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ces for it must needs be that offences come: but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh. Oh that men would confider, that they do in effect teach that which they do or fay before the younger fort; for childhood is the imitating age.

4. To those who do not check the outbreakings of corrupt nature in thofe of the younger fort, efpecially parents in their children. O the cruelty of fome parents, who, by their ceafing to nip fin in the bud in their children, betray them into fuch habits of fin, as afterwards it is too late to correct. They will neglect prayer, profane the fabbath, fwear, lye, and meet with no check: they will steal little things, and the parents will make them welcome. And thus, by their parents means, fome are fo accustomed to fin, that as they grow, it grows, till it brings fome to an ill end. Remember the children of Bethel, 2 Kings ii. 23. 24.

5. To those who propagate irreligion to the rifing generation; who teach young generation to defpife serious godliness, to contemn the ordi nances of God, and to lead loofe and licentious lives impatient of reftraint. Do they not propagate irreligion, who keep up their minced oaths, Haith, Faith, &c. which would die out of our language, were it not that they were propagated from father to fon, from the old to the young; who keep up the obfervation of fuperftitious times and cuftoms, Yule, Faftens-even, &c. the relics of Popery, and Paganifm, which might be razed out of memory, were it not that they are carefully propagated from one generation to another?

6. To those that go about to debauch a young generation, by instilling into them loofe and licentious principles, which youth is ready to fall in

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with; by taking a liberty with them in obfcene fitthy fpeaking, making youthful lufts the fubject of their mirth and fport; leading them in to drunkennefs, an inlet to all other vices; tempting them to the commiffion of the fin of uncleanness with them, which will be bitterness in the end to the feducer and the feduced; encouraging them to acts of dishonesty, cheating and tealing from their parents or mafters. Thefe are factors for hell, who do what in them lies to deftroy fouls Chrift died for.

7. To those that are ready to hide and cloke the fcandalous fins of others, working that they may not be brought to light. How many poor fouls of the younger fort, whom Satan has got led afide into the ways of fin, might have been recovered out of the fnare of the devil, if it had not been the cruel kindness of some, who beftirred themfelves to cover their fin? But thereby they have been hardened in their fin, and have gone from evil to worse, till at length they have been ruined for altogether. See what an awful threatening there is pronounced against fuch, Lev. v. 1. If a foul fin, and hear the voice of fwearing, and is a witness, whether he hath feen or known of it; if he do not utter it, then he shall bear his iniquity.

8. lastly, To those who cannot fee themselves under any obligation to propagate religion, and concern themselves as little about it. They think that may be the bufinefs of minifters, and poffibly of fathers to their own children; but not theirs. As foon as the Spirit of God touches your hearts in earnest about your own falvation, ye will change your mind; ye will find a natural concern for the advancing of the kingdom of Chrift: John

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iv. 29. Come, fee a man which told me all things that ever I did is not this the Chrift? The love of God, and of your neighbour, planted in the heart, will create a concern this way and not daring to be against him, and fcatter, ye will be for Chrift, and gather with him. The leaven will feek.

Uje 2. of Exhortation. Make it the special bu finefs of your lives to propagate religion to the ri fing generation.

Motive 1. There is the ftrongest obligations on you for it. Ye are in that point under the tie of,

ift, Divine authority. God commands you to do it, requires it of you. It is commanded to all to edify one another, 1 Theff. v. 11.; yea, all things must be done for that end, Cor. xiv. 26. And the reason is plain, that God has placed men in fociety, and in Chriftian fociety for that end, Rom. xiv. 7. And the elder fort are made tutors and teachers to the younger for that end, Deut. iv. 10. and xi. 19.

2dly, Gratitude to God. Is not God your Creator, Preferver, and Sustainer? And what can ye. do for him, for all the goodness bestowed on you, if ye do not propagate his name and praise, and ftrive to ftir up the love and fear of him in the rifing generation? If ye have any fhare in the redemption of Chrift, ye cannot but find yourselves under the strongest ties of gratitude for redeeming love, to labour that his name may be transmitted from generation to generation. Hence fays the Pfalmift, Pfal. Ixxii. 17. His name fhall endure for ever his name shall be continued as long as the fun and men shall be bleffed in him; all nations hall call him bleffed.

3dly, Juftice to former generations, who have

propagated

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propagated religion to us. What cafe had we been in this day, if it had not been for the fufferings of confeffors, and the blood of martyrs, which they underwent, that religion might be tranfmitted to us, and by us to fucceeding generations? Had they given up with it, it had been loft as to us. Now, they have an intereft in fucceeding generations; and if we propagate it not to them, we betray our truft, and are unjuft to them, and denude the fucceeding generation of the inheritance of their fathers. We fhould, like those spoke of Pfal. lxxviii. 3. 4. utter the things which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us ; not hiding them from our children, fhewing to the generation to come, the praises of the Lord; and his ftrength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.

4thly, Our own intereft. That maxim, Prov. xi. 24. There is that feattereth, and yet increafeth; and there is that with-holdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty, holds in this, as much as in any thing. Religion is a fire, which being fmothered, goes out; but getting a vent, increaseth. is like the widow's oil, that increased in the pouring out; and like the bread that increased in the breaking. Were men more fet on propagating religion to others, they would have more to themselves.

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5thly, Charity to the rifing generation. Their eternal state, as to well or wce, depends on their embracing or continuing ftrangers to religion. They need your help: for the bias of their nature lies the wrong way; the devil and an evil world ceafe not to ply them to walk according to that bias; and if their spiritual enemies gain their point, they are ruined.

Mot. 2. This is the chief part of your generation

work.

work. The work of our own falvation must be seen to, Philip. ii. 12. ; but that is not all we have to do. We are to do that for ourselves: but then, for the honour of God and the good of our fel. low-creatures, we are to ply our generation-work, Acts xiii. 36.; and that mainly lies here: Pfal. cxlv. 4. One generation fhall praife thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts. Ye are all doing but what are ye doing for the honour of God, for the fervice of your generation? Ye have a room in this generation; and God who fet you in it, will call you to account how ye fill it up.

Mot. 3. As ye carry yourselves in this matter, your fin or your good works will be going on, after ye are dead and gone, in this world. The laft judgment we must undergo, is not without reafon delayed to the end of the world; for the fins of wicked men, and the good works of the godly, will then be hugely increased beyond what they are at their death. Good Abel is ufeful to this day: Heb. xi. 4.He being dead, yet fpeaketh. Haman in his life fet a mischief a-going, which continued after he was gone, Efth. viii. 3.; and the fin of Jeroboam the first king of Ifrael, continued till that kingdom was at an end, 2 Kings xvii. 22. 23. If ye propagate religion to the riling generation, that good work will furvive you; and if ye neglect it, your criminal omiffion may live and deftroy fouls long after ye are gone, which will be laid to your charge at the great day.

Mot. 4. It is a noble and beneficial work. Hence fays the Apostle James, chap. v. 19. 20. Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; let him know, that he which converteth the

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