What truer and apter Emblem can you give of him than of a new Ship Lanching out into the Main Ocean without Helm and Ballast or Pilot to Steer her which must needs move uncertainly and at random become the sport of every Wave and be tossed by every Wind till at last it either overset by its own vanity or strike upon some less-heeded Rock and be finally lost beyond all hope of recovery Now Religion would be remedy against all these misfortunes it would cause him to act steddily and enable him to choose wisely and repay him with that Satisfaction to which all the entertainments of sense are a trifle and a dream it would fix him upon things worthy of his care and able to compensate his Labour things becoming his Nature and sutable to so noble a Being and things that instead of wearying him in vain and empty pursuits would repay his Labour with that beyond which nothing of satisfaction can be desired 2. But then it is a stronger Argument to Religion to consider what hurtful mischievous and deadly things Youth is so very apt to pursue if Religion direct it not better It is a sight pittiful enough to behold a poor Child run eagerly over Stocks and sharp Stones and a dangerous Quagmire in the pursuit of a painted Butter-Fly as I intimated before but to see this Child following a speckled Viper and striving to graspe a shining Scorpion that will repay his first touch with a deadly Sting and dart a Poison into his Blood which is infallibly mortal this is a sight at which our hearts would tremble and our Blood presently chill it almost exceeds compassion and no pitty is big enough for it Alas this is but a faint Emblem of Youth pursuing Sensuality and Lust running upon the points of Swords and Daggers wounding it self with such deep and deadly Stabs as nothing but the Balmy Blood of the blessed Jesus can heal and plunging it self into such an abyss of guilt as nothing but the extraordinary yea miraculous love of God can save him out of It is a reflection afflictive enough to consider that sensuality and intemperance and youthful Lusts lay up matter for future diseases and pains of the Body that they poison the Blood stain the Beauty and Complexion weaken the Temper and Constitution antedate Old Age and the infirmities of it and that a vicious Youth is digging his own Grave as fast as he can But Oh! what affliction and sorrow must it needs cause to consider that these provide matter for eternal Torments that they Stab the Soul with Incurable horrour and pain incense the Wrath and Vengeance of an Almighty God and consign both Body and Soul to Hell for Ever What a wounding spectacle is it to see that fair and beautiful creature with which a Cherubin might fall in Love that is the Image and Breath of the great God and so nearly allyed to the blessed Jesus whom Angels guard with joy and the providences of Heaven wait upon which the blessed Spirit of God inspires and for whom all the Glories of Heaven are prepared I say to see this fair Creature transform it self into a Serpent and fall in Love with a foul Toad contract Friendship with Fiends and Devils and yield up it self to the hellish conduct of them take up with the foul and muddy pleasures and entertainments of Beasts and to pass from hence into everlasting burnings Who can think of this without transports of sorrow and grief Or what Eyes can choose but burst out into Tears even of Blood at so sad a prospect Yet this is really the case of that Youth which Religion doth not season and govern it runs headlong upon its own destruction it is a cheap Prey to every silly Temptation betrayed easily into every pittiful Sin and Vice whose appearance though it seem fair yet its latter end is bitterness and its paths inevitably lead down to Hell such a poor creature is contriving his own Damnation making court to Hell and inconsiderately rushing upon those courses which will certainly period in Eternal Flames 3. And yet we have another Argument beyond these and such a one as we may well hope will be the more effectual in that it meets with the common Plea and Objection that is usually made by Young persons against such discourses and that I have hinted before is a presuming upon a great deal of time and putting death far from them imagining that they may have time enough hereafter to regard Religion in and bethink themselves of attending to the precepts of it Against this fancy the 3d. sense in which Youth is said to be vanity will be a good remedy which lets them know that their time of life is no surer than others and that their presuming upon the future is equally groundless They are as subject to the stroak of Death and to the impressions of Diseases to hasten it as any others yea a great deal more especially if they be irreligious and vicious and for this daily observation as I said before is as convictive as demonstration Give me the strongest Constitution among you all or that Youth that thinks himself securest of