Torments what bitter Scoffs and Reproaches he endured to rescue and free you from the bondage of sin and of the Devil Remember you are brought with a price with the precious bloud of the immaculate Lamb. Remember you were bought to be his peculiar people and bought that you should be your own no more that you should not live to your selves but to him that bought you at the expence of his Bloud and Labour Remember he bled for you Remember he laid down his life for you Remember greater love can no man shew than that he lay down his life for his friends Remember he died for you when you were enemies Remember he thought nothing too good for you Remember who it was that did all this for you even the King of Kings the Lord of Lords the eternal Son of God that could have glorified himself in your endless misery but would no and to let you see the exceeding riches of his Grace humbled himself to the death of the Cross that the astonishing Mercy might work in you a loathing of every weight and every sin which doth so easily beset you Can you remember all this and feel no resolutions within to shew forth the Praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light Can you remember all this and forbear crying out with the Apostle I count all things dross and dung for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord Fifthly Would we know how we may lay a foundation for a long and healthy life The principle here laid down is it Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth In youth we commonly lay the Foundation of future Diseases which shorten our days and fill our lives with various Distempers and while people trespass upon the vigour of their Age and offer violence to Nature when young they consider not how by this means they give death an opportunity to enter and the bloud in that age is commonly so corrupted that all the Medicines afterward cannot abolish the corruption or eradicate it out of the Bowels This early remembrance of God will help to restrain that extravagance and as it contributes to the soundness of the Body so it cannot but be an excellent preparative for the long continuance of it Set aside some distracted persons the desire and endeavour of mankind is to live long To this end they use Preventives Preservatives Catharticks Diureticks Emeticks Restoratives shun all things that they apprehend noxious and hearken to every little story that directs them how to free themselves from too early approaches of fullen death that King of Terrours Indeed under violent Pain or extream Poverty or intolerable Disgrace some do wish for death but that 's only a sudden passion caus'd by the present pressing misfortune but if that were once over they would be content with the Collier in the Fable to carry their burthen even the burthen of their flesh about them a little longer We are told of strange endeavours used in India by the Pagan Kings and the Grandees in their Courts to prolong life Some do even spend their Patrimonies to find out the Vniversal Medicine and an Antidote against death some with Pearls dissolved in the purest Dew of Heaven seek to lengthen out our days but this remembering our Creator in the days of our youth will do more than all Drugs and Medicines more than all the Cordials and Julips in the world and whatever either the Wisdom or Folly of man hath invented to procure longevity It 's evident that by this remembring our Creator is meant nothing but the Fear of God for thus Solomon explains himself v. 13. of this Chapter where to reinforce the admonition v. 1. he onely changes the Phrase but means the same thing Fear God and keep his commandments for that 's the whole duty of man and to assure us that this early remembrance of God in the way to long life he adds Prov. 10.27 The fear of the Lord prolongs days But because this truth is believed but by very few it will not be amiss to give such demonstrations of it as may convince any rational man of the weight and moment of it And 1. The Duties Religion enjoyns if seriously and conscientiously practised tend to health and prolongation of life as will appear from an induction of particulars Religion enjoyns Temperance in eating and drinking and all the world agrees in this that Temperance is not onely the best Physick but the best Physician too Gluttony and Drunkenness and Excesses in meat and drink are fruitful Parents of Diseases and how men do thereby precipitate themselves into Gouts Dropsies Surfeits Fevers c which are great promoters of an early death none can be supposed ignorant Religion forbids all extravagant Passions which being let loose hugely debilitate Nature It enjoyns Meekness Patience Contentedness and a reasonable service and where the Passions are kept in good order in all likelihood the temper and frame of the body will be preserved in health and a sweet and admirable harmony From letting the Passions run beyond their just bounds and limits innumerable mischiefs flow some by immoderate inordinate love have kill'd themselves others by inordinate Anger have fallen into Epilepsies Some by immoderate grief consume the marrow in their bones and History tells us of several such as Leo X Pope of Rome and some Roman Ladies that have in fits of immoderate laughter expired and given up the ghost Religion forbids all anxious and tormenting cares and carkings great enemies certainly to health and life for they not only make the Bloud stagnate clog the Spirits hinder a free circulation but too often have been and are the causes of mens laying violent hands upon themselves This administers Ingredients which make