Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	sort_n	young_a	youth_n	17	3	7.5344	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44543	The sirenes, or, Delight and judgment represented in a discourse concerning the great day of judgment and its power to damp and imbitter sensual delights, sports, and recreations / by Anthony Horneck ...	Horneck, Anthony, 1641-1697.	1690 (1690)	Wing H2853; ESTC R8310	130,970	370

others if I go to one doth not my example encourage men to go and see those which are more loose and wanton If I mean to discourage Sin in others by my Actions I must not give them occasion to do that which is evil Sensual men distinguish not betwixt the more harmless and the more hurtful and if I encourage the one by my presence I encourage the other too and if by my example I approve of the Players Profession in one thing I approve of it in another too and harden them in their Folly not to mention that my seeing the more harmless as I call them will in time entice me to see the more prophane for Sin is catching and one Vanity draws on another and from the lesser we run to greater and when the horror of Sin is once abated in our minds the things which are most contrary to Christianity begin to appear harmless and thus the Soul glides insensibly into darkness and eternal misery That which you use to pretend sometimes that there are Divines of the Church of England who approve o● these Shews hath nothing of validity in it for suppose there were some who allow of these Vanities doth i● therefore follow that the Church of England doth encourage them The Opinions of some Divines are not the Standard of our Church nor are the private Sentiments of a few Men Prescriptions for her to go by The Church of England hath no where declared so much and as long as the Church is silent it 's presumption to interpret the fond opinions of some men as her Rule and Doctrin How can our Church countenance such things that professes strict adherence to the Word of God and looks upon the judgments of men that are contrary to it as Heterodox and Erroneous At this rate you might as well argue that because some Divines have been seen at a Play that therefore they have encouragement from the Doctrin of our Church The Doctrin of a Church is one thing and the practice of some of her pretended members is another The Churches case would be very hard if she were to answer for all the misdemeanours of her seeming Votaries and who knows not how in all Churches the professors generally deviate from the rules that are extant in their Books and Canons But after all it 's worth enquiring whether those Divines you speak of be of the graver or the younger sort that some young men who want experience and perhaps a lively sense of Religion should be taken with these shews I do not wonder but who takes a raw youth and such as think any thing great and good that 's witty and serves to tickle the fancy who takes such men for judges in an affair of this importance As to the graver sort I doubt you 'll find none or but very few that are favourers of these spectacles or if they do declare at any time that if Plays were reduced to their true decorum they might be inoffensive from hence it will not follow that they countenance the common Tragedies and Comedies which so manifestly go beyond the limits of decency And what if you do go but now and then Doth your going but seldom justifie the action All that this excuse will amount to is only this that you do not sin so often as other men but doth this free you from the guilt or make you innocent in the sight of God How would you take it if a man should give you a box on the ear but now and then Or how would you resent it to have your good name taken away by a person not always but whenever his humour prompts him And from hence you may easily guess at the weakness of this exception and if you have that mean opinion of God that low esteem of his greatness as to think that to affront him but now and then can do no harm you are unworthy to be his Disciple and judge your self unworthy of Eternal Life But I am forced to go you say my Superiours command me to wait upon them to a Play and how can I refuse it except I will lose their favour and the Place I hold under them And is this such a Bug-bear to fright you from your duty To whom have you greater obligations to God or Man If to God why dare not you prefer his favour before the favour of Men and be guided more by his Laws than by the benevolence of dust and ashes Have not you courage to make a vow and when you are solicited by your Superiours to go cannot you speak out and tell them that you lie under the obligation of a vow not to go and who will be so profane as to desire you to break it Had you rather sin than displease Men or is a poor Creature more terrible to you than he who thunders in the Heavens If you are perswaded in your conscience that to be present at these shews is sinful shall a creatures smiles make you venture the displeasure of the most High And what if you lose something considerable by pleasing God Hath God no ways to make you amends for your losses Hath he no Glory no Kingdom no reward no recompence to redintegrate your fortune If you lose this World for his sake is not the felicity of the next recompence enough But why should you mistrust him even in this present life He that made Moses after he had left the Court of Egypt General of his own Army and advanced Joseph who hated to be great and rich by sin to be Viceroy of the Realm and preserved Daniel in his grandeur for this reason because he would not depart from his conscienciousness is his arm shortned or is his strength abated that he can do nothing equivalent to all this Are not the hearts of men in his hand and doth not he turn them as streams of Water How often doth he make it appear to the World that where a mans ways please the Lord he makes his very enemies to be at peace with him Nay how often do these generous self-denials work by Gods providence upon Superiours and they that at first sollicited a man to do that which was vain and contrary to the Laws of Religion when they see him resolute in his conscienciousness how often have they been perswaded to reflect upon themselves at least to have a better opinion of the person who fears God more than them What you have often told me that from this way of reasoning it would follow that it is unlawful to write or to read a Play will deserve some consideration As for the writing of it though Poetry be a thing lawful and commendable and is sufficiently warranted by the writers of Divine Poems in Holy writ yet that will not justifie all the subjects Poets pitch upon and a consciencious man will take as much care that the subject he writes of be grave and serious at least innocent as he would do of his discourse in

