remember thee let my Tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth c. The course of the words shew manifestly that it was not simply to remember this City and Temple which he undertook but to be deeply affected with its calamity for he preferred Jerusalem above his chiefest joy But most plainly doth Moses expound this word unto us Deut. 8. ver 11. Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God in not keeping his Commandements and his Judgments and his Statutes which I command thee this day Where to forget is as well not to embrace in affection and not to observe in practice as not to keep in memory Many other examples we have of like nature in Psal. 119. besides many other Texts of Scripture So that in a word Forgetfulness of God is a withdrawing declining and turning aside of the Heart and Soul from God upon Earthly things manifested in a course of neglecting God's Service and his Commandements and running after the vanities of this life CHAP. III. II. NOw that this is especially incident to the younger sort I wish the lamentable experience of all times and of this especially did not too much ease me of the labour in proving yet something must be said for it according to promise The wise man in setting forth the impudency of a graceless Strumphet sheweth that young men are especially apt to forget God and to be ensnared by her Prov. 7. 6 7. At the window of my house I looked through my casement and behold among the simple ones I discerned among the youths a young man void of understanding passing through the street near her corner and he went the way to her house c. These are the men who in the pride of their youth and heath of their Blood value their own witts at an high rate and think themselves the wisest in the Countrey despise the dulness of elder years and more setled spirits as if wisdom were born and should dye with them Yet here ye may see how the wisest of men doth censure them for fools simple ones void of understanding men especially forgetful of God of his Word and Will such a one was seen going toward the house of a strange Woman toward a Whore-house and such are some Ale-houses frequented so much by young men for I know none so fit to keep a Stews as those who professedly without regard of Magistracy Ministry Credit c. do keep common shops for Drunkenness But mark the Wisdom of our young man 21. 22 23. With much fair speech she caused him to yield with the flattering of her lips she forced him he goeth after her straight way as an Oxe goeth to the slaughter or as a fool to the correction of the stocks till a dart strike through his liver as a bird hasteth to the snare and knoweth not that it is for his life She filled his head with her prateing and enticeing speeches and put better things out of his mind She caused him to forget God and cast his fear behind his back so she carried him captive in the bonds of lust and driveth him as an Oxe to the slaughter and as a fool to the correction of the stocks c. So the wise man in Eccles. 11. 9. Sheweth the solly and forgetfulness of young men where by way of Irony and in an holy scorn he bideth them do that which they will do though never so much forbidden and threatned Rejoyce O young man in thy youth and let thy heart cheer thee in the daies of thy youth put God the Judge of all the World out of thy thoughts lay aside all sad remembrance of the last Judgment let none of these Melancholick passions any whit interrupt thy youthful delights walk in the waies of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes Follow thy lusts and senses like the bruit beasts and forget all that will follow even as if thy Soul should vanish away in the ayr at the hour of thy Death like the breath of a Beast without hope of Joy or fear of Vengence in another World By this irronical concession he giveth us an excellent description of the brutish and sensual forgetfulness of the younger sort minding present things with the full bent of their Souls and never seriously looking towards the things that are above But what is the issue but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee to Judgment Even these things which thou makest nothing off as pardonable Errours of youth shall be scanned in the impartial judgement of God and he will bring thee to Judgment for them all CHAP. IV. III. IN the next place I am to shew the causes of this forgetfulness in the younger sort and here it were but an idle piece of Philosophy to ascribe it to the natural moisture and fluid temper of their brains whereby the impressions of things are presently dissolved like letters written in the water No this forgetfulness is as well in the heart as in the brain and requireth a further search into it's causes 1. In the first place then one special cause is a fleshly confidence in the natural strength of body and hope of long life They look at Death as a thing afar off even out of sight and