up a good Conscience and that 's a perpetual Feast It bids us rejoyce in the Lord always and a constant cheerfulness cannot but be a very great preservative of health and the vital flame within It forbids all Fornication Adultery Lasciousness and exorbitant Lusts prescribes the modest and moderate use of Marriage or commends perpetual Virginity all which is very conducive to health and longevity and this we need not doubt of when we see men who give themselves liberty in hankering after strange Flesh what work they make for Surgeons and Physicians how they poison their Bloud and are so many walking Graves Religion prescribes frequent Fasting and Abstinence and how beneficial this is to health and a long vigorous life The examples of the ancient Hermits and since their time of other religious men are ample testimonies Simeon Stylites by this means arrived to the age of 109. Anthony the Great to 105. Paul the first Ascetick to 103. Arsenius to 120. Venerable Bede to 92. Remigius the famous Archbishop of Rhemes who enjoy'd his Bishoprick 70 years which is more I think than can be said of any man in publick Office for a thousand years to 96. Epiphanius
Imprimatur C. Alston R. P. D. Hen. Episc. Lond. à sacris Domesticis THE First Fruits OF REASON OR A DISCOURSE Shewing The Necessity of applying our selves betimes to the serious Practice of Religion By Anthony Horneck D. D. Preacher at the Savoy LONDON Printed by F. Collins for D. Brown at the Black Swan and Bible without Temple-bar and are to be sold by John Weld at the Crown between the Temple-gates in Fleet-street 1686. THE PREFACE TO THE READER THE following Discourse was occasioned by a young Man's being unfortunately kill'd in Bartholomew Fair whose Friends led partly by natural Affection partly by love to the young Mans Vertues were pleas'd to desire me to preach a Sermon at his Funeral and because they would thereby be serviceable to the living and more especially to men of the same age with the Deceased entreated me to pitch upon the Text which appears in the front of the ensuing Treatise Having gratified their desire in that particular they gave me some Motives and Arguments to publish it which I could not well resist But the Discourse as it was deliver'd at St. Sepulchres Church on the 20 of September being too short to make any thing like a Book of it I resolved upon second thoughts to enlarge it and with these enlargements additions it comes now abroad though in an age so fertile of excellent Sermons I might be discouraged from adding any of mine own yet since every man in his station is bound to contribute to the common Interest of Religion having this opportunity I was willing to embrace it because it 's possible that some or other who lights upon these Papers may think of the Contents and by the assistance of the divine Spirit be perswaded early to consecrate himself to unfeigned and impartial Devotion The great debauchery and looseness of the Youth of this Age is enough to oblige us and a sufficient call to do all we can to stem the floud of Impiety which rages so much in the younger sort and proves too often the occasion both of their temporal and eternal ruine All I shall add is this to entreat the Reader to become a Supplicant with me at the Throne of Grace that both this and other mens endeavors of this kind may prove effectual to recal both young and old from the errours of their ways and that God as it is our Liturgy would shortly accomplish the number of his Elect that we with all those who are departed in the true Faith may have our perfect consummation and bliss in his Eternal and Everlasting Glory THE First Fruits of Reason ECCLES 12.1 Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth THis Book of Ecclesiastes is generally looked upon as Solomon's recantation Sermon in which he renounces his former Follies and having seen the vanity of the world and the pleasures of it like a man come to himself again aspires to nobler delights and after a woful fall lifts up his sinking head and beholds and re-embraceth the true and glorious liberty of Gods Children Curiosity had led him not onely into a search of Nature but into that of Sin and Impiety too and while Greatness and Riches and a sawning Court flattered him with power to do what he pleased he at once forgot the baseness of his slavery and over-looked the heinousness of his Iniquity As if it had been too mean for a Soveraign Prince to commit puny sins he transgressed above the ordinary rate of Mortals and if it be true what the Jewish Rabbins say that his inquisitive humour made him even venture upon the mystery of the black art it 's like that together with his fondness of Heathenish Women enticed him to Idolatry If this Book be his penitential Monument we may believe his Repentance was great and signal and that after this his Cloathing was Sackloth and he mingled his drink with weeping Sins of a deep dye require profound Contrition and it is impossible to be truly sensible of monstrous and unparalell'd Ingratitude and not to express that sence by very visible and eminent Humiliations One great Character of true Repentance is a hearty endeavour after the Conversion of others and this excellent sign we find in this Convert or returning Prodigal For not to mention the Counsel he gives to all degrees of men in the foregoing Chapters in that before us his kindly Calls and Admonitions to young men speak a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Koheleth or a Soul earnestly desirous to gather all men into the Sheepfold of Grace and Mercy And of these Calls that in