long life let me but have leave to lead him to the paths of the Dead and beg him to observe what footsteps he sees in the ways that lead to the Chambers of the Grave and then let him tell me if he see not those of his own Complexion and Age and such as might have presumed upon a longer life as well as himself and that upon the same reasons too Or let me beg such an one to look upon this Herse and consider whose Corps we are going to Intomb and then let me desire him to say what he hath to alledg against Death and the possibility of it which this young Gentleman might not have done with as much shew of reason And yet you see all his Pleas have fail'd him Let me therefore beg you to improve this to that purpose of Wisdom that providence intends it learn every one of you to number so his days as now to apply their hearts to Wisdom and every one to entertain himself with this serious meditation that ere long the same case may be my own my turn for any thing I know may be the next and those that now carry out the remains of my Friend to the Grave may presently be called upon to do the same office for mine These thoughts by the help of Gods grace would correct the gayety of your Spirit pull down your vain crests render you serious and thoughtful and convince you that Religion is as absolutely needful for you as it either is or can be for others In these three considerations doth the strength of this Argument consist and were they but duly entertained by young Persons they could scarce fail of having effect upon them in engaging them to a present care after Religion and Holiness which is the end that I have been pursuing in
representing of them 3. And now I proceed to put a Period to this discourse in some practical deductions and inferences from it which is the third and last thing I proposed to perform and three I shall only mention at present 1. First it may let us see how extreamly imprudent those young Persons are that think discourses of this Nature no way proper or needful for them and at what mighty and dangerous rates all such Persons do Act that regard not Religion in their Youth nor take care to govern their lives by the rules and measures of it It is to you that I have been speaking all this while and it is you that this occasion chiefly concerns for Gods sake consider well with your selves whether Religion be not as needful for you as others and whether if God should call for you out of this World as it is more than possible that he may you can hope to be saved without the aids of it Be perswaded therefore I beseech you to take it along with you and to hallow your Youth with a sense and care of it Do not think Religion an Enemy to your mirth and pleasure and delight in this World it is the best expedient to these and the only way to render them pure and real It is no Sad or Melancholy thing nor abridgeth you of any thing that is for your true happiness You may sing rejoyce and be merry God envies you nothing but sin which spoils your joys dasheth your mirth and must sooner or later be sadly accounted for Religion will make you truly cheerful preserve the comfort and delight of your own minds entitle you to Gods good care and blessing in the following course of your Lives it will fit you to live happily and to die comfortably and render you both in life and death certainly blessed 2. This will shew us how mighty careful all Parents and Guardians of Youth ought to be to season them with Religion instil a sense and knowledg of the Principles of it into them betimes and train them up in the ways of it This will be a double blessing to them and the highest instance of love and kindness and a care of them that we can give Nature obligeth us to take care of their outward wellfare and both Nature and Religion require us to take care of their Spiritual and it will be a sad account we shall make at the last Day of our failure herein when their miscarriages shall be charged upon us and their Blood be required at our hands It is our own comfort and gain that calls upon us in this as well as theirs and if we expect to have them comforts and blessings to us while they live or to part with them with any comfort when they are taken from us we should be sure to do all we can for them in this great instance 3. And lastly that all may have some gain by this discourse it may shew us of what mighty concern Religion is to us all and upon what great reasons all of us are obliged to have a due regard and care of it The same reasons of this Text that hold with respect to young Men hold equally with respect to all Men for both Middle-Age and Old Age without Religion are vanity as well as Child-hood and Youth are and as much so too subject to errors and easily imposed upon apt to Idolize the flattering vanities of this World prone to sin and all manner of wickedness and daily under the dominion of Death and incident to the stroak and seizures of it And therefore the same