It is not bad enough to have these horrors and perplexities for sinnes and punishments He was no swearer no whoremonger no thiefe no scoffer at Religion no perjured wretch no wilfull lyar no proud and sâ—rley resister of good counsell and reproofe like too many other young-men now a dayes yet when conscience is awaked and sits as a Iudge on him Onely for drunkennesse neglect of mens bodyes and neglect of Prayer Word and Sacrament he passeth this heavie doome upon himselfe I must bee burned in the furnace of Hell millions of millions of ages and at the last in idlenesse of thoughts and talke he ends his miserable life This is your example which he intreated me to lay before you that ye may be warned by it to keepe you from Hell The living God present it as a powerfull example to your Consciences that it may work that good which this miserable young man wished And that it may the more prevaile ye shall have a rule now as well as an example shewing the misery and horrour of a wicked life from this proverbe The way of the wicked is as darkenesse they know not at what they stumble Salomon had pressed in many words because all words were not enough all Young-men in his sonne to avoide the needlesse and vaine society of wicked men Enter not into the path of the wicked and goe not into the way of evill men Art thou allured Avoide it Is the way delightfull Passe not by it Doth thy way lye that way Turne from it Art thou call'd in whithersoever thou goest Passe away This exhortation being thus pressed with words is further urged by reasons First from the persons and states of wicked men They sleepe not except they have done mischiefe themselves or made others to doe it for how can they when they eate the iron bread of wickednesse and the Sodome Wine of violence This breeds no sweete flegme to binde up the senses Secondly hee urgeth it from the course of wicked men which he sets downe comparatively with the godly The path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more to the perfect day The descent of grace is from heaven as the light shineth the degrees of grace are not all attained unto at the first but more and more but the prosperitie of grace where it is nourished by a godly life is not to goe out to the perfect day Therefore it is excellent to be in society with the godly But for the course of wicked men 1. It is as darkenesse there is the danger of it 2. They know not at what they stumble there is the signe of it In this course of wicked men there are two propositions which I shall labour to open and apply unto you First That the way of the wicked is darkenesse That ye may conceive this I shall open unto you thorow GODS helpe foure points 1. What is the way of the wicked 2. How is it darknesse 3. How it comes to be so and 4. Why it is darknesse 1. The way of the wicked is the whole course of a wicked man to death and Hell David saith The way of the wicked shall perish that is his thoughts words deeds wherin he pleaseth himselfe till at last he sees and feeles the empty vanity of them when the comfort of them leaves him and he fall into hell 2. This way of the wicked is darknesse by an absence of that first light which GOD gave to sinlesse and obedient man Before man had sinned hee had the light of knowledge the light of grace and the light of comfort He could fully and fairely see what was fit for a creature to keepe him in perpetuall communion and fellowship with GOD. He had the beames of GODS grace in him and about him keeping out the darkenesse of sin He had sweet comfort in the injoyment of GOD and himselfe and in the best possession and use of all the Creatures But when hee fell from the Principles of Life the Lord and his Law he quickly was overwhelmed with the darkenesse of ignorance the darkenesse of sin and the darknesse of misery Our blessed Saviour came to give light to them that sit in darkenesse and in the shadow of death and to guide our feet into the way of Peace the light of knowledge That they that see not might see the light of grace that they that follow him might not walke in darkenesse but have the light of life And the light of comfort that he might give beauty for ashes the oyle of joy for mourning and the garment of gladnesse for the spirit of heavinesse All wicked men that misse this that are in hunting with Esau while this blessing is given following the luxurious courses of the world in wickednesse while CHRIST brings life and immortality to light by the Gospell doe fall into darkenesse darknesse darknesse Because they loved darknesse rather than light therefore their cogitations are darkened through ignorance their foolish hearts are full of darknesse they looke to the earth and behold darkenesse and sorrow they fall to the darkenesse of horrour