it wrong done to David to revenge it but as for Davids sinnes and especially the sinnes of his youth here he lyes at another Guard Remember not Lord the sinnes of my youth 10. Come we now to the principal point which is this youth is an age wherein men are prone to be excessively sinfull By youth I understand that distance of age which is interposed betwixt infancy and the time wherein nature decayes all the time that a man in his strength is in his owne disposing Now the reasons why youth rather then infancy or old age should be prone to wickednesse are these First because that in youth they first breake loose from the command of their masters Gal. 4. 1. Now I say that the heire as long as he is a child differeth nothing from a servant though he be Lord of all but is under Tutors and governours untill the time appointed of the Father which time though long a comming when it comes at last is very welcome to young men Esay said in his heart the dayes for the mourning for my father Isaac will come shortly then will I slay my brother Jacob. Thus young men plot project and promise to themselves The dayes will come when my Father or Master or Tutor will die either naturally or legally will decease either in his person or power over me and then I 'le roare and revell and gad and Game and Dice and Drink and what not In a word young men thinke that they justly may have an action against their parents for false imprisonment because they have unjustly curbed and confined their wills and though they dare not lay their action against their Parents yet to make the best amends they may to themselves whom they conceive heretofore wrong'd with too much restraint they will hereafter right with too much liberty 11. Secondly because youth is an age wherein mens passions are most head-strong violent and impetuous so that it may be called the Midsommer Moone or if you will rather the Dog dayes of mans life 12. Thirdly because as in youth mens mindes are most strong to desire so their bodies are most able and active to performe any wickednesse 13. Lastly because young men put the day of death farre from them For there is nothing that more frights men from profanesse and into piety then the serious apprehension of death appearing with the Arrerages thereof eternall damnation in case the party dieth not in the faith and favour of God Now whereas old men see death in plano as under their eyes death is represented to young men in Landskipt as at a great distance from them And when old men discourse to young men of death young men are ready to answer them as the High Priest did Judas in a different case what is that to us looke you unto it The dayes of a man saith David are threescore yeares and ten Now what some men possibly may live to young men thinke they certainly must live to they will not abate a day nor a minute nor a moment of threescore and ten they have calculated their owne Nativities and so long they are sure they shall live 14. As for the sinnes whereof youth is most properly guilty they are these First Pride and indeed though they and none else have any just cause to be proud yet they have the best seeming cause to flesh and blood For young men have health and strength and swiftnesse and valour and wit and wisdome too as they thinke themselves though indeed the more fooles because they thinke so themselves 15. Secondly Prodigality for they begin where their Fathers did end and are the eldest sonne especially in matter of Worldly wealth as good men at their starting as their fathers were at the ending of their Race And commonly it commeth to passe that where the father like Logick had his fist contracted the sonne like Rhetorick hath his hand expanded 16. The third sinne of youth is Rashnesse For as old men because they are acquainted with the Changes and chances of the world when they goe about any great Action start all doubts dangers and difficulties probable and possible whereby sometimes it comes to passe that by their tedious tarrying on causelesse caution they lose the advantage of great Actions which are made to goe off with a spring of speedy execution so on the other side young men who know litle and feare less being loath to confesse the poverty of their experience by borrowing councell from others rashly runne on often to their hurt alwayes to their hazard as if successe was bound out of duty to attend their most desperate designes Yea David himselfe cannot be excused from this sinne of Rashnesse witnesse his words to Abigail the 1 of Sam. 25. 