and thrall to passion to this and that and the other lust and divers corruptions Where is I say that Repentance when I find so much sinne Where is that Faith when I find so much wavering and quaking so much aptnesse to distrust and almost to dispaire Where is it It may bee in thy heart for all thy complaining and thou maiest have it for all these exclaymings against thy selfe Tell mee when thou findest those corruptions whereof and for which thou speakest against thy selfe Dost thou allow them or not dost thou confesse them and lament them or not I confesse them indeed but with such a small deale of sorrow Is it such a sorrow as drawes thee to God and drives thee out of thy selfe such as makes thee to fall before him and judge thy selfe worthy to be damned and submit to his Justice Is it such a sorrow as makes thee confesse and then purpose amendment Such as makes thee cry to him for power and strength such as makes thee rest on him for abilitie Dost thou determine still still to amend that that still troubleth thee Dost thou still continue to fight with the lusts of thy flesh by the spirituall weapons that God hath ordained for thee I say to thee thy Repentance thy Faith thy New Obedience may be true though it be weake When a man hath a shaking Palsey hand it is a hand A sicke weake man that lies crying oh oh that can scarse turne himselfe betweene the sheetes is a man a living man A poore child that is new borne and hath nothing that discovereth reason almost but the shape of a man that poore child is a reasonable creature Faith beginneth with weake apprehensions and faint leanings on Christ. Deepe godly sorrow and other parts of Repentance may begin many times with little And amendment of life begins sometimes at a low foundation at small sinnes If it bee true and sincere and constant if thou goe on and continue in a course of daily renewing thy Repentance and Obedience and Faith and striving by Gods meanes to get the increase of these graces and to bee upright and sincere in them thou art blessed in them notwithstanding thy weaknesse take comfort in a little and be thankfull for it God will give more and the only way to get more is to take comfort in a good measure in what thou hast and the way to take comfort is to labour to increase these graces Let not the weake troubled feebled Christian bee troubled in minde as if hee had no grace because hee hath but a little as if hee did not at all keepe Christs sayings because hee keepeth them but a little Hee is a scholler in the Schoole that beginneth at Christ-Crosse-row as wee call it And hee is entred into the Colledge that beginneth but in a low booke with the first rudiments of Logicke And hee is a member of the Familie that began to bee an Apprentise but yesterday and comes not to a deepe knowledge of his Art and Mysterie but is glad to doe sorrie worke Beleeve it brethren there may bee great conceits of Repentance and beleeving and obeying that may make a man good in his owne eyes and be altogether false There may be a small measure of Repentance but if one bee humbled in the smalnesse of that measure and labour and desire and pray and begge for the increase of that measure and take paines to edifie himselfe in it by the meanes of God then it is true and upright and shall save him Therefore Rejoyce It is not with the Covenant of Grace as it was with that of Workes The Covenant of Workes the Law required perfection of Obedience to all the things prescribed a man must not only love God but love God perfectly But the Gospell satisfieth it selfe with accepting truth of endeavour to the thing required If there bee Repentance though it bee not in the full perfection if thou beleeve though not with the fullest measure of beleeving If thou Obey though not in the highest degree of obedience this Gospell this sweet this favourable gracious Doctrine giveth thee consolation enough Goe home therefore comforted in the beginnings and resolved to proceed and know that thou shalt enjoy that which Christ hath promised freedome from damnation thou shalt never see Death FINIS THE YOUNG MANS LIBERTIE AND LIMITS OR GODS IVDGEMENT ON MANS CARIAGE GEN. 8. 21. For the imaginations of mans heart are evill from his youth DAN 7. 10. The Iudgement was set and the Bookes were opened LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for Ralph Mabbe 1639. THE YOVNG MANS LIBERTIE AND LIMITS OR GODS IVDGEMENT ON MANS CARRIAGE SERMON XVIII ECCLESIASTES 11. 