for there is no peace to the wicked saith my GOD they goe downe to the place of darkenesse and the horrible pit shuts her mouth upon them O woe unto them they have rewarded evill unto their soules 3. But how doth the wicked mans way become to bee darknesse As outward darknesse doth grow upon men three wayes so doth this First naturally by some defect in naturall generation So there being a naturall defect now in mans propagation through sin he brings forth blind Whelps Though more or lesse for naturall excellency man bee not borne blinde yet for morrall rectitude to improve his understanding to the best advantage for his happines in Gods way hee is darkenesse Secondly actually by too much gazing on the excelling sensibles of the world or by too much heate or cold which checke or chill the spirits So when wicked men doe too much gaze upon the deceitfull glories and pleasures of the World when they are cold in Religion or religious duties and doe hotly pursue the pleasing vanities of this life they become clouded in the thicke smoake of darkenesse This blinded that rich foole from securing his soule and Zaccheus before his conversion from going the right way to heaven For they that will bee rich fall into temptations and snares and into many foolish and hurtfull lusts which drowne men in perdition and destruction Thirdly penally when it is inflicted as a punishment as when Zedechias his eyes were pulled out as a just punishment upon his wicked life so when GOD sees the courses of men to be foule and detestable contrary to the light of the word and checke of Conscience which he hath given them then GOD justly shuts their eyes stoppes their eares and takes away the
a thousand miseries Gowts Consumption Fevers Stone Strangury death are the portions of this worlds wantons And when that goes from us or we from that it gives a bitter farewell to the lovers of it Though a man live many dayes â—â—t let him remember the dayes of darknesse which will come first or last and then farewell profit farewell pleasure farewell honour the white sticke must be broken worldly comforts must vanish and if yee have not built your nest in the Rocke Christ the wind will take you the world will spew you out and whither then Doe they stumble at the offence of their companions It is at they know not what stil Call for them all whom you are loth now to offend in pleasing GOD and what can they doe As the Winter brookes they passe away faith Iob. Are they touched for sinne They will bee glad to bee rid of them away from mee yee wicked I will keep the Commandements of my GOD. Doth the wrath of GOD come They can say alas my brother alas his glory but as the wrath of man cannot accomplish the righteousnesse of GOD so nor the power of man can stand with comfort against the wrath of GOD. Doth poverty come as an armed man A worldly friend will help once a godlie friend will helpe twice but daily to hang upon the pockets and purse-strings of others is like a curst wife a continuall dropping away with such a like fellow from off the earth the land is not able to beare such a loathsome guest Doth death come with this Iron Law You must goe and make your bed in darkenesse where they must say to corruption thou art my mother to the Worme thou art my brother and sister Where are their companions now One stands by and weepes but cannot helpe another would come but feares the flashes of reproofe for godlesse courses but let them all come can they deliver their bodies from the grave and their soules from the hand of Hell The Redemption of a soule cost more than so they must let that alone for ever What matters it then to offend such so they may please God Doe they now stumble at the lapses and falls of those that seeme better than themselves Is it not still at they know not what If a Christian sinne it is not because hee is a Christian but because hee is a Christian no more it is not the profession but the person that is in all the fault Hee that is a good Christian should answer like that blessed Martyr who when hee was asked what was his name hee answered Christian what was his Countrey answered Christian what were his hopes thoughts words and deeds Hee answered Christian He was a Christian all over and if it bee otherwise Christianity must not bee blamed but sinne in him and Sathan out of him that put on that faire hood to cover their deformitie Besides sinne shall condemn them not justifie the wicked stumbler They shall goe to hell for that without Repentance the wicked shall not goe to Heaven for being worsâ— because they are bad And what doe they stumble at now Is it at the peaceable end of sinners It is still at they know not what For it is not ever true that wicked men finde such a calme when death approacheth