therefore suffer not the apprehension of it to make any such impression upon them as in any degree to lessen that carnal sensual content which they take in the glut of earthly Vanities The blind Worldling when his barnes were full blessed himself in his own conceited happiness Soul take thine ease thou hast goods laid up for many years But these persons think they have the advantage of him for whereas his Soul that night was to be taken from his goods they think they have life in store for many years an so with the unfaithful servant conclude that their Master will defer his coming and they may safely delay their Repentance and put him out of their remembrance As Gaal and the men of Shechem could eat and drink and curse Abimilech because they thought he was not near them though he was nearer than they were aware so the younger sort can satisfy their lusts and please themselves and do what they will scorning all admonitions or threatnings of Death because they think it not neer unto them Whereas perhaps Death as the punishment of Sin lyeth at their door and will be found to have way-laid them in the midst of their vanities and to cut them off in the midst of their strength and sins Strength Health abundance of Spirits freedom from aches pains and bodily distempers do put Death out of their thoughts and they will leave crooked and way-ward old age to vex it self with pensive remembrances of the Grave 2. The lively vigour of youth filleth them with a kind of carnal self-content and maketh them please themselves in themselves and so to feel no need they have of happiness and of delighting themselves in the Lord and therefore to neglect and
A MEMENTO TO Young and Old OR The Young Man's REMEMBRANCER AND The Old Man's MONITOR By that Eminent and Judicious Divine Mr. John Maynard late of Mayfield in Sussex Published by William Gearing Minister of the Gospel Quis integram vocet aetatem cui multum deest quantulum sit quod restat incertum est Petrarc de remed utr fort dial 1. LONDON Printed for Thomas Parkhurst living at the Sign of the Bible upon London Bridg. 1669. Unto the Right Worshipful SIR Thomas Wilbraham of Woodhey in the County of Chester Baronet and to the vertuous Ladies The Lady Elizabeth Wilbraham the Elder and the Lady Elizabeth Wilbraham the Younger To the Lady Meredith of Leeds in Kent ' and to Mrs. Elizabeth Baker of Mayfield in the County of Sussex William Gearing humbly Dedicateth these ensuing Treatises Entituled A Memento to Young and Old c. And Pious Fathers the Glory of Children c. To the Reader THE outward ornaments of Youth are Beauty Tallness and Strength of the Body but Grace and Wisdom are the ornaments of the Soul and Mind But Beauty without Grace is but like a fair sign that hangeth at the door of a foul house and Witt without Grace is but like meat that tasteth sweet in the mouth and breedeth ill blood in the Veins and bodily strength and comliness of Stature without Grace it is but like so much Moss upon the body of a Tree when there is no fruit upon the boughs Absalom had a fair body and a defiled Conscience St. Augustin receiving a witty Epistle from Licentius a young Noble Man and perceiving he had abused it too loosely returneth this answer to him If thou hadst found a Golden Cup wouldst thou not have given it to some Publick use God hath given thee a Golden Witt a Soul of Gold and yet thou usest it an Instrument of Sensuality take heed of making it a vessel of abomination and of presenting thy Soul as a Sacrifice to Satan Diabolus cupit a te ornari the Devil desireth to make thee an ornament to him and thy witt and parts the credit of his Court and Cause Young Men many times have sharp Witts but as the fire in green wood is smothered by the vapours that it cannot shine brightly so holy Wisdom in youth is often smothered by Temptations and Concupisences Naturalists say That the Butterfly spendeth the most part of her Life in painting of her Wings so do many young men in guilding of their Brains Youth is as the Hebrew word signifieth the choice age of a Mans Life and a young Man is called a choice or chosen one 1. Because a Young man was rather chosen than an Old chosen to most employments of action and Youth is the time which a man would chose to live in 2. Because youth is a time wherein a Man is to chuse what course to take and it is the choicest time for the service of God Remember thy Creatour in the daies of thy youth or of thy choice saith Solomon That is in such daies as either thou wouldest chuse or else such daies wherein thou art best able to make thy choice then are we called upon to remember God Take it in that double variation 1. In such daies as a man would chuse whilst things yet go well with him before the evil daies come c. Flourishing Youth and true Devotion are seldom companions Youth unless sanctified is full of vanity serious in trifles and trifling in serious things Or 2. In such dayes