9. Rejoyce oh young man in thy youth and let thy heart cheare thee in the dayes of thy youth and walke in the wayes of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into Iudgement SOlomon in the conclusion of this Chapter is exhorting the sonnes of men to true Religion and the better to mould and frame them to the same hee mindeth them of Death and Iudgement without which there cannot be planted in us a right care and feare of God From the seventh verse to the latter end hee hath to doe with two sorts of men First with those that were glued to this life and to the delights and pleasures there of and he bringeth them in speaking thus Truly the light is sweet and it is a pleasant thing to behold the Sunne vers 7. By light there wee are to understand the light of the Sunne shining on us while wee enjoy this mortall life This many men suppose to be a very pleasant thing and they over-much content themselves in the same These Solomon verse 8. refuteth by three Arguments The first is this that though a man live many yeares yet let him remember the dayes of darknesse that is that a time of Death will come a time when our Sunne will set and our light will turne to darknesse though wee live never so long never so sweetly never so pleasantly though we enjoy the light of the Sunne yet wee should carefully remember that darknesse abideth us Secondly saith Solomon those dayes are many His Argument is thus much Let a man consider with himselfe though he live many yeares yet notwithstanding the dayes and yeares of his life cannot be compared with the daies and yeares of his Death a man is many more yeares under the ground in the Grave then above ground walking on the face of the earth Thirdly saith Solomon All that commeth is vanitie That is if a man may enjoy the light of the Sunne and the pleasures of this life that makes his heart lightsome yet all this is vanity there is no full contentment in these things but an emptinesse in them all and no man knowes how soone hee may bee bereaved of them Now in the words we have read Solomon hath to deale with
the young man and he is altogether given to jollitie and merriment hee forgetteth God and the dayes of darknesse and his latter end Well Solomon giveth him the bridle as it were and suffereth him to follow his owne way by an Ironicall concession or figurative speech declaring not what young men ought to doe but what their course is and what commonly they doe Rejoyce oh young man in thy youth and let thy heart cheare thee in the dayes of thy youth and walke in the wayes of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know this there is the cooling-card that for all these things God will bring thee into judgement In the words we will consider two parts First what young men doe Secondly the Medicine of God to heale young men of their default That that young men doe is this They give over themselves to an inordinate carnall joy Thiâ—… Joy is set out from the time of it the dayes of their youth From the cause of it their hearts cheare them From the kindes of it they walke in the wayes of their hearts and after the sight of their eyes Secondly the Medicine with which Solomon would heale young men of this inordinate carnall Joy is this Know saith hee that for all these things God will bring thee into Iudgement that is It is a most divine and infallible truth that every one should know and acknowledge that whatsoever sinnes they commit in their youth without repentance they must undergoe the dreadfull Iudgement of God because of them Thus as briefly as I can I have opened the words unto you Though I might insist on many doctrines yet notwithstanding I will only handle these two The first shall be that which ariseth from the first part of the Text what young men doe what their fault is For as I said it is an Ironnicall concession not declaring what young men should doe but what they doe The Doctrine is thus much That it is the sinne of young men to rejoyce inordinatly and carnally in the dayes of their youth to walke after their hearts and the sight of their eyes Wee reade concerning the old world that they were eating and drinking and marrying and giving in mariage altogether sottish and sensuall till the wrath of God came in the flood and swept them away Now lest any should suppose that this were the fault of old age only the Scripture sheweth that all flesh had corrupted their way before God Gen. 6. 11. Isa. 22. 14. Let us eate and drinke for to morrow wee shall die It is thought by learned Divines that this speech was not so much the language of Age as of the youth in Israel Hence Solomon giveth a caveate to the young man Eccles. 12. 1. to bridle and restraine him from his jollitie and carnall mirth Remember now thy Creatour in the dayes of thy youth while the evill day come not nor the yeares draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them And the Apostle Saint Paul 1 Tim. 2. 22. instructeth Timothy to flie the lusts of youth that is in carnall pleasures and pastimes in voluptuousnesse and sensualitie and the like And Tit. 2. 6. Exhort young men that they bee sober minded that is that they leave this drunkennesse of understanding in being overcome with sensuall carnall objects and pleasures Iob in the first Chapter of that booke when the young people his Sonnes and Daughters met together to feast hee was afraid lest they should be misguided in this kind therefore the holy man in a godly care and thoughtfulnesse for their welfare sacrificed to God to make attonement for their sinne Let us a little consider the reasons of this Doctrine whence it is that young men should be so much misguided in their youth The first cause is naturall corruption that they have drawne by propagation from their Parents A spirituall leprosie and maladie and disease which as it prevaileth for the most part against age by covetousnesse so it getteth ground of youth by sensuallity and voluptuousnesse This dams up the eare against reproofe this hardens the heart against instruction and makes many young men the souldiers of Sathan in sinne Againe in the second place Men in their youth forget the day of their reckoning and judgement they are not mindfull of their latter end Deut. 32. 