34. As the Lord God of Israel liveth except thou hadst hastned and come to meet me surely there had not been left unto Nabal by to morrow light any that pisseth against the wall A precipitate project what if the master was wilfull must all the servants be wofull what if Nabal had been too niggardly of his meate must David be too prodigall of his sword Yea and he bindes it too with an oath so that either he tooke Gods name too vainely in jest or the innocent blood too sadly in earnest Rashnesse is the third sin of youth 17. Disobedience to Parents followeth in the fourth place a great sin to which young men are much subject especially if their parents be feeble and froward and foolish too perchance as doting by age then they are ready to despise them 18. The fift and last sinne we insist on is wantonnesse the proper and paramount sinne of youth and therefore S. Paul writing to Timothy 2 Tim. 2. 22. Flee youthfull lusts One might thinke this precept to Timothy might well have been spared considering that Timothy had a weake body subject to often infirmities and such sick folke are likely to thinke rather of a Winding sheete then Wantonnesse Secondly Timothy was temperate in his dier daily drinking nothing but water and such cold liquor was likely to quench all heate of lust and yet because Timothy though a good man though a weake though a temperate man yet but a man and a young man S. Paul thought the precept not improper for the person Flee youthfull lusts Lust is the fift sinne of youth 19. All these five are the sinnes of youth Would I could say but as truly these five are all the sinnes of youth But alas youth is capable of and subject to all sinnes whatsoever And yet though youth be too bad in it self let us not make it worse then it is With the fashion of the World when an offender is guilty of more then he can answer to charge him with more then he is guilty Youth may commit all sinnes yet all sinnes are not the sinnes of youth A young man may be covetous yet Covetousnesse is no young mans sinne Old men would be angry if they might
our performance in this duty The first may be drawne from the dignity of the party desiring it God who might command seemes in some sort in the Text to request These last ten yeares have made a sad change in many mens conditions Such who formerly relieved others have since received reliefe from others Need hath taught many an ingenuous tongue a language wherewith formerly it was unacquainted It may move a misers heart to pity to heare them beg not thorough default of their own who had a hand and heart to distribute to others But ought we not to be affected with the motion made in the Text wherein the great God of Heaven seemeth in some sort to wave his Might and Majesty and in Triall of our Towardnesse and tendernesse becomes in the nature of a Petitioner unto us my Son give me thy heart or at least wise doth onely desire what he may demand as his due yea command as his right belonging unto him 12. Second motive may be drawn from the deserts of the Party he is worthy say the Pharisees of the Centurion to Christ For whom thou shouldst do this thing for he loveth our Nation and hath built us a Synagogue Luke 7. 5. Many and great are the indearments and obligations which God hath put upon us he loadeth us daily with benefits Psal 68. 19. though we make but light of that load as appeareth by our constant ingratitude 13. The last motive may be taken from the danger of denyal for be thou well assured if thou refuse to give God thy heart it wil not remaine thine long to thy comfort If any speciall friend so honest that he would not deceive thee with false frights and so wise that he could not therewith be deceived by others should seriously informe thee that this Night thou should be plundered of a Jewel of great value which thou hast in thy house should request it of thee to secure it for thee in the best acceptation of the word promising safe keeping and seasonable restoring thereof Surely thou shouldst discover little discretion to run the hazard of a Robbery and refuse so faire and civill a motion for thy own advantage Know in like manner the world flesh and Devil one or all of them will purloine thy heart from thee and imbezle it to thy destruction In prevention whereof do thou make a Friend therewith and speedily bestow it where it may be preserved for thee Adam himself though armed with Originall Integrity how ill he kept his own heart we his Posterity may sadly bemoan despaire thou therefore to be the Treasurer of thy own heart thou canst not lock it so fast but sin or Satan by force or fraud will command and cozen thee out of the possession of it if it be not solemnly given to God himself 14. And now as once the Eunuch said to Philip Acts 8. 