somtimes Hell fire flasheth upon them then sometimes they miserably cry out I am damned I am damned I must to Hell and when it is true GOD Satan and themselves have an hand in it God justly seales them up to hardnesse of heart and then like the Leviathan they laugh at the Speare Satan covers their sins and lockes in their thoughts to dreame of golden Mountaines Hee labours to make their life and death to be an heaven here that hee may the more cunningly bring them to hell hereafter Themselves have accustomed themselves to sinne and custome in sinne takes away the sense of sinning and so like Nabal their heart dies like a stone And put case that Gods good people be disquieted when death appeareth They draw neere to GOD and see themselves abominable as Esau They have a circumcised heart and so are tender at the least touch which Satan perceiving hee drives home with all his rage and skill to slander his godly course because his time is but short Thus now ye have the whole Proverbe which sets forth a rule to your miserable example to shew the miserable estate of those that are and walk and stand and sit in the darke wayes of sin and wickednesse What shall I say to you Young men O that I could speake to your hearts so powerfully that yee may be rowzed from lying under the dominion of sinne any longer Oh that my Doctrine might drop as the raine and my speech might distill as the dew as the small raine upon the tender herbe and as the showers upon the grasse Yee have heard the woe woe woe to wicked men Sometimes this keepes them off from vertue and grace and sometimes that Here they stumble and there they stumble before behind on this side and on that and at last tumble into despaire and Hell for evermore Francis Spyra stumbled thus when hee cried out I would faine be in Hell to try the worst that God can doe And that outlandish wretch thus who would have given all to his soul not to forsake him but when nothing would serve the turne but he must die he commended his soule to the devill to be carried into everlasting torments And that English wretch thus I give my goods to the King whom I have cozened my body to the earth and my soule to the Devill And that other wretch not worthy of a name thus My soule I bequeath to the devill who ownes it my Wife to the Devill who drew mee to my ungodly life and my Chaplaine to the Devill who flattered mee in it But deare young men doe not yee so Lay hold of eternall life and pull your selves by the mighty power of GOD into that way Vse no arguments to pull your selves into or keepe your selves in the way of sinne Quit your selves like men and the God of Heaven stand by you for your helpe and succour Now is the accepted time now is the houre of salvation God hath shot a warning peece from Heaven stand not out but vaile to him before he shoot the vollies of his vengeance against you irrecoverably Yee have many motives to make you look about you now for grace and glory First your age is a most unsettled age pestered with many lusts of youth which drop by drop may fall upon you till you are suddenly over head and eares That which hath been formerly fained of Hercules that he stood in two wayes ready to take either is true of you For as a strait tree which is loose at the root standeth trembling and being unsetled with a little
â—3 Matth 22. 5. Aâ— scandall Being loath to offend their wicked companions Ioh 3.1 Ioh. 12.42 43. And being offended at the lives of professors Tit. â— 1 Thes 4.12 1 Cor. 10.32 which they easily espy though they are in darknesse Iames 1. From a light not from without but from within Iames 3. 6. At the peaceable end of sinners Psal 73. And the troubled deaths of the Godly 3. They stumble because they know not at what 1. They know not who they are that sinne 2. Whom they sinne â—gainst Micah 6. 1 Ioh. 1. Rom. 3. 2 Cor. 5. 3. What sinne will worke 2. They know not 1. The necessity of repentance Luk. 13. 2. Nor the work of it 3. Nor the worth of it 3. They know not the power of GODS wrath Psal 91. In the workes of this justice 2 Pet. 2.4 Genesis 4. Gen. 6.5 Gen 8.21 Gen. 19 Ezek. 16. Hebr. 9 Rom. 8 3. 2 Cor. 5.21 Rom. 11. Deut. 22.41 42. 2 Pet. 3. Deut. 29.19 20. 4. They know not what they can do in good because they try not Esa 59.29 1 Cor. 11.24 25. Tit. 3.5 Eph. 6. Phil. 4.13 5. They know not what is the power of Gods mâ—â—â—y Si peccantibus multo magis poeniâ—atibus Esa 66. Matth. 11. To embrace penitents Esay 1. Mic. 7.18 Esa 7.20 Esa 28.21 Opus justitiae est opus alienum Acts 〈…〉 They know not how weake all the world is if it were on their side 1 Cor. 7. Eccl. 11. Esa 41.16 7. They know not how little their companions can do for them Psalm 119. Iames 1. Psalm 6. Prov. 6. Psal 49. 