as we are yet able to make our choice Death bed Devotion proveth but little worth then do we rather dream of God than indeed do remember him Good reason it is that the Young Man should remember his Creatous 1. Because uncertain of the future of his own life uncertain whether he shall ever live to old age a Soul should not be hazarded upon such uncertainties 2. Because the young man commonly forgetteth God is most tempted by Satan most violently hurried away with Passions Youth is full of folly falsehood frowardness of high conceits of their own worth and sufficiency full of inordinate and excessive love of liberty full of wantonness it is carried with strong affections upon weak grounds it is stubborn impatient of counsels and just reproofs Jerem. 31. 18 19. It is given to Prodigallity Luke 15. 12 13. It is impudent and shameless addicted to sensuality It is the Emblem of a Young Man to have a wing on one Arm as if he had a desire to fly up to Heaven but a clog on the other arm to shew how the vanities and pleasures of the World do clog his desires of Heaven 3. Or it may be Young Menare called upon to remember God because riper age is furnished with most abilities a strong body a pliable mind a riper judgment affections free Religion is not of so easie a performance but it will ask a man his best Or 4. it may be what is gotten in Youth sticks fastest by us as a Vessel retaineth a long time that odour whereâ—with at first it was seasoned God's service should never be given over and therefore learned betimes Nebuchadnezzar would have young Men stand before him the King of Heaven much more Thy Creatour will not highly value thee unless thou hast been bred up in his presence even from thy youth It is a most commendable thing for Young Men to be couragious and resolute in resisting Sin Some Heathens and Infidels have been not able in this kind Sâ— Augustin bringeth in Polemon thus speaking concerning himself I was an Infidel a young Man deprived of the Knowledg of the True God resigned over to all sorts of Intemperance Wine Love Play Rashness were the Chariot which drew my Youth to downfal I was no sooner entred into the School of an Heathen Philosopher But behâ—ld I was wholly changed He upon the Words of a man layeth down his flowery Crowns which he bare on his head his Riots and Drunkenness How unseemly then is it for Young Men that are called Christians to go on in Riot and Wantonness after so many enlightnings so many forcible instructions and so many powerful convictions and inspirations St. Ambrose likewise brings in one Spurinâ— thus speaking I was a Gentile saith she bred in the corruption of an age where vertue was declining and vice on the top of the Wheel I was endowed with an excellent Beauty which by right of natural force gave me the key of Hearts and I seeing it was too much affected courted by wanton eyes and served for a stumbling-block to chastity I purposely made scars in my face extinguishing with my Blood the flames of those that sought me for I loved better to seal my innocence as with the seal of voluntary deformity than to possess a Beauty that served only as a bait for anothers Lust. How may this give a check to the vanity of those women among us who in their youth paint themselves
forget their Creatour Oh they think they are absolute men they are as they desire to be and cannot wish to be better their blood hath free passage in their veins their Spirits in their Arteries without obstructions they are lively amiable merry jovial free from wants fears sorrows troubles and as Job describeth the young galgallant His Breasts are full of milk and his Bones are mositned with marrow thy are wholly at ease and quiet and therefore God is not in all their thoughts 3. This lusty youthful temper makes them every way more sensible and capable of earthly delights and pleasures and so more apt to forget their Creatour and his service Old Barzillai knew not what to do at Court 2 Sam. 19. 35. I am this day Four score years old and can I discorn between good and evil Can thy servant saith he to King David Taste what I eat or what I drink can I hear any more the voice of singing men and singing women wherefore then should thy servant be yet a burthen unto my Lord the King Old Age is not sensible nor capable of many delights which younger persons take in with greediness No carnal pleasure but it suiteth with their dispositions they have a temper fitted to all fleshly delights and so can please their wanton appetites with variety of dishes that is their diverse lusts with variety of fleshly delights and in this case no wonder though they forget their Creatour when by reason of the constitution of their bodies peculiar to that age they can so many wayes please themselves in the Creature Men naturally forget God untill they need him But the young man in his prime finding so much below in the earth which ministreth matter of