my Text is not the least Remember now thy Creator in thy days of thy youth By way of Explication I shall only tell you First That what we render here in the days of thy youth is in the Original in the days of thy Choice So youth is called 1. Because in that Age man chuseth his Employment and when he first enters upon the Stage of the World after he comes from under Tutors and Governours he determines what Calling or Profession he shall take to 2. Because in that Age particularly when Reason exerts its full strength God sets the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil before us Heaven and Earth Paradise and the World Righteousness and Sin Life and Death and leaves us to our choice according to which our portion and reward will be when the Soul appears before Gods dread Tribunal Secondly As our youth is the Age wherein a Choice must needs be made so the Wiseman here bids us chuse remembring our Creator Which the Chaldee Paraphrast expounds Remember thy Creator so as to glorifie him in the days of thy youth which Paraphrase is so sound that we need not search out for another interpretation for as the serious practice of Religion is meant by that Remembrance so that practice is in a manner nothing else but glorifying God in our Souls and Bodies called so by the Apostle 1 Cor. 6.20 And Herein is my father glorified that ye bear much fruit saith our Saviour Joh. 15.8 Nor need we wonder how God can be glorified by Fruits of righteousness that we bring forth For as these point at the Sun which warms them into being or at God by whose Word and Power and Influence they grow and ripen and come to perfection so they proclaim the glory of his Grace and discover how kind how merciful how bountiful and how liberal that Supreme Being is in bestowing such gifts on men gifts which Nature cannot confer nor Angels distribute nor the greatest Monarchs impart to their Favorites And hereby the happy person whose life bears such Fruits is encouraged to glorifie the spring and Fountain of them Others also that see them and receive comfort or benefit by them cannot but adore and admire the Divine Goodness which is pleased to display its glory in such communications of his Holiness and as Angels rejoyce at a sinners Conversion here on
Restoratives God surely cannot be pleased with it He protests against thy refusal He complains of it he sees the wrong thou dost to thy Soul and seems even at a loss for a reason why thou wilt do so He that puts thee upon the neglect of this early and serious remembrance of thy God and Creator he it is that rejoyces at it His Agents thy evil Companions may rejoyce at it men as senseless as thy self may rejoyce at it but Angels mourn and all good men grieve to see thee so obstinate The Devil onely takes delight in it It doth him good to think that the number of his Infernal Companions will be encreased by thy company He lays Snares for thy Soul and is glad when thou art taken His envy is gratified to see thee averse from this early Fear of God He was afraid thou wouldest chuse the Wisdom which is from above and to see thee chuse that which is earthly and sensual that 's it which is some ease to him in his torments Why wilt thou be worse than other Creatures All other Creatures betimes prosecute the end for which they are created and wilt thou alone forget the end for which thou camest into the world The end for which thou wert created was to seek the things which are above and wilt thou directly contrary to that design and in that age too which is most proper to do it in like a Beast seek the things which are below Sure thou must take God to be some strangely tame and easie Deity that can see thee cross his Designs reverse his Intentions and walk opposite to the scope of all his wonderful Works and set thy self against his Purposes in thy Creation and sit down quietly under these abuses Thou believest some persons in the world why shouldest not thou believe good men who have tried this early remembrance of God found the greatest comfort and the strongest support in it and can testifie by experience that nothing is so beneficial so pleasant or so useful as an early self-denial such men are too honest to deceive thee they dread lying as thou dost the severities of Religion and they would not for a world assert and affirm these things but that they know these ways to be ways of pleasantness and these Paths end in peace Indeed that 's the happy Exit of these ways and when so many thousand wise men have said and do say so O Remember them which have spoken to you in the Name of the Lord whose faith follow knowing the end of their conversation Eighthly Our Remembring our Creator here is the way to have God remember us hereafter It is not with him as with Pharaoh's Butler who being lifted up to his former place forgot what Joseph had done for him His turn was serv'd and the others kindness signified nothing to him now God remembers what hath been done here for his Honour and Glory and this Remembrance he will at last express in rewards suitable to his Greatness and Majesty Darius before he sat on the Throne of his Ancestors had received a Garment as a Present from Syloson He remembred it when he was King and made him Governour of Samus Thus God will remember our remembrance of him here Not that we ascribe gratitude to God which would suppose him indebted to man a thing impossible For Who hath first given to him and it shall be recompensed to him again Rom. 11.35 but his remembrance of our Services is gratuitous He remembers them not because they deserve it but because he will not that they merit it but that he is pleased to do so It is not their worth but his goodness not their intrinsick value but his abundant Mercy that moves him to this remembrance The last day the great day of Judgement is that day of remembrance and even a cup of cold water given to a Disciple in the name of a Disciple shall be remembred then Matth. 