Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	discourse_n	young_a	youth_n	12	3	7.3710	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61859	Lessons moral and Christian, for youth and old age in two sermons preach'd at Guildhall Chappel, London : chiefly intended for the use of this city / by John Stryp ...	Strype, John, 1643-1737.	1699 (1699)	Wing S6022; ESTC R33818	27,625	134

LESSONS Moral and Christian FOR YOUTH AND OLD AGE In TWO SERMONS Preach'd at Guildhall Chappel London Chiefl● intended for the Use of this City Published at Request By JOHN STRYP M. A. Vicar of Low-Leyton in Essex LONDON Printed for I. Wyat at the Rose in S. Paul's Church-yard 1699. TO THE READER THO the publishing of Discourses of this Nature need no Apology being designed for so good an End to Reclaim if possible this degenerate Age of ours yet in truth the Cause of the Author 's Printing these Sermons was a Letter sent him from some well-disposed Person wholly unknown to him Which is as follows SIR Hoping that you will not be offended at my Resolution I make bold to acquaint you therewith Which is as follows That whereas you did Preach before the Honorable the Lord Mayor on Sunday last it so fell out that I was then your Auditor And truly I want Words to express the Satisfaction I took in that Discourse and withall do judge that it would be of mighty Advantage to Aged Persons to have that Sermon made Publick there being not as I know of any Discourse of that Nature made publick especially in Words so plain and expressive of the Duty and Demeanour incumbent on them And therefore Sir I am bold to tell you that as that Sermon was then taken in Characters so I intend to make it publick unless your self prevent my so doing by causing it to be Printed by your own Order Which indeed I rather desire since it must needs come more perfect out of your Hand than it can out of the hands of one who writing in haste cannot but commit some Oversights And especially since you mentioned another Sermon before Preached in that Audience which was addrest to Young Persons Which Sermon I did did not hear but if there be in it those Marks and Tokens of a Christian Spirit as appeared in that other which was addrest to Aged Men it is pity but the same should be made publick with it And I hope you will do it if you think fit to prevent this my Resolution which I shall forbear to put in execution till about a Month be past that I may understand your Determination Sir I humbly beg your Pardon for this Boldness and hope you will not take it in ill part since it is the Good of Mankind that constrains me thereunto Who am yours I. This Letter induced me to make these Two Discourses Publick hoping they may prove as useful as they were by that Gentleman supposed to be Tho I confess I have not been hasty to do it till now a good while after upon a particular occasion Preaching one of them again some that heard it thought it so seasonable for their own Spiritual Needs that they desired to have it to Read Consider and make their Better use of which is the True Cause of hastening this Impression And thus wishing God's Blessing to accompany the reading of this Little Book I bid the Reader Farewell J. STRYP Admonitions TO YOUTH TIT. II. 6 Young Men likewise exhort to be sober minded THIS Honourable Auditory will excuse the Subject I have taken for my present Discourse when they shall consider how much the Future Good of the Universe depends upon the Sobriety of Youth If they that are to come next upon the Stage of the World to act their Parts there would but avoid the Folly and Wickedness of the present Age and frame themselves to better and wiser Courses than are now commonly taken how much happier would the Condition of Mankind be For 't is a very bad World we live in that we all feel and as many as are Good lament And such Root have Vices got in the Hearts of Men that there is little hope to see any Amendment in our Days And there is no Way but one to mend this Degenerate World under the mighty Grace of God and that is that Care be taken that the next Generation be made better And to make that so Youth must be better Principled and better minded Extraordinary Care must be taken of the Education of the Younger Sort that they imbibe in their tender years Sobriety and Virtue That their Souls may be imbued with a true Fear of God and with right Apprehensions of Virtue and Vice They must be taught from their earliest Days to hate Sin and they must be shewn the Baseness the Disorders the Irregularities and Mischievousness of it And they must be inwardly convinced of the Amiableness and the Rectitude and the Profitableness of a sober and just Life and Conversation They must be learned to have a great Sense and Awe of Almighty God upon their Minds and to make a great Conscience to Love their Neighbours and to do them all exact Justice and Equity and to be willing to be at Pains and Charges to do Offices of Friendship and Compassion to Men in their Necessities Could Young Men who are the Expectation of the next Generation and who must Act and bear their Parts in that could they I say be thus Disciplined What a Golden Age would return after this cruel Iron Age of Ours This will be sufficient to justify the Subject I have taken in hand to Treat of before you Worthy Citizens namely To give some Seasonable Admonitions to Youth which is such a considerable Part of this great City Some Thousands of Young Persons being transplanted hither every Year from all Parts of the Nation to learn Trades and Ocupations and for the necessary Services of it And these are in the next Generation to supply your Places and to be the Traders Members and Magistrates of London The Wisdom and Sobriety of the Inhabitants whereof hath such a notable Influence upon the Welfare and Prosperity not only of the City it self but of the whole Nation Let us therefore review the Text and the Occasion of it Young Men exhort to be Sober-minded St. Paul had sent forth Titus to be a Preacher of the Gospel and to instruct Men in the Ways of Christian Piety and Peace And here in this Epistle to him he is instructing the Instructer and directing him in a faithful Discharge of his Ministry And particularly he admonisheth him to apply himself and his Instructions to the People with respect unto their Age. To those that were well grown in years Aged Men Ver. 2. That he should exhort those to be Sober Grave Temperate c. Aged Women Ver. 3. that he should remind them to be in Behaviour as became Holiness not false Accusers c. And then Ver. 6. the Apostle directs him also to suit his Instructions to the Young as well as to the Old Young Men likewise exhort to be Sober-minded There be various Vices incident to Persons according to their several Ages The Elder Sort is addicted to such and such evil Ways and evil Qualities And the Younger and more Gay to many other sorts of Folly And particularly as their Spirits are more hot and

