A Directory for Youth, Title page – Preface
A Directory for Youth Through all the Difficulties attending that State of Life. Or a Diſcourſe of Youthful Luſts. IN WHICH The Nature and Kinds of them are deſcribed, and Remedies againſt them laid down.
Firſt Preached to Young People, and now Publiſhed at their Requeſt.
By Samuel Pomfret, Miniſter of the Goſpel.
For thou writest bitter things againſt me, and makest me to poſſeſs the Iniquities of my Youth, Job 13. 26.
His Bones are full of the Sins of his Youth, which ſhall lie down with him in the Duſt, Job 20. 11.
Remember not against me the Sins of my Youth, Pſal. 25. 7.
I was aſhamed, yea, even confounded, becauſe I did bear the reproach of my Youth, Jer. 31. 19.
Ad vos juvenes mihi Sermo; flos aetatis periculum mentis. Aug. de temp.
London, Printed for John Dunton at the Black-Raven in the Poultry. 1693.
To the Young People that were Hearers of the following Sermons, and ſince have been ſollicitous for the Publiſhing of them, Grace and Peace, &c.
Beloved Friends,
THat ſincere Affection, and Compaſſion, which God hath wrought in me, to your precious Souls, hath prevailed with me (againſt my na…ral inclination) to yield to your Requeſt, for the Printing thoſe Sermons that I Preached from … Tim. 2. 22. wherein is recommended to … the weight and neceſſity of St. Paul's Ad…ition to Timothy to Flee Youthful Luſts.
The Wiſe Man ſaith, Prov. 25. 11. A …ord ſpoken in ſeaſon is like Apples of …ld in Pictures of Silver. And if ſo, then muſt be allowed me, that I have not miſcar…d in my choice of ſuch a Word ſpoken to you: duplicate page duplicate page O that I might not miſcarry in my wiſh for you, namely, that it may prove eventually, a Word whereby you may be ſaved. The Word damned is hard, you would not have that to be your lot. But pray permit me to tell you, (plainly and publickly without Liſping and Whiſpering) that ſaved you cannot be, and damned you muſt be, except by a true and timous Repentance you flee your Luſts; the infallible truth of which is originated in and built upon his Word, who is Truth it ſelf, and cannot lye, as you may ſee in the 6. Gal. 7. Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatſoever a man ſoweth, that ſhall he reap. 13. Luke 3. Except ye Repent, ye ſhall periſh. 8. Rom. 13. If ye live after the Fleſh, ye ſhall dye. 20. Job 11. His Bones are full of the Sin of his Youth, which ſhall lie down with him in the Duſt. 5. Prov. 11. And thou mourn at the laſt, and ſay, How have I hated Inſtruction, &c. 11. Eccleſ. 9. Rejoyce O young man, in thy youth—but know thou that for theſe things God will bring thee to Judgment.
O Young People, would you with due care apply theſe, things to your own Souls, it were enough to rent the very Caul of a ſecure Heart. I know ſuch is the Depravation of our. Natures, that if there were, any poſſibility of eſcaping Hell and Damnation, without fleeing our Luſts; we ſhould never voluntarily ſubmit to this Godly Counſel given by St. Paul to young Timothy. I have read of a Book that the Pope hath called Taxa Camerae Apoſtolicae, wherein men may know the Rate of any Sin, upon what terms men may keep a Whore, be Drunk, &c. As to that it is a bundle of Lyes. But the Inſpired Scriptures may be truly call'd a Rate Book, where any of you may know what a beloved Luſt will coſt without Repeneance (viz.) the Wrath of God in Hell: and ſo everlaſtingly true is this, that I beg you to deſpair of ever finding the leaſt Jota of God's Word to fail, or fall to the Ground unaccompliſhed.
