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

And if any be like to be the stain and Plague of the Church, it is such as these: If we preach holy truth to them, Lust cannot love it: If we tell them of Gods word, the fleshly mind doth not savour it, nor can be subject to it. Rom. 8.5, 6, 7. If we reprove them sharply, they smart and hate us: If we call them to Confession and Repentance, their Pride and Carnality cannot bear it: If we excommunicate them for Impenitency, as Christ requireth, or but deny them the Sacrament as unmeet, they rage against us as our fiercest Enemies: If we neglect Discipline, and admit Swine to the Communion of Saints, we harden and deceive them, and flatter them in their sin, pollute the Church, and endanger our Souls by displeasing the chief Pastor. What then shall we do with these self-murdering, ungodly men?

And if any be like to be the stain and Plague of the Church, it is such as these: If we preach holy truth to them, Lust cannot love it: If we tell them of Gods word, the fleshly mind doth not savour it, nor can be subject to it. Rom. 8.5, 6, 7. If we reprove them sharply, they smart and hate us: If we call them to Confession and Repentance, their Pride and Carnality cannot bear it: If we excommunicate them for Impenitency, as Christ requireth, or but deny them the Sacrament as unmeet, they rage against us as our fiercest Enemies: If we neglect Discipline, and admit Swine to the Communion of Saints, we harden and deceive them, and flatter them in their sin, pollute the Church, and endanger our Souls by displeasing the chief Pastor. What then shall we do with these self-murthering, ungodly men?

Many of them have so much Reverence of a Sacrament, or so little regard of it, ⟨p. 50⟩that they never seek it, but keep away themselves: Perhaps they are afraid, left they eat and drink damnation to themselves, by the profanation of holy things: But do they think, that it is safe to be out of the Church and Communion of Saints, because it's dangerous to abuse it? Are Infidels safe, because false hearted Christians perish? What if breaking your Vows and Covenant be damnable? Is it not so to be out of the holy Covenant? What if God be a consuming fire to those that draw near him in unrepented heinous sin? Is it therefore wise or safe to avoid him? Neither those that come not to him, nor those that come in their hypocrisy and reigning sin shall be saved.