a young Rebel thou hast been to thy great and good God And yet he hath forbore to strike thee as he justly might This and a great deal more might be added to shew what mighty Obligations young Men lye under to their Maker And should not this stir them up to love and fear him and to restrain themselves from doing any thing to offend and anger him but rather to lead their future Lives in that Sobriety Care and Watchfulness that would be so acceptable to him 2. Young Men have a Prospect of a longer Tract of Time to live than the more Elderly And therefore Sobriety is necessary for them that they may order and dispose themselves that the Series and Course of their Lives may be comfortable and happy to them Which it cannot be if Men begin with Vice and Licentiousness Man's Life is a Race Now if a Man were to run a Race and should set out with all the Violence and Irregularity that ever he could he were like to Tire before he were got half way And so should render all the rest of his Way very wearisome and irksome to him But if he began with more Deliberation and set out with more Sobriety he would with more Ease and Comfort hold out all along the rest of the Way he was to go And just so it is with our Lives Most Men set out this Race of humane Life with a violent Propension to Evil and a continual Gratification of the Lusts and Desires of the Flesh Spend their Health and their Credit and their Estates oftentimes too in Debauchery and Disorder And so the Thred of their Lives is either cut off in the midst or if it be not all the rest is spent in Vexation and Trouble in Sickness Sorrow in Poverty and a Thousand Miseries that our first and early Follies have drawn upon us And therefore O young Man as thou wouldst pass that Life that God hath allotted thee in this World how long or how short soever it be with Peace and Comfort the best way is to begin it well and to avoid those Follies and Errors that are so apt to defile that Age. For 3. Consider further how the Sins of our Youth will create much Uneasiness and Sorrow afterward when we grow further into years And this will appear in these two respects First God sometimes punisheth a Man many years after for the Iniquities of his Youth There be many Afflictions and Calamities that befall us from the Hand of God which make our Lives not seldom very grievous unto us And in our Search into the Causes of them one Rank of them must be the Sins of our Youth To this it was that Iob attributed his present Extremities Iob xiii 26 Thou makest me to possess the Iniquities of my Youth Iob was a good Man He set God's Fear before his Eyes and particularly he was a Man of great Charity and large Compassion to all poor necessitous People And that made him speak so largely in his own Justification But yet he was it seems in his early Age carried away as well as others with youthful Lusts and Pleasures and did not remember his Creatour as he should have done in those days And this he concludes was a Reason why God laid his Hand so heavy upon him Thou makest me to possess the Iniquities of my Youth And that is the Observation that Zophar one of Iob's Friends makes of those that begin early in Sin That their Bones are full of the Sins of their Youth Job xx 11 It seems to mean those Diseases that the Sins of Men's Youth oftentimes leave behind them in their Bodies It sticks to their very Bones and is appointed by God to be a severe Remembrancer as long as they live of the vile and wretched Courses that they took when they were young Why did David pray to God not to remember the Sins of his Youth Remember not Lord the Sins of my Youth Psal. xxv 7 Remember them not now O Lord in mine elder Age to punish me for them David had left the Vanities of his Youth and was become a Man after God's own Heart and yet David met with very great Afflictions and Sufferings and God seemed ●n them to have remembred the Sins and Follies of his Youth For God tho he Pardoneth Sins and imputeth not unto us our former Iniquities where he sees a penitent and reformed Heart and Life yet it is seldom but he takes some temporary Punishments upon Man for them first or last As he pardoned the Sin of the Golden Calf yet when he Visited he would visit upon the Israelites that Sin And therefore a good Man as long as he lives in his Prayers and Devotions among the rest of his Sins prays for the Pardon of his Youthful Sins and that God would be merciful to him and not punish him for them which he very often doth to the rendring the Christian's Life bitter unto him it may be as long as he lives Secondly The Sins of your Youth will create much Uneasiness and Sorrow to you in respect of the Reflexions that your Consciences will make against you many years after The Remembrance of your former Sins will be like a heavy Burden upon your Conscience Conscience will put you in mind it may be twenty or thirty or forty years after of the Wickedness of your Youth of your Lyes and Shifts to conceal your Extravagances of your Disobedience and Obstinacy to your indulgent Parents of your Scoffing at their good Counsels of your Stealing from them to spend upon your Lusts of the Griefs and Afflictions you have caused to their gray Heads and of all the rest of your Uncleanness of your Debaucheries and Excesses And if you have any Grace in you and have not utterly sinned away Conscience these things will now and then fly in your Face and be like so many Worms to bite and sting your very Hearts I dare appeal for the Truth of this unto your Selves as many as God hath given Grace unto afterward to grow wiser and better how your youthful Lusts and Sins do rise up sometimes and reproach and upbraid you and the thoughts that you have been so bad and committed so much Sin in secret do still by Fits molest and trouble you I have known a Person that hath condoled to me some particular Follies and Errors of his Youth thirty or forty years after with excessive Bitterness and Anguish of Mind And tho as he told me he had most heartily repented of those Rashnesses and Sins yet the Conscience thereof made his whole Life uncomfortable to him and so interrupted his Devotions and Services of God that he could not look up to him with any Comfort but was so Self-condemned that he was afraid that God would throw all his Service like Dung back into his Face because they proceeded from so unworthy a Wretch as he had been And therefore let that be another Motive to young People to take