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A29676 Apples of gold for young men and vvomen, and a crown of glory for old men and women. Or, The happiness of being good betimes, and the honour of being an old disciple Clearly and fully discovered, and closely, and faithfully applyed. Also the young mans objections answered, and the old mans doubts resolved. By Thomas Brooks preacher of the gospel at Margarets new Fishstreet-hill. Brooks, Thomas, 1608-1680. 1657 (1657) Wing B4922A; ESTC R214145 141,163 402

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all worldly delights and contents c. Secondly In pardon of Sin Blessed is hee whose transgression is forgiven whose Sinne is covered Psal 32.1 2 Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile It is not blessed is the honourable man but blessed is the pardoned man it is not blessed is the rich man but blessed is the pardoned man it is not blessed is the learned man but blessed is the pardoned man it is not blessed is the politick man but blessed is the pardoned man it is not blessed is the victorious man but blessed is the pardoned man Do with me what thou wilt since thou hast pardoned my sins saith Luther Thirdly In a compleat fruition and enjoyment of God when wee shall be here no more Blessed are the pure in heart Mat. 5.8 for they shall see God Now they see him but darkly 1 Cor. 13.12 but in heaven they shall see him face to face they shall know as they are known but of these things I have spoken largely elsewhere and therefore shall satisfy my self with these hints Lastly If you would be good betimes then you must break your covenant with sin betimes you must fall out with your lusts betimes you must arme and fence your selves against Sin betimes Isa 28 15.18 a man never beginnes to fall in with Christ till hee beginnes to fall out with his Sins till sin and the soul bee two Christ and the soul cannot be one Now to work your hearts to this you should alwayes look upon sin under these notions First If you would have the league dissolved betwixt sin and your souls betimes then look upon sin under the notion of an enemy betimes Dearly beloved 1 Pet. 2.11 Sins especially against knowledge are peccata vulner antia et divastantia wounding and wasting I befeech you as strangers and Pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which warre against the soul As the Viper is killed by the young ones in her belly so are poor Sinners betraied and killed by their own lusts that are nourished in their bosomes Pittacus a Philosopher challenging Phlyon the Athenian Captain in their warres against them to single combate carried a net privily and so caught him and overcame him So doth Sin with poor Sinners the dangerous pernicious malignant nature of Sinne you may see in the story of the Italian who first made his Enemy deny God and then stabbed him to the heart and so at once murdered both body and soul Sin betrayes us into the hand of the Devil as Dalilah did Sampson into the hands of the Philistims Sugred poysons go down pleasantly Oh! But when they are down they gall and gnaw and gripe the very heart-strings asunder it is so with sin Ah! Souls have not you often found it so When Phocas the Murderer thought to secure himself by building high-walls he heard a voice from heaven telling him that though he built his bulwarks ever so high yet Sinne within would soon undermine all Ambrose reports of one Theotimus that having a disease upon his body the Physitian told him that except hee did abstain from intemperance Drunkenness Uncleanness he would loose his eyes his heart was so desperately set upon his Sins that he crys out then vale lumen amicum farewel sweet light Ah! how did his lusts warre both against body and soul The Old man is like a treacherous friend and a friendly Traitour though it be a harder thing to fight with a mans lusts than it is to fight with the Cross yet you must fight or dye if you are not the death of your Sins they will prove the death of your souls The Oracle told the Cirrheans diesque belli gerendum they could not be happy unless they waged warre night and day As one of the Dukes of Venice dyed fighting against the Nauratines with his weapons in his hand no more can wee except wee live and dye fighting against our lusts Ah Young men Can you look upon Sin under the notion of an enemy and not break with it and not arm against it Well remember this the pleasure and sweetness that follows victory over sin is a thousand times beyond that seeming sweetnesse that is in sin and as victory over sin is the sweetest victory so it is the greatest victory there is no conquest to that which is gotten over a mans own corruptions Hee that is slow to anger is better than the mighty and hee that ruleth his spirit than hee that taketh a City It is noble to overcome an enemy without but it is more noble to overcome an enemy within it is honourable to overcome fiery flames but it is far more honourable to overcome fiery lusts When Valentinian the Emperour was upon his dying-bed among all his victories only one comforted him Rom. 7.22 23 2 Cor. 10.3 4 5 6. Gal. 5.17 and that was victory over his worst enemy viz. his own naughty heart Ah young men young men your worst enemies are within you