8. They know not that the falls of Christians is because they are not Christians enough 9. They know not that sinners end is not alwayes peaceable And when it is Durities hominis peccatum ob duratio judicii Dei it yeilds no comfort Consuetudo peccandi tollit sensum peccati 1 Sam. 25. And yet the unquiet end of the godly may Esay 6. Appli Therefore let this proverbe sinke into your harts Deut. 32.2 Many have thus stumbled But do not you young men stumble thus 2 Cor. 6. Consider your motives to look about you Your age is most unsetled 2. You will easily savour ever of your first liquor Eccl. 1.15 3. Yee are now subject to the horriblest sinnes 4. Your sins will cry loudest Psal 25.7 Iob 13.26 2 Tim. 2.22 Iob 21.17 Iob 20.11 5. Your age hath no priviledge to sinne Eccl. 11.6 Eccl. 11.5 Psal 119.5 Therefore stumble not at any of these blockes Think how soone yee may dye Iob 21.23.24 25. And then what danger will follow With fearfull complaints in vaine Mic. 6.7 Luk. 13.7 Mat. 7.25 and 25 12. I Sam. 2.25 Ier. 9.1 Vses of examples 1. To threaten Deut. 24 9. Iosh 22.20 1 Sam. 6.6 2. To reproach Iudg. 10.17 Mic. 6 5. 3. To comfort Deut. 3.21 Esa 54.9 4. To maintaine truth Iam. 2.21 Rom. 4.2 3. 5. To disswade from vice 1 Cor. 10.7 8 9 c. Exo. 32.6 Num. 25.9 Num. 21 6. Numb 14.37 6. To forewarne 2 Cor. 11.3 Why examples are of such use 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iam. 1.2 3. A threefold benefit by examples 1. Observation 2. Illustration 3. Declaration of providence The world doth not make this benefit How men doe make use of examples of Iustice And how they should from the several waies of Gods shewing Iustice 1 Cor. 11.32 Psal 55.23 Deut. 29.29 The Application of the use of examples to this Warning-peece Psal 68 21. Dan. 4.27 Prov. 3.9
THE YOVNG-MANS Warning-peece OR A Sermon preached at the buriall of WILLIAM ROGERS Apothecary With an History of his sinfull Life and wofull Death Together with a Post-script of the use of Examples Dedicated to the Young-men of the Parish especially to his Companions By Robert Abbot Vicar of Cranebrooke in KENT Prov. 7.23 The young Foole as a Bird hasteneth to the snare and knoweth not that it is for his life LONDON Printed by R. B. for P. Stephens and C Meredith and are to be sold at their Shop at the signe of the Golden Lion in Pauls Church Yard 1639 To all the Young-men of my Parish especially to late Companions of William Rogers Apothecary Grace Mercy and Peace DEerely beloved Young-men that this Sermon in effect was preached by mee among you you know and the occasion you know too When I preachd it it cam to your eares it wrought something in some of your eyes but I little thought to have presented it to your eyes againe Importunities from abroad and at home have pressed mee to make this adventure And now it is come to whom should it come but unto you It is true my love to that dead Young-man made me willing to satisfie his desire and your desires to have it have not made mee willing thus to send it unto you Yet your courses being the occasion of it and your welfare being the end of it you may justly chalenge it and shall not by mee bee robbed of your right Who knowes whether God may leave a blessing behind I cannot bee assured that for the word of God handled in it or for me the poore instrument that is used in it ye will make much use of it for your good because I feare ye so often prefer an ale-house before the house of God It may be ye had rather be without it than have it because the sight of it to you will be a sting the sight of it to others will bee but a remembrancer to them to call upon you still to forsake those courses which ye love Yet herein have I hope that you will love to see the picture of him being dead whom yee loved and followed as your Doctor while he lived If it be not drawne to life my eyes eares and understanding much faile me besides many witnesses will not faile to say that all is true I am sure it is so for substance and if it be coloured otherwise even at the first it was rudely drawne it is for your sakes that you may still see him the more perfectly and know your owne estate You have had in your daies many examples teaching that there is no bargaine to be had in a wicked way it is folly to lay out your silver and not for bread But to have two in one yeere layes the axe to the root of the trees of the Wood and preacheth that except ye amend yee shall likewise perish Yee have seene two Apothecaries different in their course The one so many wayes looking home-ward that he died miserably rich the other so lashing outward that hee dyed miserably poore Both of sweet and mild natures and of different waies in life yet both of uncomfortable passages out of the world The one having first the devill presenting himselfe unto him to be his Physitian and