reasons ought to prevail with us that we have thought so very proper for them and it will be a grand shame and mighty guilt and a misery at last equal to both if while we Preach Religion to them we our selves be found regardless of it Then only can we hope with success to recommend Religion unto them when we our selves lead them and go before them in it and then may we hope for Gods blessing upon both here and by his grace and through the merits of our dear Lord to be both finally saved and happy hereafter which God of his Infinite Mercy grant us all to be for Christ Jesus sake to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory and Praise now and for Evermore Amen FINIS Books Sold by Henry Bonwick at the Red-Lyon in St. Paul's Church-Yard THE Righteous Mans Portion a Sermon at the Funeral of the Noble and Renowned Gentleman Henry St. John Esq who was unfortunately killed by the Tories on the 9th of September 1679 together with a short Character of his Life and way and manner of his Death By Laur. Power M. A. sometimes Student in Trinity Colledg now Prebend and Rector of Tandrogee c. The Constant Communicant a Diatribe proving that constancy in receiving the Lords Supper is the indispensable Duty of every Christian The Second Edition to which is added a Sermon Preached at the Anniversary meeting of the Sons of Clergy-Men at St. Mary Le Bow on the 7th of December 1682. By Ar. Bury D. D. Rector of Exon. Coll. Oxon.
THE IMPORTANCE OF RELIGION TO Young Persons Represented in a SERMON Preached at the Funeral of Sir Thomas Vinor Baronet in St. Hellens Church London May the 3d. 1683. By Hen. Hesketh Vicar of St. Hellens and Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty LONDON Printed by H. Hills Jun. for Henry Bonwicke at the Red-Lyon in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1683. To the Honoured Sir John Lawrence Knight and Alderman of London Honoured Sir I here Present you with what you were pleased to call for at my hands a Copy of that Discourse that was made at your Grand-Childs Funeral which you were pleased so kindly to accept at the hearing as to desire a more leisurely perusal of it This is now the Third time that I have been called to do you Service in these sad occasions and Death hath made so many violent Inroads upon your Family in a short space I Pray God Almighty Sanctifie these sad Occurences to you and to all that relate to you and teach you to improve them to those purposes of Wisdom that he intends them If this poor Discourse may do you any Service to this purpose I shall have good cause to rejoyce What ever it is I present it to you in such a hope if you have a design to make it publick as you seem to intimate you must be pleased to stand accountable for the imperfections of it for I have no further concern for it than to have it accepted as Testimony of thankfulness for those great kindnesses you have been pleased upon all occasions to express towards Honoured Sir Your most obliged and most Humble Servant Henry Hesketh May the 8th 1683. Ecclesiastes 11.10 Therefore remove Sorrow from thy Heart and put away Evil from thy Flesh for Child-hood and Youth are Vanity WE are come together Honorable and Beloved at this time to pay our last respects to the Memory of a Young deceased Gentleman in whom Parentage and Honour Estate and Parts Beauty and Comliness Youth and Temper combined to have rendred him a great Man and had God so pleased one that might have done good service in his Generation But it is otherwise determined above and the Thread of his Life is cut off his Relations you see are willing to commit the Earthly remains of him to the Grave with that respect and those Testimonies of Honour and Kindness that the custom of this City hath made becoming Persons of his Rank and Quality And what is Incumbent now on me is to strive to Improve this sad providence to your good to render you more than formal Mourners and customary Spectators of these Funeral Solemnities There can scarce be a time in which we may promise our selves more success in our Ghostly Counsels and Advice than such as this For Death and the apprehensions of it usually render Men serious and make way for those reflections and thoughts which the Hurries of business the entertainments of sense and the gayeties of the world indispose them for and lock up their minds against the entertainment of This is the great reason why the Funerals of the Dead are usually attended with some exhortations to the Living And I think we may take good occasion to magnifie the great care and wisdom of the Church in it in advantaging such very necessary Counsels with such very fair and promising opportunities This is my present Province and the Task imposed on me at this time which that I might discharge with some service and success to you I have been desired to suit my discourse to those especially that stand upon the same Level and in the same great circumstances of Age