and all their plots designs and assaults are upon your souls your most noble part they know if that fort Royal bee won all is their own and you are undone and shall bee their slaves for ever and therefore it stands you upon to arm your selves against these inbred enemies and if you ingage Christ in the quarrel you will carry the day and when you shall lye upon your dying-beds you will then finde that there is no comfort to that which ariseth from the conquests of your own hearts your own lusts Secondly If you would break covenant with sin if you would arme and fence your selves against sin betimes 2 Pet. 3.6 Gal. 3.10 Joh. 8.34 then look upon sin as the souls bonds for as bonds tie things together so doth sin tie the sinner and the curse together it bindes the sinner and wrath together it links the sinner and hell together I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitternesse and in the bond of iniquity iniquity is a chain a bond now bonds and chains gall the body and so do sin the soul and as poor captives are held fast in their chains so are sinners in their sins they cannot redeem themselves by price 2 Tim. 2. uit nor by power Ah young men young men no bondage to soul-bondage no slavery to soul-slavery the Israelites bondage under Pharaoh and the Christians bondage under the Turks Augustine saith of Rome that shee was the great Mistriss of the world and the great drudge of sin is but the bondage of the body of the baser and ignoble part of man but yours is soul-bondage soul-slavery which is the saddest and greatest of all Ah friends You should never look upon your sins but you should look upon them as your bonds yea as the worst bonds that ever were all other chains are golden chains chains of Pearl compared to those chains of Iron and Brasse those chains of lusts with
them as that it wrings many bitter tears from their eyes and many sad and grievous sighs and groans from their hearts Again As Sin is a burden to Christians so it is a burden to heaven Jud● 6 it made heaven weary to bear the Angels that fell no sooner had they sinned but heaven groans to be eased of them and it never left groaning till justice had turned them a groaning to hell Again Numb 16.26.35 as Sin is a burden to Heaven so it is a burden to the earth witness her swallowing up Korah Dathan and Abiram their Wives children Goods servants c. Ah! Sinners your sins makes the very earth to groan they make the earth weary of bearing you Oh! How doth the earth groan and long to swallow up those earthly wretches whose hopes whose hearts are buried in the earth these shall have little of heaven but enough of earth when they come to dye Cornelius Alapide tells a story that he heard of a famous Preacher Rom. 8.19 20 21 22 23 who shewing the bondage of the Creature brings in the Creature complaining thus Oh! that wee could serve such as are Godly Oh! that our substance and our flesh might bee incorporated into godly people that so wee might rise into glory with them Oh! that our flesh might not bee incorporated into the flesh of sinners for if it bee we shall go to hell and would any creatures go to hell Oh! we are weary of bearing sinners wee are weary of serving of sinners thus the creatures groan thus the creatures complain the Sinners sins forcing them to it c. Again Sin is a burden to God Behold I am pressed under you Amos. 2.13 as a cart is pressed that is full of shcaves by this plain pithy countrey comparison God shews how sadly hee is pressed and oppressed how sorely hee is wearied and tired with those peoples Sins Divine patience is even worn out Justice hath lift up her hand and will bear with them no longer God seems to groan under the pressure of their Sinnes as a Cart seems to do under a heavy load of this God complains by the Prophet Isaiah Isa 43.24 Thou hast made me to serve with thy sins thou hast wearied mee with thine iniquities I am as weary of your Sins as a Travelling woman is weary of her pains saith God Sin was such a burden to God that he sweeps it off with a sweeping Floud Gen. 7. c. Again Luk. 22.44 A strange watering of a garden Bern. 1 Pet. 2.24 Sin is a burden to Christ it made him sweat as never man sweat it made him sweat great drops of clotted or congealed bloud Sin put Christs whole body into a bloudy sweat it made him groan pittiously when he bare our Sins in his body on the Tree Sin made his soul heavy even to the death and had he not been one that was mighty Isa 6.6 yea that was all-mighty he had fainted and failed under his burthen And thus you see what a burthen Sin is to man to the Creatures to heaven to earth to God to Christ and therefore as you would break with Sin betimes look alwayes upon it as a burden yea as the greatest and heaviest burden in all the world c. Sixthly and Lastly If you would break Covenant with Sin and arm and fence your selves against it betimes then you must look upon it betimes under the notion of a Tyrant Tit. 3.3 and indeed Sin is the worst and greatest Tyrant in the world Other Tyrants can but Tyranize over our bodies but Sin is a Tyrant that tyranizes over both body and soul as you may see in the sixth and seventh of the Romans Sin is a Tyrant that hath a kinde of jurisdiction in most mens hearts it sets up the Law of