next CHRIST sitting on the Throne condemning his unprofitable life and bidding him shift for himselfe for he would have nothing to do with him The other as if hee would prevent Christ condemning himselfe to hell for ever and ever The one being very rich and having no children was pressed by me while hee was in peace and before his last Will was settled of his thousands to give but one hundred pounds for the repairing of the Church or other pious workes But if hee were worth ten thousand as he said he would not give a penny beside what he had given by will that is twenty Marks to the poor ten pounds to me and some other petty Legacies If I were rich I should be loth to pay so deare for such a denyall as he did in the end full of horror to the last The other being very poore was pressed by me againe and againe but to beleeve in Christ for salvation But I could not for ought I saw prevaile neither The one had lived well except his misery the other had lived ill and so in misery worse I know you feare not the danger of â—he first example for you are out of the way of being too rich If you have enough to goe like gallant Blades it is all you desire yet if you have not your credite must bee good till the quarter day or the good market comes But may you not feare the danger of the second Him ye loved enough his courses yee love too well The Ale-house must bee your Chappell Kitchin Work-house the first draught is your prayer the next your breakfast and the last your worke Yet if ye had but a Priest that would prophecy of Wine and strong drinke and say Come let us fill our selves with Wine and strong drinke to morrow shall be as this dâ—y and much more aboundant hee were the only man and you the only people of the world I know you think yourselv's very familiar with Christ as if hee would passe by these slips of youth and imbrace you in the armes of his mercy upon the least call But you forget that Christ hath now taken state upon him He was an Infant crying in the Cratch and then he was circumcised by wicked Priests carried by an Asse into Ierusalem Hee was a Preacher in Israel and then he was pressed upon by all and sought to be intangled by his enemies Hee was a worker of miracles here and then sicke soules and bodies troubled him He was under arrests and executions and then Iudas did kisse Souldiers buffeted and spit upon him and Iewes and Gentiles killed him But now the case is altered his present state admits no such neere approach Will you say hee is my sweet Saviour still Go then and tell him so say Lord I am idle unprofitable and luxurioâ—s but thou art my sweet Saviour still Say yee to your fathers and mothers I am drunken idle warton rebellious but ye are my father and mother still and I expect your blessing and your pâ—rse Surely such proud and dissolute carriage shall a thousand times sooner please men on earth than it shall please Christ in heaven He hath redeemd you that ye might serve him in righteousnesse and holines all the daies of your life He hath bought you with a price that yee might glorifie God in body and soule and by the grace of God save your selves from the midst of this wicked generation wherein ye live Perhaps you may think your sinnes not to be so great but that you may keep your fellowship in the salvation of Christ too But they are not worthy of pitty who wilfully deceive their own soules
key of knowledge and so they are in darknesse walke in darknesse and know not whither they goe because that darknesse hath blinded their eyes Now if you would know why the wayes of the wicked are thus said to be as darknesse The grounds of that speech may be such as these First their sights are hindred from seeing the right way to Heaven They grope at noon day running headlong in their owne courses all the life long day and at what time the night of death or the sun set of sicknesse comes and they begin to recollect them saying where am I now Is this the way to heaven Then they see what they did not see and the whirlewind and tempest takes them and they are carryed whither they would not Secondly their footsteps are troubled from going about the workes of GOD. As the Aegyptians choaked in their palpable darknesse saw not what they did or what to doe so when this darknesse is come upon the wicked man Hee that walketh in darkenesse knoweth not whither hee goeth Here he goes and meetes with a blocke there he turnes and meets with a bush and after a thousand calls of GOD to doe this that and the other duty of Repentance faith and holinesse he is so inwrapped in darknesse that many things are gone about and few things are done those few that are done are not done as they ought 3. They are drawne on to many a fall even to the ruine of bodies and soules As men in darknesse if