Apples of Gold
Objection 4. Fourthly, The young man objects, and says, You press us to be godly early, and to seek and serve the Lord in the spring and morning of our days; but we observe that most men mind not these things—but rather give liberty to themselves to walk in ways that are most pleasing to the flesh; and why, then, should we be singular and odd? We were better do as the most do, etc. Now to this I answer,
1. That though bad examples are dangerous to all, yet usually they prove most dangerous and pernicious to young people, who are more easily drawn to follow examples than precepts, especially those examples which tend most to undo them: 2 Kings 15:9, it is said of Zachariah, the king of Israel, that "he did evil in the sight of the Lord, as his fathers had done; he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam;" he would be as his father was, and do as his father did, whatever came of it.
So the Samaritans, of whom it is said, 2 Kings 17:41, "These nations feared the Lord" (that is, they made some kind of profession of the true religion, as the ten tribes had done), "and served their engraved images too; both their children and their children's children did thus; as did their fathers, so do they unto this day." By evil examples they were both drawn to idolatry, and rooted and confirmed in it. So the main reason why the kingdom and church of Judah were so settled in their idolatry, that there was no hope of reclaiming them, was this, that their children remembered their altars and their groves by the green trees upon the high hills, Jer. 17:1-2. Tinder is not apter to take fire, nor wax the impression of the seal, nor paper the ink, than youth is to follow ill examples.
You may see in Radbad, king of Phrisia, who coming to the font to be baptized, asked what was become of his ancestors? answer was made, that they died in a fearful state unbaptized; he replied that he would rather perish with the multitude than go to heaven with a few.
I remember the heathen brings in a young man who, hearing of the adulteries and wickednesses of the gods, said, What! do they so? and shall refuse it? No, I will not. Sinful examples are very drawing and very encouraging; many have found it so to their eternal undoing.
Those who have no ears to hear what you say—have many eyes to see what you do. Bad princes make bad subjects; bad masters make bad servants; bad parents make bad children; and bad husbands make bad wives. It is easier for the bad to corrupt the good, than for the good to convert the bad! It is easier to run down the hill with company, than to run up the hill alone!
I would desire all young men often to remember that saying of Lactantius, he who imitates the bad cannot be good. Young men, in these professing times, stand between good and bad examples, as Hercules in his dream stood between virtue and vice. Solicited by both, you must choose who to follow. Oh that you were all so wise as to follow the best. As a woman who has many suitors is very careful to take the best, so should you. Life, heaven, happiness, eternity, hangs upon it.