MANUAL OF PRAYERS For the Ufe of the OF. Winchester College, And all other Devout CHRISTIANS. To which are added, The Twenty fecond Edition. By Dr. THO. KENN, late Lord LONDON: rinted by S. ARIS, for J. HAZARD at the 138 ė 174 A MANUAL OF PRAYERS For the Ufe of the SCHOLARS O F Winchester College. An Exhortation to Young F you have any Regard, good Philotheus, to your own Eternal Happiness, it ought to be your chiefeft Care to ferve and glorify God. 'Tis for this End God both made and redeemed you: And two excellent Rules he hath given you in Holy Scrip A 4 Scripture; by the confcientious Ob fervation of which you will be able, thro' his Grace, to dedicate your ten der Years to his Glory. The one teaches you what you are to do, Remember now thy Creator in the Days of thy Youth, Eccl. xii. 1. The other teaches you what you are to avoid, Fly youthful Lufts, that is, all thofe Sins which are ufually inci.dent to young Perfons, 2 Tim.ii. 22. You cannot imagine the unfpeakable Advantages a pious Youth gains by the Practice of thefe two Rules; and how many Ghoftly Dangers that Soul efcapes, which is feafon'd betimes with the Fear of God, before he is fullied with ill Company; before he hath contracted vicious Habits, which will coft him infinite Pains to unlearn; before his Affections are too far engaged in the World, to be eafily recall'd; and before the Devi hath got too ftrong a Hold in him, to be fuddenly difpoffefs'd. O Philotheus! do but ask any one old Penitent, what Fruit, what Satiffaction, he hath purchas'd to himself, by by all thofe Pleasures of Sin which flatter'd him in his Youth, and of which he is now afhamed! Will. he not fadly tell you, he has found them all to be but Vanity and Vexation of Spirit? How will he befool himself, for the many good Opportunities he hath loft, and with a thousand Times that he were to live over his mifpent Days again? And how bitterly will he, with David, bewail the Sins of his Youth? Pfal. XXV. 7. Learn then, good Philotheus, by the dear-bought Experience of others, to accuftom your felf to bear Chrift's Yoke from your Youth, and his Yoke will fit eafy on your Neck; for your Duty will grow natural to you by beginning betimes. Do but confider, how welcome a young Convert is to God: It was to young Samuel that God revealed. himself, and that at fuch a Time too when the Word of God was precious and very rare; to fhew how much God honoured a young Pro phet, 1 Sam. iii, 1. Anď know A 5 you thats |