Pride the Law of Passion the Law of Oppression the Law of Formality the Law of Hypocrisy the Law of Carnality the Law of Self-love the Law of Carnal-Reason the Law of unbeleef and strictly Commands Subjection to them and proclaims fire and sword to all that stand out this Saints and sinners good men and bad do sufficiently experience Sin is a Tyrant of many thousand years standing Thales one of the seven Sages used to say that few Tyrants lived to be old but it is far otherwise with this Tyrant Sin Prov. 4.16 and though it hath had many a wound and many a foil and received much opposition yet still it playes the Tyrant all the World over O! the hearts that this Tyrant makes to ake the souls that this Tyrant makes to bleed Pharoahs Tyranny was nothing to Sins Tyranny this Tyrant will not so much as suffer his slaves to sleep They sleep not except they have done mischief their sleep is taken away unless they cause some to fall The wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt Isa 57.20 21. There is no peace to the wicked saith my God Other Tyrants have been brought down and brought under by a humane power but this cannot but by a divine the power of man hath brought down many of the Tyrants of this World but it is onely the power of Christ that can bring down this Tyrant that can cast down his strong holds 2 Cor. 10.3 4 5 6 c. therefore ingage Christ in the conflict draw him into the battle and in the end the conquest will be yours Vitellius who had been Emperor of all the World yet was driven thorow the streets of Rome stark naked and thrown into the River Tyber c. Andronicus the Emperor for his cruelty towards his People was by them at last shamefully deposed and after many contumelies hanged up by his heels Ptolomy was put on a Cross Bajazet in an iron Cage Phoras broken on the Wheel Lycam cast to the Dogs as well as Jezabel Attales thrust into a Forge King Gath into a Beer-barrel c. But none of these that have tameed these Tyrants that have brought down these mighty Nimrods have been able to tame to bring under the Tyrants the sins the lusts that hath been in their own bosomes many a man hath had a hand in bringing down of worldly Tyrants who notwithstanding have dyed for ever by the hand of a Tyrant within c. And thus much for the directions that young men must follow if they would bee good betimes if they would seek and serve the Lord in the spring and morning of their dayes The Young mans objections Answered I shall now give some brief Answers to the Young mans Objections and the Old mans scruples and so close up this discourse Ob. But some young men may object and say you would have us to bee good betimes and to seek and serve the Lord in the Prime-rose of our dayes but it may be time enough hereafter to follow this Counsel wee are young and it may bee time enough for us to minde these
Rom. 13.13 14 Let us walk honestly as in the day not in rioting and drunkennesse not in chambering and wantonnesse not in strife and envying But put yee on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof This Scripture so sunk into his heart as that it proved the means of his conversion as himself reports Lib. 8. conf cap. 12. this Augustin as hee was once Preaching his memory failing of him contrary to his purpose he fell upon reproving the Manicheans and by a scripture or two not before thought of Poffidon de vita Augustin to confute their heresies he converted Firmus a Manichaean as he after acknowledged to Augustin blessing God for that sermon It is reported of one Adrianus who seeing the Martyrs suffer such grievous things in the cause of God hee asked what was that which caused them to suffer such things and one of them named that text Cor. 2.9 Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive the things which God hath prepared for them that love him and this text was set home with such a power upon him as that it converted him and made him to profess Religion and not onely to profess it but to dye a martyr for it Cyprian was converted by reading the Prophecy of Jonah Junius was converted by reading the 1 Chapter of John the Evangelist I have read of a scandalous Minister that was struck at the heart and converted in reading that scripture Rom. 2.21 Thou which teachest another teachest thou not thy self c Wee read that Paphnutius converted Thais and Ephron two famous strumpets from uncleannesse only with this Scripture Argument That God seeth all things in the dark Heb. 4.13 when the doors are fast the windows shut the Curtains drawn c. I have read of a poor man who perswaded a young Scholler to leave reading of Poetry c. and fall upon reading of the Scripture which accordingly hee did and it pleased the Lord before hee had read out Genesis to change his heart and to turn him to the Lord in the Primrose of his daies hee being then but twenty years of age I have read of a young Lady Origen was her Schoolmaster called Potamia of a very illustrious family who endured very much in her Martyrdome by the extream cruelty of Basilides her executioner yet after her death hee bethinking himself of the holy words and Scripture expressions that were uttered by her during her cruel torments became a Christian and within few daies after was himself likewise