contentment to him apprehendeth no present need of him that made him and so mindeth him not unless the Lord open his eyes and cause him to see the emptiness and vanity of these things and his own miserable folly in resting his Soul upon them 4. A Fourth cause is want of experience in the uncertain condition of earthly things Young Men are in the Spring of their lives and pleasures and know not yet what a Winter meaneth They have not yet for the most part been beaten off from their pleasing folly by any notable change of estate they know not what sorrow meaneth and so they securely promise themselves a continuance of this seeming happiness and forget God as not perceiving any special need of him They hope to speed as well as they have done and so long they care not Those crosses which sometime befall the younger sort may for the present make them exceeding passionate but they are soon vanished and no print of their foot-steps remaineth behind them their delights are after a while never awhit embittered by them and thus forgetting their crosses they become forgetful of their God and that account which must be rendred to him you see how easie it is for youth to spin a snare wherein to entangle it self even out of its own bowels CHAP. V. BUt left this should not hold them fast enough Satan hath other instruments to help twist the threds many wicked wretches there are in the world who help them forward in their misery 1. Want of care and conscience in Parents not obeying the charge of the Apostle which is to bring up their Children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord Ephes. 6. 4. Not imitating the Father of the Faithful in the fruits of his Faith Gen. 18. 19. In commanding their Children and houshold after them that they may keep the way of the Lord to do Judgment and Justice Not taking advice of Solomon who counselleth them to teach their Children in the trade wherein they should go and giveth an hopeful promise for encouragement That they will not depart from it when they are old Prov. 22 6. Not looking with a single eye at the glory of God nor with a tender eye on the poor souls of their Children to whom deriving misery from their own Loyns they take no care to cure them of it 2. The evil examples which even Parents themselves give unto their Children many of them in their ripest yea in their rotten years returning to the sins of youth or at least glorifying in them even in the hearing of their Children How many young men are Drunkards Swearers Unclean Persons Scoffers at Holiness Contemners of the Word even by Succession and Inheritance The Son heareth his Father Swear he heareth him use filthy communication he seeth the old Beast come home Drunken and who can wonder though he forgeteth his Creatour whom he hath not seen whiles he findeth such wickedness in his Father whom he daily seeth or if they scorn such boys-play yet many times by that aged Sin of Covetousness they shewing themselves dead-hearted towards God cold careless in his services not feelingly and zealously mindful of his glory teach their Children to forget him that made them though they differ in those things which they embrace The very example of a coveous Father may make a Son riotous by teaching him to fall off from God and then his heart will cleave to that which is most suitable to it The Father's example setteth him out of the right way and his own peculiar lusts and distempered passions carrying him in such a by-path as best fiteth his own foot whereas many times the Father is displeased not because it is a wrong way but because it is not his own not because it is contrary to the wayes of God but because it crosseth his wayes no because it is more sinful but more chargeable than his own course which is most pleasing to him 3. The neglect of Religious duties in the Fathers Family is the ready way to make the Son unmindful of him that made him When Christ hath no Church but Mammon hath his Chappel in the house when there is no serious remembrance of God from one end of the year to the other in effectual prayers in constant reading of the Word in whetting it on as Moses speaketh by repetitions pious and seasonable admonitions when the Lord hath no entertainment there it is no marvel to find the younger sort forgetful of God CHAP. 6. BUt besides these faults in Parents many others will help to build up Satans Kingdom upon the ruines of the younger sort As 1. Their own equalls in years by whom they shall be drawn into the same excess of riot which the others have followed For as Satan himself being fallen could not endure to lye alone but sought companions in wickedness and wretchedness so he instilleth the same disposition into those who are caught in his nects These therefore partly by hellish scoffs at those who even out of ingenuity or good education loath their courses at the first partly by pleasing insinuations smooth language especially by that 〈◊〉 name of good fellow-ship wherewith the Father of lies hath sought to grace one of his own occupations do hale
