to other Mens Vertues In a word remember that you are under a special Obligation that as the Apostle speaks you should no longer live the rest of your Time in the Flesh to the Lusts of Men but to the Will of God For the Time past of your Life may suffice to have wrought the Will of the gentiles when ye walked in Lasciviousness Lusts excess of Wine Revellings Banquetings and abominable Idolatries If your Case be otherwise and you began early to give your selves up to the Service of your Creator 1. Bless and magnify that God who was the Guide of your Youth who wrought that happy Change on your Souls who were Children of Wrath by Nature as well as others What copious Subjects of Praise will your Experience furnish you withal when you reflect on the long Series of Divine Favours that have attended you through the various Parts and Changes of Life And what a pleasant Review may you take of a well-spent Life directed to the Glory of God and conducted by his Grace What matter of thanksgiving may you find in the many Assurances of his Love and in the Evidences of the Work of his Grace upon your Souls and in the frequent and familiar prospect he has given your Faith of that invisible and ineffable Glory you have been so long aspiring after and are now so near enjoying You have reason to bless your Creator as well for preventing your commission of the many Sins you have escap'd as for forgiving of those you have committed For preserving your Innocence on many occasions as well as for pardoning your Guilt on others for making you happy so soon by an early Conversion and for giving you the hope of a distinguishing Crown of Glory for honouring the best of your Time by accepting it in his Service and for sweetning the worst of it the evil Days of old Age with all the Comforts which the Reflection on a Life of Grace and all the Joys which the prospect of a Life of Glory can inspire Surely the high Praises of God should be in your Mouths for to use the Words of Christ on that solemn occasion when his Disciples cry'd Hosanna to him I tell you if you should hold your Peace the Stones would immediately cry out 2. You ought to manifest the truth of your early Conversion by the extent of your Knowledg in Divine Things and by the warmth of your Affection to them I write unto you Fathers says the Apostle Iohn because you have known him that is from the beginning Both God and Men expect that your growth both in Knowledg and in Grace should bear some proportion to the Time you have spent in the School of Christ that you should be the tallest Cedars in Lebanon that have been so long planted there and the most fruitful Vines that have been so often water'd with the River of God Seeing you are not Babes either in regard of the time you have liv'd in the World or of that you have spent in the Church of God but Persons of full Age who by reason of use ought to have your Senses exercis'd to discern both good and evil Let it not be said of you that when for the Time you ought to be Teachers you have need that one teach you again which be the first Principles of the Oracles of God and that you are again become such