Words of advice to young men delivered in two sermons at two conventions of…

1. You must get your heart broken for sin, if ever you would enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; you must mourn for sin here, or weep for sin for ever; you must sow in tears, if you would reap in joy. The time of youth is most seasonable for this; your sorrow is like to be loss heavy, and more kindly: The heart hath a natural hardness, but if it hath ⟨p. 25⟩got a contracted hardness, it will with more difficulty be broken, if ever it be broken: Custom in sin will take away sense of sin; and if you continue in the practice of sin, you will feel a senselessness and stupidity grow upon your spirit; and Conscience more tender and timorous at first, by degrees will grow feared as with a hot Iron, and be past feeling. Bring your hearts therefore now under the hammer of the Word, that they may be broken; the longer you defer, the harder you will find it to repent.

1. You must get your heart broken for sin, if ever you would enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; you must mourn for sin here, or weep for sin for ever; you must sowe in tears, if you would reap in joy. The time of youth is most seasonable for this; your sorrow is like to be loss heavy, and more kindly: The heart hath a natural hardness, but if it hath ⟨p. 25⟩got a contracted hardness, it will with more difficulty be broken, if ever it be broken: Custom in sin will take away sense of sin; and if you continue in the practice of sin, you will feel a senselesness and stupidity grow upon your spirit; and Conscience more tender and timorous at first, by degrees will grow feared as with a hot Iron, and be past feeling. Bring your hearts therefore now under the hammer of the Word, that they may be broken; the longer you deferre, the harder you will finde it to repent.

2. You must get your hearts broken from sin; you must turn from your evil ways, otherwise iniquity will be your ruin. The longer you continue in sin, the harder it will be to leave sin; custom will be a second nature to you; the changing whereof will be like changing the skin of the Ethiopian, and taking away the spots of the Leopard. When sin is rooted and riveted in you, if so be you should turn from it, it will be with unexpressible tearings, and divulsions of spirit. It is a hard thing to irradicate old habits, which at first in the tender years may be done with more ease: Therefore, Dear young ones, labour to get sin rooted out of your hearts betimes. Get sin mortified before it hath got too much life and strength; oppose sin before it hath got too much head and power, which you may do with more facility and success.