6. God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The Sun-beams do as it were guild things whereon it shineth and make them look bright and pleasant whereas they looked dull before without any such lustre or comeliness This Heavenly Knowledge is a shining knowledge it brightâ— ens and beautifies the Mind and Soul and the more fresh and nimble the witt and understanding is the more it is adorned by it no skill no knowledge no learning is so comly for a young Man as this true saving knowledge of God in Christ. II. Hath the young man some strength of memory what can become this Treasury or Store-house so well as Gold Silver Pretious-Stones as the Apostle calleth holy Truths what should hay and stubble trash and dirt do in so pretious a Cabinet what is more unseemly than to have it filled with wanton idle Songs with scurrilous jests with airy vain conceits foolish ballaâ—s legendary tales or the like that which is fit for the Dung-hil is not seemly for a Cabinet III. Is youth full of lively and stirring affections what is more seemly than for the quickest affections and for the most lively motions of the Heart and Spirit to be exercised about Heavenly and Spiritual things The World is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of its comliness which God gave it in the Creation Now God hath thus ordered the World in its several parts that the quickest and nimblest should be highest in their rank and the slowest and dullest should be lowest So the Heavens which are of a most strange and wonderful swiftness are highest and of other things the quickest in motion are nearest Heaven so the Air and in the Air the Birds whereas the Earth being slow and without Motion lyeth below all the rest and is farthest from Heaven So what is more seemly than for those winged affections of young Men and Women to mount up to Heaven and the quicker and swifter they are in their Motions the higher it becometh them to fly what should they do creeping on the Earth like Snailes or earthing themselves in the Earth like Moles or mudding these lively affections in sinful fleshly pleasures Why rather should they not in their daies of youth cast their Souls upon the wing earnestly desiring God to draw them that they may run after him Is it a seemly thing to see a Lark or an Eagle to make her self a burrow or nest under ground or to plunge her self in the Mud No it becometh her to be aloft so it becometh not the winged affections of the younger sort to bemudd themselves with sinful pleasures but to be lifted up in the power of Gods Spirit and to converse with him who is invisible The dullness of age hath more affinity with Earth than the vigour of youth which yet must not perswade old Men to follow the inclination of age and because their backs are bowed with years to think themselves warranted to debase their Souls to earthly affections but rather to conceive themselves directed to look themselves out a burying place entring into a serious Meditation of the Grave whiles their bodies by the decaies of age are daily preparing for their last dissolution into those first earthly Principles of which they were compounded IV. And as the quickness of young Mens affections should thus set them in a course of holiness so the quickness of their Spirits which is one cause of the quickness of their affections doth exceeding well suit with true grace and holiness The Activity and as the Country-word is the Mettle that is in the younger sort is very suitable to an holy Conversation This is one thing which maketh many men falsely to think that Religion is not seemly for youth but these are such as know not the power of godliness and therefore think it to be a lumpish dulling thing But what blindness is this to imagine that the blessed Spirit of God is a duller to the Spirit of a Man when he worketh upon it by his sanctifying power and vertue No it is enough indeed to put life into a dead heart when the blessed Spirit affordeth his gracious Influence unto it If the Sun doth dull and dead the Earth the Trees the Herbs in the Spring-time then may ye imagine that the Spirit of God doth dull the Spirits of Men by Sanctifying and Quickening them It taketh away indeed their wildness and madness that is to say their untowardness unseemliness and uncomeliness but it rather encreaseth and purifieth their kindly vigour and giveth them yet a greater and an higher life and maketh them more lively than before but with a sweet spiritual and heavenly kind of Life It is true that in the beginnings of grace there is some drooping and dejectedness but that is but in the turn when they are coming out of their natural estate from under the Curse and Wrath of God But if once they be indeed set in a course of holiness and find the comfort of Gods love in Christ they shall find themselves more enlivened and quickened by the Spirit of God than they can be by nature only Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty saith the Apostle The Spirit of Christ enlargeth the heart striketh off the fetters of Corruptions and maketh it more free and full of Life Therefore David often calleth upon God to quicken him He was a man naturally of a quick temper of a fresh lively Spirit as appeareth by that Description given of him 1 Sam. 16. 