I know you will be tempted to do as other Young People commonly do, namely, to forget theſe things, and by the ſloth and averſion of a wretched Heart in conjunction with Satan's temptations, to be carried away to other trivial matters; wherefore let me intreat you, as ever you would avoid the Curſe of Reuben [Unſtable as Waters] to ballaſt your Hearts, by laying in ſtrong and powerful Convictions of the intollerable Evil of Sin, the indiſpenſible neceſſity of Chriſt, and holineſs, the unconceiveable worth, and the preciouſneſs of your Souls, and Time, and the unavoidable approach of Death, and Judgment. Look ye, you Young Folks, the Breaſts of whoſe Virginity hath not yet been preſs'd, you are young, and want that, Experience that elder Chriſtians have; duplicate page duplicate page and therefore the greater allowance muſt be made; you muſt allow your Souls more time to digeſt the great myſteries of Religion by Meditation and Prayer: And you are more ſtrongly bent to ſenſual Pleaſures and Sports, and to forget God and your Souls, Death and Judgment. And therefore you muſt ſo much the more chaſtiſe the pregnancy of that Vanity and Folly that is bound up in your Natures by a ſeverer vigilance and abſtinence. When I was young, it pleaſed God of his infinite Mercy, to priviledge me above thouſands with a Religious Education, and by his reſtraining Grace to preſerve me from open Prophaneneſs (bleſſed be his holy Name) But yet notwithſtanding this (to my own juſt ſhame I mention it) in thoſe early and wanton days of my Youth I was miſerably vain, fooliſh, and diſobedient, ſerving divers Lu…ts and Pleaſures: The bitter remembrance whereof hath (for more than 20 Years paſt) coſt me Sighs and Groans unutterable: Oh! the time's not to be numbred that I have wiſhed I had been ſick in Bed rather than ſinning againſt ſo good a God; the Remote parts of the World that I have been in, the Roads I have journeyed in, the Fields I have watched in, the Nights I have watched on, the Houſes I have lived in, and the Beds I have lain on, can witneſs to my Tears and Sorrows while I have recogniz'd my Vanities and Folly.
And now foraſmuch as it is utterly impoſſible for me to recall and recover thoſe paſt and miſpent days of my Youth. I would on the bended Knee of Importunity, for my own ſake, as well as your's, beſeech this one thing of you, (as I have of God for you) (viz.) to take Warning, and to be effectually perſwaded (by the Terrours of the Lord which I have felt) to Flee that Youthful Luſt, and with that Godly young man Moſes, rather chooſe any Affliction than adventure to ſin; it's a known Sentence felix quem faciunt, &c. It's not unknown to many of you, how unwilling I have been drawn to expoſe theſe my homely thoughts to publick view. But an extream thirſt after the preſent Converſion, and Eternal Salvation of your Souls, hath overſwayed me herein: I know God's Bleſſing upon it can make it effectual to reach this end, which is all I aim at, or am ambitious of; and if it ſhall pleaſe Almighty God to make me a poor weak Inſtrument ſucceſsful herein, I ſhall go to my Grave with joy, and eſteem it ſo great a Recompence, as if I were young again, or had remembred my Creator in the days of my Youth.
I am not ignorant of my own Infirmities, but I write not to you Fathers and Mnaſons, old Diſciples; but to Children and Youth, who need not ſtrong Meat, but Milk. If any other ſhould ſo far humble themſelves, as to caſt an Eye upon ſo mean a Diſcourſe, with whom its buſineſs is not, I would deſire this of them, that inſtead of loading this poor thing and its Author with harſh and haſty Cenſures, they would lend it and him their help in their hearty Prayer to God for a Bleſſing upon the one, and an increaſe of Gifts and Grace in the other. I eſteem my ſelf oblig'd to acqudint you, that two of theſe Sermons were Preached above a Year ago, and thoſe Young Men that were not my Auditors then, may be apt to think that I have made great alterations in the tranſcribing of them, for as much as here they will meet with a great deal more than what they heard in a ſingle Sermon about ſix Weeks ago, wherein through the ſtreights of time I could do no more than juſt name many particulars, which formerly I was large upon.
I ſhall detain you no longer, only add this hearty deſire for you, That while many of your Age are haſtening the Wrath of God upon this poor Nation by their Atheiſm & Immoralities that you may be frequenting your Cloſets, and on your Knees mourning for your own and the Nations Sins, e're the Lord come upon us with his fierce Anger, and there be no remedy, which is the hearty deſire of him, who is a willing, though weak and unworthy Servant of Chriſt,
Samuel Pomfret.