10.42 Rejoyce Christians for God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love which ye have shew'd toward his Name in that ye have ministred to the Saints and do minister Heb. 6.10 Your Tears your Prayers your Alms your Feeding the Hungry your Clothing the Naked your Visiting the Sick your going to Prisoners will all be remembred one day not one of these works shall be forgotten God sets them down in his Book and they shall be proclaimed in the last day The Chronicles shall be open'd and the faithful Mordecai shall be remembred though for many years his good works have lain dormant yet at last they shall be brought forth as the light and his Righteousness as the noon day There is nothing that Christ seems to remember in the last day more effectually than our bounty to the poor and needy and the way and manner of his remembring it is lofty and great Come ye blessed of my Father receive the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world Matth. 25.34 He remembers our Charity here if it be great and signal and from a cheerful heart For the liberal Soul shall be made fat and he that scatters in a charitable way increases and of this experience is a sufficient witness so that it may well be said that Alms-giving is the gainfullest art and the right course to thrive But after death God remembers it more solemnly I shall not lay any great stress here upon the Examples of Stephen King of Hungary and Oswald sometime King of England of whom it is reported that their Right hands after after their death never putrified but while the rest of their Bodies mouldred into dust this part was preserved sound and entire because in their life-time they had made much use of their Right hand in bestowing their Goods on the indigent These may be reckoned among Gods miraculous Providences which though they appear but seldom yet may serve to confirm our Faith of Gods remembring hereafter what we do here for the houshold of Faith Of this nature is the famous story of Euagrius recorded by credible Witnesses This Heathen Philosopher being a great acquaintance of Synesius Bishop of Cyrene the Bishop frequently argued with him about the truth of the Christian Religion and was often at him to receive Baptism but all in vain One day the Bishop being very earnest with him to use no further delays or excuses the Philosopher told him there were several things in the Christian Religion which his reason could never digest and among the rest these two That men shall rise at last with the same Bodies that they carried about them here on earth And that what a man gives to the poor here God will repay it him in the other world The Bishop told him that all this was very true and that they had all the reason in the world to believe it insomuch that what with the Bishops confidence and what with the Arguments he used the Philosopher at last was perswaded to
good men to wonder at the strangeness of the Dispensation But when we see a good Prophet killed by a Lion for a meer mistake as it appears to us and Josiah an excellent Prince slain in battle for a rash act and an Vzzah struck dead upon the spot for stretching forth his hand to uphold the tottering Ark all admirable men and whose Salvation we do not question we need not wonder that Providence hath permitted a Murther to be committed upon this innocent person for as in the aforesaid examples their violent death was onely a temporal affliction such as sicknesses and other Diseases are so the accident in our deceased Friend was of the same nature and such calamities in good men do but help and advance them the sooner to their everlasting harbour And yet I cannot altogether excuse our Brother here departed For as the Murther was acted in a publick Fair where great disorders rudenesses and insolencies are committed and excesses and vain Shews are all the entertainment so it 's probable and I fear that when he went to this place he ventured into one which he had no lawful call to be at The Primitive Bishops and Christians were very much against such vain and foolish Shews and forbid their Disciples to frequent them and as Peter fell by going into the High Priests Hall so it might be very just with God to let so sad a Providence befal our deceased Friend to give warning to other good men to keep ever in Gods ways that they may be confident of the Angels bearing them up in their hands lest they dash their foot against a stone But though there might be inadvertency and infirmity in our deceased Brothers going to a place he had nothing to do at to be sure it was onely a single act not a habit of juvenile vanity and though he was thereby deprived of the farther comforts of this Life yet that can be no impediment to his enjoyment of a better for God judges of us not by an accidental incogitancy but by the stream and current of our lives His mortal wounds though procured and caused by very bad instruments yet did not put him into a rage and passion but he freely forgave his Murtherers and like St. Steven pray'd that God would not lay this sin to their charge and when he had said so he fell asleep His death is a Sermon to us all and though he be dead yet he calls to us in Christ's language Watch therefore for ye know not when your Lord comes whether