they will be doing stumble and fall so wicked men in this estate stumble into a thousand pitfals Here they fall into pride and niggardize there into pride and luxury on this hand into covetousnesse on that hand into prodigality here lyes the drunkard there the lyar here lyes the worldly old man there the regardlesse young man Lord how doe they fall in darknesse till they are turned backe into perpetuall rebellions till they fall and rise no more Fourthly they are smitten with feares terrours when they will give leisure to Conscience to worke They are taken with feare where no feare is As men in a darke night being a waked by fearefull melancholy sight of sin or lash of Conscience doe thinke every bush a Thiefe every gale of winde the moving of Satan or the wagging of every leafe a summons to the Devils approach so is it with wicked men in this darknesse Fifthly their shame is taken from them They are foole-hardy and confident in the darke because no eye sees them It is said of the Asse that being pursued by the Wolfe he puts his head into a bush that he may not see the Wolfe as if because he sees not the Wolfe the Wolfe therefore sees not him So is it with wicked men they put their heads into a darke corner of sin and ignorance and then as if he that pierced through the darke cloud could not see they goe on without feare wit or shame They lay their iniquities on their skirts and declare their sinnes as Sodome they hide them not as if they hurted not them nor would bring shame at the latter end Thus have I plained the way in opening this part of the Proverbe and now I write unto you young men that you may overcome that evill one Suffer therefore first a word of conviction and next a word of exhortation Ye may be convinced hence of two things 1. First concerning a wicked mans estate that he is in a miserable case whatsoever he thinkes of himselfe If thou wert shut up in a dark prison where thou couldst not have any fellowship with light wouldst thou not thinke thy selfe in a wofull plight Much more art thou thus if thou be in the darknesse of ignorance sin and misery You will say I see no such matter If I am in misery I see it not It may be so and yet your misery is not the lesse As Christ said because yee say yee see therefore your sinne remaineth so say I because you say you see not therefore your danger is the greater If in a desperate disease a man say he is well it s a certain signe death is comming on a pace so is it a signe that misery lies at the doore though you have shut it out a while because ye say ye see it not Put case it be so say you yet you feele no hurt by it for the present Ye goe on in sinne and thrive and are merry and what evill can come Take heed while a man is lusty and strong a man can endure hot and cold night and day and never shrinke but when hee is downe by age sicknesse surfeit or the like then every blast pierceth through so while you are in health and prosperity you are like a Church Wardens Bill which answereth all is well when too many things are amisse but when sicknesse and death comes downe you sink with shame and horrour like the fishes of Jordan which fall into the dead-Sea and are no more alive Yea but you are not in this darke state you heare the Word and understand it and have a power to understand more therefore certainly you shall not be darknesse for ever for a power doth dispose you to the act and exercise which shall follow Be not deceived For though it be true of a naturall power which comes into act by the power of some inward principle that if you have such a power it shall bee brought into act more or lesse according to the power as when Grapes have a power to drop Wine and Apples Cydar and so if as men you have a power to reason it is more or lesse shewed by discourse either by inward conceptions or outward expressions yet is it not true of an obedientiall power which is drawne out by a power from without as when the waters of Aegypt are turned into bloud and the water at the marriage of Cana was turned into wine and so though you have a naturall power to know according to your measure and so to be acquit of humane darknesse yet amidst your hearing and understanding you must be turned from darknesse to light and from the power of Satan to God that you may receive forgivenesse of sinnes and inheritance amongst them that are sanctified by faith in CHRIST If therefore you would be freed from this darknesse you must depend upon God whom you cannot command at pleasure to give the increase and to acquit you from this misery Secondly ye may be convinced hence not to thinke it strange to see poore sinners to doe that of which they are afterwards ashamed The adulterer watcheth for his twilight the drunkard seeketh his clâ—s scorners to couzen his soule and pursue in the lyar desireth his say-nothing and all luxuriants hunt out their coverts and thickets and when they are rowzed by the Iustice of GOD and man