22. Oh that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end This Precept is neglected both by youth and age but especially by those of younger yeares For they feele their bloud runne warme in their veynes and they are full of spirits and vigour therefore they suppose that the Grave and the house of darknesse is farre off from them Againe in the third place Young men are not broken by afflictions the fallow ground is not poughed up by the pressures of afflictions which through the grace of God are great meanes to tame nature and to subdue the pride of it and to bring it to a right frame and temper Before I was afflicted saith David I went astray And Ephraim saith of himselfe Ier. 32. I was as a Bullocke accustomed to the yoke thou chastisest mee and I was chastised I was ashamed because I bore the reproach of my youth But young men are free from aches and paines and sicknesse and sorrow much more then old age and this is the reason why they are more licentious Lastly young men want true joy in God therefore they betake themselves to carnall joy For sure it is that a man cannot live without joy and contentment if hee have it not from the Wells of salvation hee will drinke it out of watery and slimie places Now because men in their youth cannot take in the spirituall joy of that cleare fountaine therefore they drinke in the muddy waters of carnall joy The use of this point is in the first place an Admonition to all young men to take notice of these maladies and spirituall diseases in themselves The first degree of our healing is to see that we are sicke and till then Christ Jesus the Physitian of our soules hath no commission to doe us good Let young men observe in themselves first their carnall joy Solomon here sheweth that they rejoyce inordinatly This may appeare to them first because they rejoyce not where they ought they solace not themselves in God in whom is the fountaine of joy nor in Christ Jesus in whom is the spring of Joy nor in the sacred Word where there is the Cisterne of Joy Even as a bone when it is out of joynt out of its place it must needs be a disordered bone so the affections when they are misplaced are disordered and then our Joy and any other affection are misplaced when they are not set upon God and Christ. Now if young men would deale uprightly with themselves they should perceive that for the most part
thoughts of Gods displeasure and thinkes it is at peace with God it is an evident signe that wrath is a comming Nay beloved in that measure you are in carnall securitie in that measure you are under wrath let that therefore be enough to awaken you and say thus with your selves It were better for me a great deale to be among the number of those that complaine and are mourning Christians then to bee in the number of those that are full of jollity and Joviality that rejoyce and sport themselves that put farre from them the evill day I might then escape the wrath of God as they doe Who are they that escape wrath See in Ezekiel 9. Those that were awake when others slept those that mourned when others laughed those that humbled themselves before God when others hardned themselves those were the men that were marked in the forehead by the Angel and they escaped And in the third of Malachie Those that feared the Lord and thought upon his name in those evill times that spake oft one to another there was a booke of remembrance of them and they are Gods jewels he will be sure to keepe them safe But how shall wee come to be awakened I should have told you some helpes for this I will but touch upon a few in a word First I will propound sobrietie as a maine helpe Would you be watchfull and kept from spirituall slumber take heed that you keepe your selves sober I speake not of sobrietie as it is opposed to drunkennesse though that be one thing Bee not filled with wine wherein is excesse but bee filled with the holy Ghost Ephes. 5. As if he should say you cannot be filled with the holy Ghost and with excesse of Wine persons that take liberty in excessive drinking certainly they are destitute of the holy Ghost and so of life and salvation But I meane a further sobriety that is as it is opposed to worldly-mindednesse Take heed that you plunge not your selves too much in the world and worldly pleasures and cares for these are against the rule of sobriety Be sober in your diet in your apparell in your gaining in your spending in your mirth in your company in every thing that is moderate your selves and your affections in these things A man may soone grow to such a drunkennesse by excesse in worldly affections that he may bee in a dead sleepe neglecting Gods judgements and his owne estate as wee see men that plunge themselves in worldly businesse are It takes away the thoughts of those things that concerne our spirituall good I say not that you should leave off the businesse of the world for every man must continue in the calling that God hath set him But I say moderate your affections to the things of the world Doe worldly businesses with heavenly