12. He was ruddy and withal of a beautiful countenance and goodly to look to But he knew that grace would quicken him more and give him a heavenly activity of Spirit and therefore desired to be more and more quickened by it And how can the vigour and quickness of youth be better imployed than in the work and service of God Is not the Service of God a race And who are so fit to run as those who are young and of nimble Spirits Let us run with patience the race that is set before us and else-where so run that ye may obtain Which as it implyeth a winged swiftness and quickness of stirring affections in the service of God so also a ready diligence and active chearfullness in any work of his to which the heaviness of old age is a clogging hinderance and which doth exceeding well become the liveliness of youthful Spirits V. Are young Men strong and of able Bodies What is more comely for them than to serve the Lord with all their Strength The weakness of the Body doth even make the Spirit fail and faint and hindereth it many times in the Service of God Strength is an help in the worship of God and the Spirit in a strong Body is like a work-man standing upon firm ground which is an help and furtherance in the work VI.
Are they full of courage and valiant as well as strong They can never with so much honour follow any other Captain as they may fight under the Banner of Jesus Christ the Prince and Captain of their Salvation No Victory so honourable for a young Man as to kill pride and lust in himself and to get the old red Dragon under his feet To shed an enemies blood is no way so honourable as to Triumph over Satans malice One Mastiff can tear out another's Throat one Bull can goar another's side one desperate person can shed another's Blood but where is that glorious valour in a young Man that like Josuah's followers setteth his feet on the necks of five Kings of Canaan at once that subdueth his five Senses and overcometh all Temptations that enter in at these He that can strongly guard these Cinque-ports and stands out against all approaches in his youth he is an honourable Souldier of Jesus Christ. And if he go on and overcome He shall sit down with him in his Throne as he overcame and sate down with his Father in his Throne Rev. 3. 21. They that fight this good Fight may assure themselves that 〈◊〉 Crown of Glory is laid up for them which they shall wear when many renowned Captains of the World who have been Triumphant over their Enemies Shall lye down in sorrow and confusion But as the Apostle saith concerning Marriage If any man thinketh that he behaveth himself uncomely towardâ— his Virgin if she passe the flower of her age and need so require let him do what he will he sinneth not let them Marry 1 Cor. 7. 36. So if any man thinketh that he behaveth himself unseemly toward the courage strength and valour of his Body and Mind if he wear out his youth in Peace and do not shew himself in the Field let him know that Religion doth not disarme him if the Cause be good and the Warr necessary otherwise to fight in Publick Warrs is no more honourable than it is to assault men on the high-wayes side And when a Christian hath a just Call to fight the Lords Battles Religion doth not daunt but double his courage True it is Religion takes from him the Sword of Revenge and commandeth him to put it up into its place it alloweth him not to answer every desperate Ruffians Challenge which is as uncomely for a wise young man as it is to fight with every Dog that barketh at him VII Is youth accompanied many times with health what is more seemly for him that is well than to do well and to serve him faithfully who giveth him every hour of health which he enjoyeth The sickness and craziness of old age is many times a great distraction and discouragement to the Service of God therefore they are much deceived who make Repentance the work of the Sick-bed and think that the fittest time for that work VIII Is youth enclined to love Christ commandeth nothing but love and that which love supposeth and inferreth only it requireth a more noble divine and excellent kind of love and turneth it upon a more excellent object upon which it is better bestowed than upon the common objects of natural love Viz. upon God the chiefest good and upon such things as are subordinate to him IX Is youth disposed to Mirth Grace is so farr from depriving it of this that he which never felt true Grace never came where sound