crowned with Martyrdome James Andreas a godly Minister hearing of a Jew that for theft was hanged by the heels with his head downward having not seen that kinde of punishment hee went to the place where hee was hanging between two Dogs that were alwaies snatching at him to eat his flesh the poor wretch repeated in Hebrew some verses of the Psalms wherein hee cryed to God for mercy whereupon Andreas went near to him and instructed him in the Principles of Christian Religion about Christ the Messiah c. Exhorting him to beleeve in him A miracle of mercy and it pleased God so to blesse his Scripture exhortations to him that the Dogs gave over tearing of his flesh and the poor Jew desired him to procure that hee might bee taken down and baptized and hung by the neck for the quicker dispatch which was done accordingly I might produce other instances but let these suffice to provoke all young persons to a speedy serious diligent and constant study of the Scripture Much in the word is wrap't up in a little It is more to bee admired than to have Homers Iliads comprized in a nut shel Heb. 9.4 Ah sirs you do not know how soon your blinde mindes may bee enlightened your hard hearts softened your proud spirits humbled your sinful natures changed your defiled consciences purged your distempered affections regulated and your poor souls saved by searching into the Scriptures by reading the Scripture and by pondering upon the Scripture you should lay up the Manna of Gods word in your hearts as Moses laid up the Manna in the golden pot And as Tamar did with the staff and signet that shee received from Judah Gen. 38.18 36. shee laid them up till shee came to save her life and did save her life by it as you may see in holy story The laying up of the word now may bee the saving of your souls another day I have read of little Bees that when they go out in stormy weather they will carry a little of their comb or gravel with them that they may bee ballanced and not carried away with the winde Ah young men young men you had need to have your thoughts and hearts ballanced with the precious word that you may not bee carried away with every winde of Doctrin as many have been in these daies to their destruction and confusion Narcissus a beautiful youth though hee would not love them that loved him yet afterwards fell in love with his own shadow Ah! how may young men in these daies 2 Thes 2.10 11 12. who were once lovely and hopeful are now fallen in love with their own and others shadows with high empty aiery notions and with strange monstrous speculations to their own damnation Holy Melancthon being newly converted thought it impossible for his hearers to withstand the evidence of the Gospel but soon after hee complained that old Adam was too hard for young Melancthon Ah young men young men if you do not in good earnest give up your selves to the reading to the studying to the pondering to the beleeving to the affecting to the applying and to the living up to the Scripture Satan will bee too hard for you the world will bee too hard for you your lusts will bee too hard for you temptations will bee too hard for you and deceivers will bee too hard for you and in the end you will bee miserable and thus much for the first thing c. Secondly if you would bee good betimes then you must acquaint your selves with your selves betimes if you would bee gracious in the spring and morning of your daies then you must see betimes how bad you are how vile how sinful how wretched you are no man begins to bee good till hee sees himself to bee bad the young Prodigal never began to mend Luk. 15.12 ●● 22. hee never thought of returning to his Father till hee came to himself till hee began to return into his own soul and saw himself in an undone condition Ah! Young men Young men you must see your selves to bee children of Wrath Ephes 2.1 2 3.12 13. Rom. 6.16 John 8.44 2 Tim. 2.26 to bee Enemies to bee Strangers to bee afar off from God from Christ from the Covenant from heaven to bee Sinnes servants and Satans bond slaves the ready way to
off the branches and it grew again they cut down the body and it grew again Isedore the Monk was very much out who vaunted that hee had felt in himself no motion to sin forty years together they cut it up by the root and still it lived and grew untill they pulled down the stone-wall till death shall pull down our stone-walls Sin will live this fire will burn Wee may say of sin as some say of Cats that they have many lives kill them and they will live again kill them again and they will live again so kill sin once and it will live again kill it again and it will live again c. Sin oftentimes is like that Monster Hydra cut off one head and many will rise up in its room Fifthly Fire is of a penetrating nature Isa 1.5 6. Rom. 7.13.17 Sin is malum Catholicum A Catholick evil Quodcunque in peccato peccatum est whatsoever is in sin is sin it peirceth and windeth it self into every corner and chinck and so doth sin winde it self into our thoughts words and works it will winde it self into our understandings to darken them and into our judgements to pervert them and into our wills to poison them and into our affections to disorder them and into our consciences to corrupt them and into