with this Young departed Gentleman and to address to them in some such way as might be most suitable to their needs and this occasion And I have not been able to find out a place of Scripture that seems to me better to answer these purposes than these words of Solomon now read to you which are directly addressed to Young Persons as is plain in themselves and from the Verse which precedes and that which follows the Text Remove sorrow from thy Heart and put away evil from thy Flesh for Child-hood and Youth are Vanity In which words without spending time in any further recommending the Parentage Honour Estate Parts Beauty or Comliness of the Person Deceased there are two things I shall observe to you 1. An Exhortation and advice in these words Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart and put away evil from thy Flesh 2. An argument or reason to inforce the compliance with it in these for Child-hood and Youth are Vanity 1. The first of these I intend no further to insist upon than only to give you the true sense and meaning of it for the second is that I chiefly purpose to make the Subject of the following discourse The advice seems to consist of three parts remove Sorrow from thy heart and put away Evil from thy Flesh but they are either of the same Import and only doubled like Pharaohs Dream to make the deeper Impression or one is added as an Exegesis and Explication of the other or both are expressed to make the sense of them fully comprehensive of what the Wise Man intended by them The thing plainly intended in them is true Religion and that practice or great instance of it which is most suitable and becoming Youth and the expressions are common Periphrases of both these in the Scriptures For by sorrow here is meant any manner of sin any instance of wickedness by which Men bring evil and sorrow upon themselves the Effect here being put for the Cause as by a Metonymy very common in Scripture it is in other places Most of the Translations that I have seen instead of sorrow read anger Put away anger from thy heart by which they either mean all those irregular sensual Passions to which Youth is so very subject of which anger is the most raging and impetuous and that which commonly betrays and hurries them without great care into many evils and Mischiefs or they mean indifferently any Sin or Vice by which they anger and provoke God and fall under his displeasure and the sad Effects of it And putting away evil from the Flesh is a common expression in Scripture in which the Flesh is almost always used in an ill sense for the depraved part in man and for all those sensual Lusts and Inclinations seated in it that hurry and betray Inconsiderate men into sin and in the irregular indulgence of which most of the prohibited instances of vice consist So that putting away evil from the flesh must signifie what the Apostle means by cleansing our selves from all filthiness of the flesh 2 Cor. 7.1 i. e. freeing our selves from the power of all fleshly Lusts and as our Church in her Catechism very well expresseth it and to the Capacity of those that I am now speaking chiefly unto the keeping our Bodies in Temperance Soberness and Chastity In short by sorrow in the
that Sin however pleasant it seems in it's present appearance yet is really afflictive and sad in the Tryal and Issue just as the Caresses of an Harlot are Inviting and Charming at first but deadly as the Sting of a Serpent and destructive as the Embraces of Death at the latter end And Wicked Men are therefore called Vain and Foolish because they are cheated by the Appearance and Deceitfulness of Sin as the Apostle speaks and made to expect a great deal of Happiness and Delight when alas the Dead are there and its Paths lead down unto Hell 3. Vanity is often used to express that which is fleeting and uncertain and soon fadeth or passeth away thus all Flesh is called Vanity and compared to the Flower of the Field Man is called Vanity because subject still to the Stroak of Death and of no fixed continuance The Glory of the World and the Possessions of it are called Vanity and often said to be Vain because so subject to decay The Happiness and Prosperity of wicked Men is called Vanity because they stand in slippery places and Riches are called Vain because so Volatile and Uncertain and because they make themselves Wings and Flye away Now Youth is called Vanity in all these respects 1. For its prosecution of Vain and deceitful things its judgment is not Ripe nor hath its reason attained to any consistency it is easily imposed upon by shews and appearances it sees but the outside of things is easily captivated and charmed with flattering and guilded Pretences and Frauds and Cheats are easily put upon them This is one great reason why its Temper and Inclinations are so desultory and uncertain now hot in the pursuit of one Vanity and presently another now its Hawk and then its Hound and after these its Horse