in the evening or at midnight or at cock crowing and what I say unto you I say unto all watch THE PRAYER GReat Glorious and Incomprehensible God! with thee is terrible Majesty touching thy Essence we cannot find it out thou art excellent in Power in Judgement and in plenty of Justice Thy ways are always equal and the most piercing as well as envious eye can spy no fault in thy proceedings Thou art infinitely pure and holy and the Light thou art deckt withal admits no spots no variableness no shadow of turning Thou art the most worthy Object for my thoughts and memory to fix upon Thou deservest to be remembred in all the actions of my life And to forget thee without whom I cannot breathe is an Indignity I cannot answer I have too long pass'd by thee as if I had no relation to thee I have been able to remember a frivolous story of my Neighbour and my memory hath serv'd me well enough to preserve a wrong or injury done to my Name and Person but thy loving kindnesses and gracious Providences and what ever concerns my everlasting welfare I have suffered to slip out of my mind How many years have I spent in the world without any serious thoughts of the great mystery of Godliness Thou hast given me Line upon Line and Precept upon Precept and how like water have I suffer'd them to be spilt on the ground I have looked upon my remembring thee as a thing indifferent which I might observe or neglect at my pleasure I have lived thou knowest as if the world had been the onely object of my hopes and desires my best and golden days how have I squandred them away as if they were things too precious to be consecrated to thy service How vain hath my mind been How hath it ranged and roved and fluttered up and down among the contents and comforts of this present life How greedily hath it applied it self to these fading Flowers and thought that here lay all the sweetness I could hope for How late do I begin to love thee How late do I begin to be wise Had I improved the Talents thou hast given me betimes assoon as I was capable to understand what Religion and an everlasting interest meant what good might I have done How many might I have drawn by my example to thy pleasant ways How great a portion of thy love and favour have I lost and how much earlier might I have enjoyed the influences of thy Charity How justly mightest thou have doomed me to a reprobate mind or struck me dead in my vanities I remember Lord how thou hast called and I have refused how thou hast stretched forth thy hands unto me and I have not regarded How justly mightest thou laugh now at my calamity and mock when my fear comes when my fear comes as desolation and my destruction like a Whirlwind But O my God in the midst of thine anger remember Mercy Remember O Lord thy tender Mercies and thy loving Kindnesses for they have been ever of old Remember not the sins of my youth nor my Transgressions according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness sake O Lord Good and upright is the Lord therefore will he teach sinners in the way O my God! I am dull I am ignorant I have stood in the way of sinners O teach thou me teach me to remember thee at my lying down and mine uprising Teach me to remember thee in my going out and in my coming in Let thy remembrance for the future be very sweet to me and let me never think of thee but with pleasure and delight Let me forget what is behind me and put me always in mind of the recompense that is before me Call not my sins to remembrance and as for my transgressions forget them and cast them behind thy back Teach me to remember what thou hast done for me and make that remembrance powerful to engage me to gratitude and obedience In death there is no remembrance of thee and who will give thee thanks in the Grave The living the living they shall praise thee O let my life be a continual remembrance of thee Morning Evening and at Noon let me remember thee and in the Night let my song be of thee who art the God of my Salvation Let me remember thy love and how thou hast humbled thy self for my sake I am apt to forget thee O refresh thou my memory with a sense of thy goodness and when the world would drive any serious thoughts out of my mind keep them in O Lord by thy mighty power and make them agreeable to my Memory and Vnderstanding Remember how frail I am and uphold me with thy free Spirit Forget me not O my God though I have forgotten thee Deal not with me according to mine iniquities neither reward me according to my transgressions Remember thy promise unto the penitent and how graciously thou hast offered Pardon and Salvation to those that turn from their evil ways O God it is the desire of my Soul and the real purpose of my Heart to turn to thee to seek thy face to walk in thy ways and to bid farewel to all the sinful Pleasures of this life Put me in mind of all the Motives and Arguments thou hast given me to make my Calling and Election sure When they wear out in my Mind write them there afresh and renew them still that being ever before me they may lead me to thy holy Hill O bring to my remembrance every Precept and every Duty I am to perform and when ever I am to perform any say unto me call to me This is the way walk in it and turn neither to the right nor to the left then shall I praise thee with joyful Lips and give thanks at the remembrance of thy Holiness through Jesus Christ our Lord to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be all honour and glory for ever and ever Amen FINIS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vid. Mosch prat Spir. c. 195. Damasc. Hist. Barl. Jos.