joy was The heart is filled with peace and joy in Believing and the peace of God passeth understanding Yea the Word of God calleth for joy Rejoyce in the Lord again I say rejoyce It bettereth and encreaseth our mirth it doth not take it from us X. Consider the young man in Relation to others and you shall find nothing so seemly for him as grace and holiness and a conformity to the Word of God Nothing more comely for a young man than so to carry himself toward his Superiours as the word of God directeth him What more seemly for the younger sort than to give that honour reverence respect to Parents Masters Aged People which the word enjoyneth them A proud undutiful contemptuous carriage in the younger sort towards their betters doth worse become them than any deformity or blemish in the body A young man is never more out of fashion than when he is careless of his duty in this behalf and again never more comely than when he adorneth his life with that modesty and dutiful respect to which true grace directeth younger years It is a singular ornament to a young man to be one of those few which find out and constantly walk in the narrow way in their youthful daies CHAP. III. Vse 1. THis may shew that nothing doth worse become the younger sort than sin A licentious ungodly a loose unbridled conversation is a young man's greatest blemish weakness of natural parts shallowness of capacity blemishes of the body are not so unseemly in a young Man as prophaness and want of true holiness Nothing can worse become such an one than to forget or disobey him that made him No blemish in the face is so unseemly as an unruly tongue full of vain and idle oathes full of prophane swearing full of cursing and bitterness full of wanton rotten communication full of raiâ—ing of scoffs against godliness against old Age or as a loose lustful eye which is roveing and wandring after vanity or an ear listening after idle tales and greedily taking in false reports such as tend to the undeserved disgrace of others A violent hand a stragling foot they are the blemishes and reproaches of the younger sort And what is Drunkenness but the shame and stain of that green and flourishing age when the witt in its prime and best time shall be besotted and brought to a brutish dotage by the abuse of Gods good Creatures and excess of drink what is more unnatural and unseemly The stupifying of the senses the faultring of the feet are they not the symptoms of old age yes What then is more unseemly for youth than to over-burthen it self so with drink as to lose for the time its witts and leggs Oh do not count this a matter of credit thus to keep company this is your shame The sin of Whoredom which is the young Man's Zoar he counts it a little one and hither he would fly for contentment when the Word threatneth Fire and Brimstone against this sin from Heaven It is his Dalilah in the lap of which sinful pleasure he thinketh he may sleep securely by the priviledge of youth But the Scripture saith It is a deep ditch Prov. 23. 27. And therefore most dangerous And as it is dangerous so most shameful and unseemly It is the defilement the blasting of the flower of youth it is the very snare of the Devil whereby many young ones are held Captive by him at his will The sin of stubbornness and contemptuous carriage towards Superiours in years or otherwise it is most
which threatnings took effect accordingly The Philistines and Arabians brake into his Kingdom entred his Place took away his Goods his Wives his Sons all save 〈◊〉 youngest Ver. 16 17. Then also the Lord smote him with an incurable Disease in his Bowels and after two years torment as it seemeth his Body rotted and his Bowels fell out so that he died of sore Diseases and had not that honour at his Funeral which was usually done unto Kings See how his life out-lasted the comforts of his life and yet his life was short he died when he was about forty years old and reigned eight years Now ye may see by these examples that there are two wayes in general by which it cometh to pass that the comforts of this life are shorter than life it self and that this life out-lasteth them all and that is 1. By reason of old age 2. By reason of crosses afflictions 1. In respect of old age so it was with David and Barzillai So it is expressed at large in this last Chapter of Ecclesiastes where he sheweth how the daies of old age are such many times that a man hath no pleasure in them and sheweth at large how the several parts of the body decay and the powers of nature fail The Grashopper shall be a burthen that is every little thing shall trouble them And desire shal fail They shall have no mind to any thing Therefore also it must needs be that delights should fail they should joy in nothing all the pleasures of Youth and the delights of Life are gone Moses saith Psal. 90. 