mindes in obedience to God Doe them with waking hearts to repent for the sinnes of your callings to avoide the sinnes of your callings And that that I say of labouring in your callings I say of pleasures and of every thing else we should be watchfull and sober as S. Peter saith Bee sober and watch Secondly if you would be free from security which is a forerunner of judgement be sure to keepe your selves in exercise A man that would keepe himselfe awake will busie himselfe in some exercise and imployment or other What exercise should a Christian use The exercise of grace and of the duties of obedience Be sure to keepe your selves in the exercise of all the advantages that God giveth you in your lives to imploy your graces in In difficulties and straites exercise your faith In provocations to anger and discontent exercise meeknesse In crosses and troubles and afflictions exercise patience In the miseries and wants of others whether spirituall or corporall exercise mercy And what I say concerning grace I say concerning duty Keepe your selves in the exercise of prayer and reading and meditation and conference some one thing or other some holy employment or other that may keepe the soule waking For I tell you you shall find that whensoever you let fall spirituall exercise you will at that very instant fall into carnall securitie in some kind or other Thirdly would you keepe your selves from this dead sleepe of carnall security then keepe your spirits in feare Sorrow and griefe makes a man heavy but feare keepes a man waking when Iacob feared Esau he kept a watch that night Sampson feared the Philistims and it wakened him out of his sleepe Feare makes a man watchfull You may perceive it in your owne experience In that measure that the feare of God prevaileth securitie is expelled Keepe feare therefore Blessed is the man that feareth alwayes but he that hardneth his heart falleth into evill Marke how he opposeth the hardning of a mans selfe in carnall securitie to the feare of God Keepe your heart in a constant feare Reason thus Alas shall I doe this thing and sinne against God Will not God be offended and displeased Shall I goe on in this vanity Would I have the judgement of God find me in this company would I have it seise upon mee in this imployment in this businesse in this action Feare lest God should strike thee in such an act lest Death should seize upon thee in such a place and let that make thee keepe a constant watch against the snares that are in those places Fourthly keepe good company Company you know is a good meanes to keepe men awake Two are better then one and woe to him that is alone saith Solomon I say good company for there are a company that will infect you Keepe not company with a froward person lest thou learne his frowardnesse So keepe not company with drunken and swearing persons these are the Divels instruments to keepe a man in carnall security No keepe company with those that have a charge given them to exhort one another daily and to consider one another to provoke to love and good workes Keepe company with the Saints and make use of all opportunities to provoke others and to be provoked by others That is the fourth helpe Fifthly would you bee kept from this sinfull security then keepe God alwayes in your sight It is a good way for a man that would keepe himselfe awake to fix his eye upon some object Fix your eye upon this maine object God Whether shall I depart from thy presence saith David This is that the Lord would have his people to consider to keepe them from sinne in Ier. 23. 23. Am I a God at hand saith the Lord and not a God a farre off Doe not I fill heaven and earth saith the Lord Can a man hide himselfe from God in any secret place Thinke in thy chamber in thy parlour in thy shop in thy house in thy friends house in the street in the Church in every place wheresoever thou art that there God is also If
returneth to her Mothers house the earth but the soule the Bridegroome to his Fathers house the Father of 〈◊〉 in Heaven as both their gests are set forth in this chapter verse 7. the dust returnes to the earth as it was and the spirit to God that gave iâ—… But in the evening of the World at that dreadfull night after which the Angell swore there should bee no more day or time here the soule is given by God to the bodie againe and then the marriage is consummated and both for ever fast coupled and wedded for better for worse to runne one everlasting fortune and to participate either eternall joyes or torments together Thus man is brought to his long home or as the Seventy and Saint Ierome render the Hebrew his house of eternitie and the mourners go about the streets here is a short reckoning of all mankinde like to that of the Psalmist who alluding to the name of the two Patriarches sayth Coll ADAM ABEL All men are altogether vanitie so here upon the foot of the account in Bonaventâ—…res casting all appeare wretched and miserable describitur miseria mortis in morientibus compatientibus all are either dead corpses or sad mourners corpses alreadie dead or mourners for the dead and their courses and motions are two 1 Straite man goeth c. 2 Circular mourners goe about The dead goe directly to their long home the living fetch