Compassionate counsel to all young men especially I. London apprentices, II. students of divinity,…

(3.) And he must show some sense of the concerns or his soul, and regard of the Life to come, and that his Conscience is under some effectual convictions of the evil of sin, and the goodness and necessity of a godly Life. The youth that hath not these three qualifications, should not be intended or devoted to the Ministry. To devote an uncapable person, an ungodly person, to such a holy state and work is worse than of old ⟨p. 145⟩to have offered God the unclean which he abhorred for a sacrifice. And to design a graceless Lad for the Ministry on pretence of hoping that he may have Grace hereafter is a presumptuous profanation, and worse than to design a Coward to be a Soldier, a wicked unsuitable person to be a Husband or Wife, in hope they may be fit hereafter.

(3.) And he must shew some sence of the concerns or his soul, and regard of the Life to come, and that his Conscience is under some effectual convictions of the evil of sin, and the goodness and necessity of a godly Life. The youth that hath not these three qualifications, should not be intended or devoted to the Ministry. To devote an uncapable person, an ungodly person, to such a holy state and work is worse than of old ⟨p. 145⟩to have offered God the unclean which he abhorred for a sacrifice. And to design a graceless Lad for the Ministry on pretence of hoping that he may have Grace hereafter is a presumptious profanation, and worse than to design a Coward to be a Soldier, a wicked unsuitable person to be a Husband or Wife, in hope they may be fit hereafter.

§. 17. II. Therefore if your Parents have been so unwise as to devote that to God which was unfit for his acceptance, it concerneth you quickly to look better to your selves, and not to run into the consuming fire. You should be conscious of your own condition; If you may know that you want.