10. The daies of our years are threescore years and ten and if by reason of strength they be fourscore yet is their strength but labour and sorrow Yea and some ere they be threescore do feel the burthen of Old Age as much as others do at fourscore 2. In respect of sufferings and afflictions some do out-live the comforts and pleasures of this life So did Job but that afterwards the Lord restored his prosperity to him in an extraordinary manner So Saul it seemeth in respect of age might have enjoyed many a fair year but all was blasted and his Kingdom did him little good The Lord declared himself against him So ye see in the example of Jehoram the Lord may take away those comforts from a man that the loss of them may drown all the pleasures of this life embitter all those sweets that this world can afford to us CHAP. II. THe Reason in general is the sin of man that hath shortned life made it mortal which had it not been for sin should have been imortal That hath made the comforts of life shorter than life it self which should have been everlasting as life it self should have been immortal had not sin given a deadly wound both to the life of man and to the comforts of this life Man should have had no thorns nor thistles to have vexed him in Paradise if he had not let Sin into the Garden but Sin being let in cast him out into a thorny world ful of miseries whereby his short life was made bitter to him and the pleasures of life not so long-lived as life it self Many times the special sins of men are the cause of this and that both of God's Children and of the wicked The special sins of the Godly as in David his sins into which he fell made the latter part of his life full of bitterness and had not he been able to comfort himself in God and to have refreshed his heart with his saving love and mercy how could he have been able to bear up his Spirit under such grievous burthens So the Lord doth many times change the outward condition of his Children and causeth them in stead of many outward comforts formerly enjoyed to eat the bread and drink the water of afflictions and causeth sad times to pass over them insomuch that all the comforts of this life do no way yield them so much content as their outward afflictions do bring bitterness upon them On the other side the special sins of the wicked do sometimes move the Lord to turn their laughter into mourning and to bring a a dark Cloud on all the Sun-shine of their outward comforts so that all things in the world shall look sad upon them and this he seemeth to do for two causes 1. To bring them home to himself that being taken off from carnal contentment in outward delights and brought to deal seriously with their own hearts and to consider their wayes and finding nothing in the world for their hearts to rest upon they may be made to turn to the Lord and to seek peace with him and comfort in his love Thus it was with Manasseh whiles he flourished in his Kingly dignity and had what his heart could wish how did he exceed in wickedness But when the Lord gave him that blow by the hand of the King of Babylon which struck him down from his Throne and â—aid him in fetters then in his affliction he besought the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his Fathers and prayed unto him and he was entreated of him c. 2 Chron. 33 11 12 13. 2. The Lord seemeth to do this many times to manifest his Justice and to let the wicked know what they are to look for in another world Thus he seemeth to have dealt with Pharaoh Saul and many others This I am perswaded the Lord doth often aim at even in those changes which are brought with Old Age. Many which have been flourishing in their daies and abused their prosperity their bodies decay with old age and their outward means wither together with them and they are set before the world for spectacles wherein men may read the vanity of all things under the Sun together with the fading and uncertain condition of all the comforts of this life I mean of such who after Youth and riper years spent in sin and impenitency do afterwards go creeping under the burden of Old Age and have no heart to seek the Lord in sincerity but their hearts die within them and become like Nabals having lost the content which they took before in the pleasures of sin and wanting grace to raise their hearts to the Lord that they might delight their Souls in him Many such examples may be observed in the world 3. Sometimes the Lord doth this to exercise the graces of his Children and to make them examples unto others of patience and stedfastness in his ways as it was with Job who continued in his integrity after that those great changes were brought upon him CHAP. III. Use. I. HEnce we may be brought to a consideration of the shortness and uncertainty of all the contentments of this present life How short is life it self And yet the pleasures of life are shorter than life Psal. 39. 5. Behold thou hast made my daies as an hand-breadth saith David There is the life of