a compasse and round about the termini of which their motions shall bee the bounds of my discourse at this present Wherein that you may the better discerne my passage from point to point I will set up sixe Posts or standings 1 The Scope 2 Coherence 3 Sense 4 Parts 5 Doctrine 6 Use. The Scope will give light to the Coherence the Coherence to the Sense the Sense to the Parts the Parts to the Doctrine the Doctrine to the Use. Wherefore I humbly entreate the assistance of Gods Spirit with the intention of yours whil'st in unfolding this rich peece of Arras I shall point with the finger to 1 The maine Scope 2 The right Coherence 3 The litterall Sense 4 The naturall Division 5 The generall Doctrine 6 The speciall application of this parcell of holy Scripture First the Scope Although all other Canonicall bookes of this old and new Testament were read in the Church yet as Gregorie Nyssen acutely observes this booke alone is intituled Ecclesiastes the Preacher or Church-man because this alone in a manner tendeth wholy to Ecclesiasticall politie or such a kinde of life or conversation as becometh a Preacher or Church-man For the prime scope of this booke is to stirre up all religious mindes to set forth towards Heaven betimes in the morning of our dayes Chap. 12. verse 1. Remember thy Creatour in the dayes of thy youth to enter speedily into a strict course of holinesse which will bring us to eternall happinesse to dedicate to God and his service the prime in both senses that is the first and best part of our time For as in a glasse of distilled water the purest and thinnest first runneth out and nothing but lees and mouther at the last so it is in our time and age Optima queque dies miseries mortalibus â—…vi prima fluit Our best dayes first runne and our worst at the last And shall wee offer that indignitie to the Divine Majestie as to offer him the Devills leavings florem aetat is 〈◊〉 consecrâ—…re faecem Deo reservarâ—… to consecrate the toppe to the Devill and the bottome to God feed the flesh with the flower and the spirit with the 〈◊〉 serve the world with our strength and our Creatour with ouâ—… weaknesse give up our lusty and able members as weapons 〈◊〉 sâ—…nne and our feeble and weake to righteousnesse Will God accept the blinde and the lame the leane and the withered for a sacrifice How can we remember our Creatour in the dayes of our age when our memorie and all other faculties of the soule are decaied How shall wee beare Christs yoake when the Grashopper is a burthen unto us when wee are not able to beare our selves but bow under the sole waight of age What delight can wee take in Gods service when care and feare and sorrow and paine and manifold infirmities and diseases wholy possesse the heart and dead all the vitall motions and lively affections thereof Old men are a kinde of Antipodes to young men it is evening with them when it is morning with these it is Autumne in their bodies when it is Spring in these the Spring of the yeare to decrepâ—…t old men is as the Fall Summer is Winter to them and Winter death it is no pleasure to them to see the Almond-tree flourish which is the Prognosticatour of the Spring or the Grashopper leape and sing the Preludium of Summer for they now minde not the Almond-tree but the Cypresse nor thinke of the Grashopper but of the worme because they are far on in their way to their long home and the mourners are already in the streets marshalling as it were their troops and setting all in equipage for their funerall no dilectable objects affect their dull and dying sences but are rather grievous unto them as the Sunne and Raine are to old stumpes of trees which make them not spring againe but rot them rather and dispose them to putrifaction And so I have past the first and am come to the second Post or standing The right Coherence When they shall be afrayd of that which is high and feare shall be in the way and the Almod-tree shall flourish and the Grashoper shall bee a burthen and desire shall faile because man goeth to his long home If this Consequence be firme the Coherence must needs bee good but if this bee infirme and lame that must needes bee out of joynt let us then consider of the Consequence Surely Aristotle seemeth to bee of another minde whose observation it is old men that have their foot on Deaths threshold would then draw backe their legge if they could and at the very instant of their dissolution are most desirous of the continuance of their life and seeing the pleasures of sâ—…e like the Apples of Tantaâ—… running away from them they catch at them the more grâ—…dily for want is the 〈◊〉 one of dâ—…ire and experience offereth us many instances of old men in whâ—… Saint 〈◊〉 growes young againe who according to the corruption of nature which Saint Austin bewaileth with teares â—…alunt libidiâ—…em expleri quam exâ—…gui they are so faâ—…re from having no lust or desire of pleasures as being cloyed there with that they are more insatiable in them then in youth the flesh in them is like the Peacockes quae â—…ctarecrudescit which after it is sod in time will grow raw again so in them after mortification by diseases and age it reviveth Sophocles the Heathen Poet might passe for a Saint in comparison of them for hee