36. See here is water what doth hinder me to be baptized so behold here all the requisites to a deed of gift what is it that debarreth us but that instantly this transaction of our hearts may be compleated Here we the Granters are present and I charitably presume have our hearts in a spirituall sense here within us here is God the Grantee who hath promised where two or three are met together in his name to be in the midst of them here are witnesses enow seeing he who as party to one deed wherein himself is concerned may be a witnesse to the grant of another and legally attest the truth thereof Nor is there any need of counsell of publick Notaries to draw up and ingrosse an instrument herein seeing nothing is required to the giving of the heart save the giving of the heart the more simply the more surely it is pefrormed 15. O the commendable simplicity of former Ages and their plain dealings in bargains and seals what their hearts thought then tongues said what their tongues said their teeth seal'd whose seals of brickle dough held better to all purposes and intents than ours of the most tenacious wax how many Manours in those dayes were conveyed in few words From me and mine to thee and thine where as now a span of ground can scarce be conveyed under a span of parchment such is the litigiousnesse of our Age. 16. But know in giving our hearts we are to deal with him who is the searcher of the hearts and who hateth all ceremonious complements preferring down-right sincerity Indeed if the head was to be given some might conceive it fit and necessary that the tongue and brains thereof should be imployed in making a large and eloquent Oration at such transactions but the heart being now to be given it may be done with silence and sincerity with a serious promise from this very moment to consecrate the same totally and finally to Gods service 17. I have read of Iames the fourth King of Scotland that on his death-bed he bequeathed his heart to the Lord Douglas to carry the same to Ierusalem and to see it buried by the grave of our Saviour which the Lord performed accordingly and in avowance thereof the Honourable Families of the Douglasses at this day give a heart proper in the Base-point of the Shield 18. Some will praise the officiousness of a Servant in doing his Masters command but none can excuse the superstition of the Master save onely by charging it on the erroneous devotion of those dark daies he lived in but let not us delay it till our death but in our life-time in the height of our health wealth and prosperity let us not send by others but give our selves not our carnal corporeal heart but our spiritual heart I mean all the powers and faculties of our souls not to be interred in the material grave of our Saviour but to be buried with him in true mortification which will be truly to practise the precept given in my Text My son give me thy heart Amen FINIS THE TRUE PENITENT Prov. 28. 13. He that confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall finde mercy LONDON Printed for JOHN STAFFORD at Fleet-bridge 1655. The true Penitent LUKE 22. 61. And wept bitterly TWo men doe not more differ one from another than the-selfe same man at severall times differs from himselfe Behold a Christian at the High-water-mark when 't is Spring-tide of Grace with him and how full is he fraught with pious Meditations Good Thoughts godly Words gracious Works so that one would think he would instantly stere from Holinesse to Happinesse The Top of Grace confines with the Bottom of Glory and wonders to see so much Triumphant Sanctity in a Militant Christian But now look on the same Man at Ebbing Water when left to himselfe in the Agony of a Temptation and how much shall we find him disguised from himself All his former good motions dead and buried and in their room ariseth another Generation which never knew Joseph Dismall Thoughts desperate Words damnable Deeds one would feare he would
the delight thereof then is it gone with the danger thereof As hereafter your carnall delight will be the lesse so your spirituall joy will be the more if the fault be not in your selves 25. Secondly desire not that as the Sun went back ten degrees on the diall of Ahaz so that thou mightest be ten dayes ten Weeks ten Moneths ten yeares younger then thou art Such wishes I am sure are vaine I suspect are wicked What Souldier having escaped a desperate fight desireth himselfe againe in the midst of it What sea-man having escaped the Sands and Shelves wisheth himself there again and seeing ye have passed salum juventutis as Tully termes it the troublesome Sea of youth why should you wish your selves in it again Neither thinke to say within your selves O if we were young againe the time which formerly we mispent in riot we would hereafter improve in piety The truth hereof will plainly be perceived by your well husbanding the life which is left you to Gods glory For he that will not be faithfull in a little will not be faithfull in much He will not be a good husband on the Remnant would be a bad one if he had the whole Cloath It is therefore to be suspected that in your desiring to be young againe you only make the pretence of Piety the Pander to your owne Profanenesse 26. Beware therefore that in your old age ye be not guilty of the sins of youth Gardiners can tell you that when Rose-trees are clipt in the moneth of May so that then they cannot bring Roses they doe commonly bring them in the Autumn spring in the month of September And it is possible if you have been restrained either by