or its Mistress Ingross its respects because it fixeth only by chance and uncertain contingences and as these wild reasons alter its Choice and Affection varies too Or because it is soon cloyed with any one of these and finds not that satisfaction that it expected it therefore beats for new and rangeth over the whole Periphery because none satisfieth its expectations 2. It is called Vanity upon a Second and worse account of Vanity because it is subject to many Sensual Lusts that hurry and betray it into Sin and Wickedness and drown Men in Perdition as the Apostle Speaks The inclinations of Sense are Strong and Rampant the Powers of Reason and Understanding weak and small not able to see into the Truth of things nor to bridle those impetuous Lusts that are so easily Fired and Captivated by any thing that promiseth present gratification for this cause you have mention of Youthful Lusts 2 Tim. 2.22 i e. such as that Age is especially incident unto 3. Youth is called Vanity upon the last reason also i. e. because it is frail and of uncertain continuance and Young Men as subject to the Stroak and Seizures of Death as any others nay indeed a great deal more and had we not reason for the Truth of this assertion yet we might easily vouch certain and dayly experience for it I am too Sensible how apt Young Persons are to think otherwise and venture to act upon such Wild Conceits they Imagine they have the World before them and a great deal of Time that they may presume upon but had they either reason to judge of things or would give themselves leisure to make any due observations they would soon see the Vanity and Hazard of this Fancy Alas their Tempers and Constitutions are tender and not yet come to any firm consistency frail and soon broken as the Fine Glass and a thousand times more subject to any External Impressions then when their Tempers are Hardened and their Bodies Setled the Early Bud and the new Blown Flower is Ten times more Incident to every Blast and Storm than the well Grown Branch every little Frost Nips and Spoils the Beauty of the one while the other can stand the shock of Winter and defie the rude and Cold salutes of the Northern Snows And would Young Persons but look abroad and take account of those that Pass to the Regions of the Dead they would find there were as much difference in the Numbers of the Young and old as they see there is between the Blossoms and the Ripe Fruit there being Thousands of the one that fall to the Ground for one of the other that is gathered into the Basket We see but a very few Hoary Heads and in this Age of Luxury and Intemperance are like every day to see fewer and therefore may without any great help of Logick infer that multitudes of Persons die young These are the reasons now upon which Youth is especially called Vanity and what strength there is in these to engage young Persons to Religion and a great regard to it 2. Is the second thing proposed in which I shall endeavour with all possible plainness and convenient brevity to Improve this Argument and perswade Youth to a great sense and due care of Religion which is the design to which the Wiseman useth it in this place 1. And first it is one good Argument to engage such to Religion to consider what Idle Vain Impertinent things they will else be still in the pursuit of Their busie Heads and active Thoughts will still be set upon something their Spirits are volatile and still upon the wing and some project or other they will always be upon and if Religion do not in some good degree season their minds and give measures to their regards and care Lord how silly how restless and distracted will their pursuits still be What Trifles and Vanities will their care be expended upon And what a nothing will be the purchase of all their Labour We pitty the Innocence of a poor Child that takes such Pains to gather a Rush and Sweats in the pursuit of a silly Butter-Flie and is it not much greater pitty to see a comely Youth of hopeful parts and very promising capacities waste his time and strength in the pursuit of things that are every whit as Vain only not half so Innocent Things that not only Answer not his Pains but sadly illude them put him only upon the Rack of new acquists and pursuits instead of compensating his past Labours Is it not a Melancholy sight to behold Beauty and Parts a blooming Vigour and Strength and a Person worthy of the care of Angels to prosecute with so much earnestness that which satisfieth not to court Vanities which still flie from him and turn Idolater to an empty Cloud wearying himself in hunting for satisfaction in the wrong place and pursuing that which repay's him with continual disappointment Oh! what great pitty is it that such Industry should not be better directed and better rewarded Will you think how lamentably hazardous the condition of that Youth is that is setting out into a wide and hazardous World without the conduct of Religion