When thou sawest a thief thou consentedst with him. Psalm l. 18.
He shall not commit fornication. This vice has been the bane of so many young men in all ages and places, that every one’s memory must furnish him with divers instances of its fatal effects; the Sessions papers are filled with numberless accounts of unhappy persons who are brought by it to public shame and infamous ends; and indeed nothing is so destructive to the morals and happiness of youth, as the having any kind of commerce with lewd and shameless women; for such conversation infallibly destroys the health, consumes the fortune, blasts the credit, and extinguishes that modesty which is the principal ornament and surest preservative of youth from the vices and dangers they are most exposed to.
Flee fornication: He that committeth fornication, sinneth against his own body. 1 Cor. vi. 18.
Keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of the strange woman: lust not after her beauty in thy heart, neither let her take thee with her eye-lids; lest thou give thine honour to others: lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed. Prov. vi. 24, 25.—Prov. v. 10, 11.
Let not thy heart decline to her ways, for her house is the way to hell. Thou goest after her as an ox goeth to the slaughter, till a dart strike through thy liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life. Prov. vii. 25, 27, 22, 23.
Neither fornicators nor adulterers shall inherit the kingdom of God. 1 Cor. vi. 9.
Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. Heb. xiii. 4.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Matt. v. 8.
Nor contract matrimony within the said term. Marriage is a very improper state for Apprentices, but is too often entered into rashly without consideration, or the consent of friends and relations; and therefore is very seldom advantageous, and generally unhappy. The necessary expense and charge which attends a growing family, must quite consume a small fortune, very much lessen a good one, and entail heavy debts and lasting misery on the generality of married Apprentices, who cannot hope to avoid a jail; and it is well if that is their worst misfortune. At best such a marriage is an act of great disobedience and contempt towards parents and friends, of injustice towards the Master, and must be attended with the loss of their esteem and friendship, if not with their heavy displeasure. It is a direct violation of this covenant, a forfeiture of their right to the freedom of London, and tends to unsettle and alienate the mind from business, and to disable the Apprentice from ever becoming a complete master of his trade.
He shall not play at cards, dice, tables, or any other unlawful game, whereby his said Master may have any loss. All sorts of gaming for money is prohibited by this covenant; it being a habit of the most pernicious consequence. Those who have an itch for gaming, very rarely have any relish for business; the dispositions and qualifications for the one, being quite inconsistent with the other. Modesty, caution, industry, frugality, and strict integrity, are indispensably necessary to the forming a good and successful tradesman; but no man ever made his fortune by play, without corrupting his morals and forfeiting his character; for the gamester must be bold and adventurous, extravagant and profuse, fraudulent, tricking, and deceitful, of scandalous life, and infamous reputation; and such will the unwary and thoughtless Apprentice soon become, who is addicted to this vice; who begins with it under pretence of amusement, but suffers the love of it to grow on him till it becomes habitual; and what assurance has he, that the loss of his own money, and the flattering hopes of better fortune, will not tempt him to steal and hazard what is his Master’s? What hopes can he have that he shall escape the rock on which so many have perished? The Apprentice therefore who would not expose himself to guilt, to shame, punishment, and ruin, must religiously observe this prohibition.