our carriages to debase them Sin will winde it self into every duty and every mercy it will winde it self into every one of our enjoyments and concernments Hannibal having overcome the Romans put on their armour on his shoulders and so by that policy they being taken for Romans won a City but what are Hannibals wiles to sins wiles or Satans wiles if you have a minde to bee acquainted with their wiles look over my Treatise called Precious Remedies against Satans Devices Sixthly and lastly Fire is a devouring a consuming Element Psal 21.9 it turns all fuel into ashes It is a Woolf that eats up all 2 Pet. 2.5 6. Pro. 6.32 Eccles 9.18 Prov. 13.13 ch 20.29.1 Pro. 11.3 ch 15.25 ch 21.7 so Sin is a fire that devours and consumes all it turned Sodom and Gomorah into ashes it hath destroyed the Caldaean Persian and Graecian Kingdomes and will at last destroy the Roman Kingdome also this Woolf ate up Sampsons strength Absoloms beauty Achitophels policy and Herods glory c. It hath drowned one world already and will at last burn another even this Oh the hopes the hearts the happinesse the joyes the comforts the souls that this fire Sin hath consumed and destroyed c. Peter Camois Bishop of Betty in France in his draught of Eternity Num. 75. tells us that some devout personages caused those words of the Prophet Isaiah to bee written in letters of gold upon their chimny peeces Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire Isa 33.14 who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings Ah young men young men I desire that you may alwaies look upon sin under the notion of fire yea as such fire as laies the foundation for everlasting fire for everlasting burnings and this may work when other things will not I have read of a grave and chaste Matron who being moved to commit folly with a lew'd Russian after some discourse shee call'd for a pan of burning coals requesting him for her sake to hold his finger in them but one hour hee answered it is an unkind request to whom she replyed that seeing hee would not do so much as to put one finger upon the coals for one hour she could not yeild to do that for which shee should bee tormented both body and soul in hell fire for ever The application is easy c. Fourthly If you would break with Sin betimes if you would arm against Sin in the spring and morning of your dayes then you should look upon Sin under the notion of a Thief and indeed Sin is the greatest Theif the greatest Robber in the World it robbed the Angels of all their glory 2 Pet. 2 4 Gen. 3 it robbed Adam of his Paradise and felicity and it hath robbed all the Sons of Adam of five precious Jewels the least of which was more worth than heaven and earth 1 It hath robbed them of the holy and glorious Image of God which would have been fairly engraven upon them had Adam stood c. 2 It hath robbed them of their son-ship and of sons have made them slaves 3 It hath robbed them of their friendship Well did one of the fathers call Pride and Vain-glory the sweet spoiler of spiritual excellencies and a pleasant theif and made them enemies 4 It hath robbed them of their communion and fellowship with Father Son and Spirit and made them Strangers and Aliens 5 It hath robbed them of their glory and made them vile and miserable It hath robbed many a nation of the Gospel and many a parish of many a happy guide and many a Christian of the favour of God the joyes of the spirit and the Peace of Conscience Oh the health the wealth the honor the friends the relations that Sin hath robbed thousands of Nay It hath robbed many of their gifts their arts their parts their memory their judgement yea their very reason as you may see in Pharoah Nebuchadnezzar Belshazzar Achitophel Haman Herod and those Babylonish Princes that accused Daniel And so in Menipus of Phenicia who having lost his goods strangled himself And so Dinarcus Phidon at a certain losse cut his own throat to save the charge of a cord And so Augustus Caesar in whose time Christ was born was so troubled and astonished at the relation of an overthrow from Varrus Suetonius that for certain months together he let the hair of his beard and head grow still and wore it long yea and other whiles would run his head against the doors crying out Quintilius Varrus deliver up my Legions again by all which it is most apparent that Sin is the greatest thief in all the World Oh then who would not break league and covenant with it and be still in pressing of God to do justice upon it c. Fifthly Nah. 1.1 Hab. 1.1 Mal. 11 If you would break with Sin and arm and fence your selves against Sin betimes then you must look upon sinne under the notion of a burden betimes and indeed sin of all burdens is the heaviest burden in all the world Innumerable evils have compassed me about Psal 40.12 mine iniquities have taken hold upon mee so that I am not able to look up they are more than the hairs of my head therefore my heart faileth me and again Mine iniquities are gone over my head saith the same person as an heavy burden Psal 38.4 they are too heavy for mee to bear Sin is a weight that easily besets poor souls Heb. 12.1 it is a burden that so troubles them and puzzles them that so curbs them and girds them Rom. 7.13 ult that so presses and oppresses