sicknesse of body or naturall modesty or want of opportunity or restraining grace from the excrescencies of youth when you are young I say it is possible that you may be visited with such guests in your old age and make them welcome at your own perill 27. And this let me commend unto you when you survey the sinnes of your youth take heed of mistaking your Oblivion for Innocence and thinking your selves free from committing those sinnes which ye cannot remember For were we at this instant arraigned for some sinnes we have done we would plead Not guilty Not that we would be so impudent as to deny them if we did remember them but we have as clearly forgot them as if we had never committed them Lord thou layest such a sinne to my charge there is some error some mistake some other may be guilty of it but it is not I. But O what is said Rev. 20. 12. in the description of the Generall judgement And the books were opened The bookes wherein every ones faults are registred and recorded the persons who and with whom the place where the time when and in this point midnight is as cleare a witnesse as noon day concurring with the Testimony of our guilty consciences 28. Another place of Scripture also deserves your observation Psal 50. 21. these things hast thou done and I kept silence thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thy self but I will reprove thee and set them in order before thine eyes I will set them in order Alas when we sin we jumble and confound and heap and huddle all together without any order or method But God in his Book will reduce it into a method Imprimis such a sin when thou first didst awake Item such a one before thou didst rise Item such a one before thou wast ready Item such a one before thou eatedst thy breakfast Or else thus I le set them in order according to their several matter The first leaf in the Book is Originall sin and then Actuall sins against God actuall sins against our selves actuall sins against our neighbours then truly shall we be in the case of Judah Gen. 44. 16. when the cup was found in his brother Benjamin's sack and may say with him What shall we say unto my Lord what shall we speak or how shall we clear our selves God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants 29. One word more and I have done and I hope none will censure my Sermon to be too long for this passage that remains though our sinnes be set in order and though the books be opened be the books never so big be the volumes never so vast it matters not how big the books be of the debts we have owed if all be crost If therefore we have true interest in the mercies of God and merits of Christ we may confidently come and may comfortably pray and shall be certainly heard with David in my Text Remember not O Lord the sins of my youth Amen A Corolary THe Soule of Man as conjoyned with his Body is in Scripture compared to a Candle Non although omnes animae sunt aequales all souls are equall in essence yet both in operation wherein they must ask the body leave to exercise it self by its proper organs as also in duration whilst conjoyned here with the body there is great difference betwixt them And we may in humble prosecution of the Scriptures Metaphor observe seven Candles in relation to their continuance in this life 1. The first and least size is of those who have life in them but never see light without them 2. The second size is of such who are born into this world but die before the concurrence of their Will with their Judgment and therefore before their possibility of committing Actuall sinne with the Babes of Bethlehem murthered by Herod 3. The third is of those who arrive at an ability of Actuall sinne yet expire before they have attained unto the Perfection of Youth with the Children that mocked the Prophet Elisha 4. The fourth size succeeds of those who are in the height and heat of their Youth the proper subject of our foregoing Sermon 5. The fift is of those who cannot be so foolish and fond in flattering themselves but that they must confesse Youth is past with them though as yet they are not sensible of any decay in Nature These are my Pew-fellowes in age God grant we may beware the Atheisticall inference of those in the 2 Pet. 3. 4. denying the Day of Judgment because all things continue as they were from the beginning of the Creation We are subject to commit the same dangerous mistake in our Microcosme as they did in their great World and to conclude Death will never surprise because we finde not in our selves any evident and eminent diminution of our strength being as able and active as ever we have been in our remembrance 6. The sixt size is of those whose Almond-tree doth flourish though the budding thereof be no signe of Spring but Autumn in them God grant they may understand the summons of Death though at distance listen to and make good use of them 7. The seventh and last size is of such who cannot appear in this place nor