brutish part of the World said there was But while he tried Experiments upon the Viper the Beast flew into his Face and poyson'd the Empirick He went on in these slippery ways and walk'd on this Sea of Glass a considerable time spread the Sails of his sensual Desires and bid his carnal Mind ask and crave whatever it could fancy and if either Love or Money or Force could procure it it should have it He hugg'd all the little shooting flames he met with and kissed every thing that had the name and reputation of Mirth ●●d Jollity But see the sad Catastrophe and woful turn of that pleasant Wheel when he thought himself in Paradise he found himself in Hell and that which tickled his Senses at the first proved after some time his greatest torment and vexation Providence can be silent for a time but at last the sleeping Lion wakes and roars so that all the Beasts of the Field do tremble and Solomon on whose Head the Candle of the Lord had shined so long found that Light at last go out in a Snuff and himself the Object of Gods wrath and indignation he found by sad experience what it was to abuse the Wisdom God had bestowed upon him how dangerous the Paths were he had walked in what it was to pervert the End and Design of the Gifts of God and what darkness and confusion it brought upon Men and that makes him impart this sad Memento to the Man who hath Blood and Youth and Strength enough to be vain and foolish Rejoyce O young Man in thy Youth and let thy Heart chear thee in the days of thy Youth c. By way of Explication I must take notice of these few things 1. That the words young Man and Youth in Scripture especially in this Book are not only meant of that time we commonly allow to Youth which is from Ten or Fourteen to Twenty or Five and Twenty but include all that Age which is fit for Action and the Hebrew words import so much being derived from a Root implying Choice and Election so that the time here aimed at is the most vigorous time of our Life or that time which any Man of Sense would chuse for Action 2. That those Sentences which sound like Exhortations are perfectly Ironical or spoke by way of derision as if we should say to a Man Go play the Fool burn thy Finger in the Candle and see what thou wilt get by it whereby we do not mean that he should do so but do rather express the silliness and simplicity of the thing to make him avoid it And such Ironical Expressions or mocking Exhortations are very frequent in Scripture as 1 Reg. 18. 27. Cry aloud for he is asleep which is a kind of mocking the stupid Priests of Baal that called on a Stock or Stone so Jer. 49. 11. Leave thy Fatherless Children and let thy Widows trust in me i. e. Ay go comfort thy self with this that I will take care of thy Fatherless Children and provide for thy Widows but thou shalt find thy self egregiously mistaken So 2 Cor. 12. 13. For what is it wherein you were inferior to other Churches except it be that I my self was not burdensom to you Forgive me this wrong i. e. If I did wrong you in doing so it was a very pleasant Wrong or Injustice for which you have more reason to thank me than to be angry with me So here Rejoyce O young Man c. i e. go play the Mad-man let thy sensual Appetite rove gratifie thy Flesh please thy besotted Heart fix thine Eyes on what Beauty thou thinkest fit sing Care and Reason and thy Wits away and see what the issue of all will be and so much is evident from the following words which are a Bridle to all these Extravagancies and the Gall that embitters all these Sweets and therefore the Chaldee Paraphrase justly turns these Mock-exhortations into a serious Admonition Walk in humility let not thine Eyes gaze upon that which is evil but be exceeding cautious and so the Septuagint Walk spotless in the ways of thy Heart and not in the Lust of thine Eyes 3. God brings a Man into Judgment two ways either by causing his Conscience to awake with horror in this life and laying some other heavy Affliction upon him and there is Mercy in this Process for this may yet lead the forlorn Soul to serious thoughts of Repentance bring the Pangs and Throws of the New-Birth upon her and deliver her into a New-Creature Or where God intends a higher degree of Wrath and Indignation he lets the jovial Sinner alone on this side Hell and the burthen shall not fall on him till he comes to look the angry Judg in the Face at which time as the Surprize will be greater so the horror and anguish of Mind which will seize on the Sinner will like Nebuchandnezzar's Furnace prove seven times hotter than ordinary upon which follows eternal Despair and endless howling and gnashing of Teeth The Result of all is this Proposition That the Prospect of a future Judgment is enough to embitter all the sensual and carnal Delights of Men particularly of young Men and to bring a Damp upon the most youthful and most jovial temper imaginable Not only the Sense of the Text I have already laid down imports so much but there is this farther in it that the Wise-man seems to couch his Argument plainly thus Do but take a view of that dreadful Judgment God is resolved to bring thy guilty Soul to and thou wilt not dare to indulge thy self in the mad rejoycings of thy Youth nor walk in the ways and after the Fancies of thy corrupted heart nor suffer thy wanton Eyes to fix on those Objects from which God hath bid thee turn thy Face away You know the Story of the young Gallant who riding by a lonely Hermit's Cell and finding the solitary Man very devout and fervent in Prayer and looking with a severe and mortified countenance called to him Father Father what a Fool are you to debar your self of the charming Refreshments and Pleasures of this Life and live here immured within Walls of Mud and Clay What if there should be no other world to what purpose is all this Rigor and Mortification The Hermit heard him smiled and replied Ay but Friend What if there should be one where are you then What a Fool will you be then How will you wish that you had been in my condition The Youngster startled at these words went home left his Women and his Swine his Lusts and dry Husks of brutish Delights and like the Prodigal became another Man The Truth is we have seen this prospect of a future Judgment have very strange Effects upon a Man who was not apt to be frighted with sad Prognostications and that was Felix a Person who had drunk as deep of the stolen Waters of Sensuality as any Man then living for he lay in the embraces of