Agreeable admonitions for old & young. Or, Aged piety honoured, and early piety quickened.…

II. They in whom the Christianity of any Society, hath its Beginning, have a Preeminence in some sort, above the rest of the Christians in the Society. The First Believers, of any […], are Believers upon whom God hath put a Dignity above the rest. When Christianity comes into any Family, or Town, or Land, there are some who First embrace it, before others. Now the First Christians of any Society, are most eminently above others, ⟨p. 8⟩favoured of the Lord. We read, 1 Cor. 16. 15. I beseech you, Brethren (ye know she House of Stephanas [which seems to have been the Gaoler, Act 16. 27.] that it is the First-fruits of […],) that ye submit your selves unto such. The First-fruits are in some sort, the Best-fruits. In the First-fruit, there is a special Excellency; And that which makes them especially Excellent, is the Encouragement which they give of more Fruits to follow. The First Converts of any Family, or People, or Nation, have a special Remark of the Divine Favour upon them. The First-born have a claim to an Excellency above the rest. Hence that passage, in the Blessing of Reuben Gen. 49. 3. My First born, the Excellency of Dignity. To be the First-born of God in any Society, is to have yet a more Extraordinary Excellency of Dignity. God, in the Effectual Calling of them that are First called unto Him, in any Society, proclaims His Distinguishing […] unto these in His Eternal […]. And the Lord often makes a Distinguishing Use of the first Called, for the Awakening, the Assistance, the Direction of these that are afterwards to be made partakers of Effectual Calling? In such First our Lord Jesus Christ, (as ⟨p. 9⟩the Apostle speaks, 1 Tim. 1. 16.) shows forth, what may be for an example to them that should hereafter Believe on Him, to Ever lasting Life. In the Primitive Churches, they that were First Called, were by the Apostles often Constituted the Pastors, of the Flocks that followed them; And our Lord Jesus Christ more often makes them the Pattern of them that are to follow. It may be partly for this cause, that the History of the Bible singles out these and those Elders obtaining a Good Report for our Entertainment and Instruction: It singles out these and those, when there is nothing said of many Thousands that may have been equal to them, for the Grace of God. Why so? Because usually these were the First that shone with any Eminency in that Grace;