at what To stumble is to take an argument of offence at something to make them fall still into the wayes of wickednesse As when the Iewes took these arguments against Christ to conclude against faith in him He is a man gluttonous a wine bibber a friend of Publicans and sinners Wee say well that thou art a Samaritan and hast a Divell And when the Iewes took these arguments against Stephen We have heard him speake blasphemous words against Moses against God against this holy place and the Law And when the Corinthians raised this foundation against Saint Paul This fellow perswadeth men to worship GOD contrary to the Law and Tertullus in a slanting speech before Foelix wee have found this man a very pestilence a mover of sedition among all the Iewes in all the World These are arguments of offence to make them that doe receive them still to fall into sin new sins old sins all sins But whereat ordinarily doe wicked men stumble Ordinarily at sixe sorts of things when they would flatter themselves in their wayes of darkenesse Either Ignorance or presumption or despaire or the World or scandall or the peaceable end of sinners and the contrary of those that have lived more strictly They stumble at ignorance on both hands Sometimes they stumble at the ignorance of sin and so they fall to sin and care not feare not When Iosiah knew not sin his sweet nature stumbled with the times but when he heard the Law of God read he rent his clothes and melted to the very heart When Saul lived a Pharisee the death of Stephen was nothing it could be swallowed up upon a full stomack but when the Law came and shewed him what sinne was when hee saw sinne revive to pricks wound and kill then he mourned under his captivity Sometimes they stumble at the ignorance of Repentance They are like Nicodemus who cannot heare of a new life but hee dreames of entring his mothers wombe againe and like Peters hearers who when they sinned knew not what they did and when they were pricked at the heart for sin knew not what to doe Men and brethren what shall we doe to be saved They stumble at presumption that God will any time accept of them upon any termes Therfore at what time soever saith one GOD desireth not the death of a sinner saith another Christ saith Come unto me saith a third God will that all men should bee saved saith a fourth Every presumptuous wretch layeth some sure foundation which might be sound and sweet to a true penitent which yet will not serve his turne when he is to try the strength of it no more than Sampsons greene Cords could binde him or a rope of sand can pull down an impregnable Castle They stumble at despaire and at that on both sides too Sometimes they despaire of their owne strength Alas all the waies of vertue grace and glory are too hard for me I must lie downe in shame confusion sinne and sorrow but not move a foot to Heaven When Christ preached that no man could come to him except it were given him of his Father many of his Disciples went backe and walked no more with him in so much as CHRIST complained to the twelve Will yee also forsake mee If Christ bee such a manner of person that accesse to him is so hard so much above our power that we must be beholding to a Father whom wee are not acquainted with then farewell Christ welcome world who are more familiar Sometimes againe they despaire of GODS strength and mercy for them Christ cannot save them GOD will not save them Let strength and mercy bee what it will on high it is too high for them What is that to me I am the worst of unworthy sinners This cast out Cain hanged Judas damned both and any other that delight in such a downefall They stumble at the world of honour pleasure profit The stony hearers stumbled at the care-cloth the thornes of cares for worldly pelfe The unworthy Guests stumbled at the new bought purchases of Farmes and Oxen and so much as at the new married Wife I cannot come The rich worldling at the new Barnes and store for many dayes His soule did so alwayes live in them that hee thought hee should alwayes live with them Thus they stumbled and fell The huge blocke of the World was too great for them to leape over into heaven and therefore downe they fall and breake their neckes into the wayes of sinne They stumble at scandall and at that they trip dangerously on both hands Sometimes they are loth to offend their wicked companions what shall I forsake them scandalize them goe without them though in a better way make them that are my friends my foes to neglect and scoffe at mee This made Nicodemus come to Christ by night This made many of the chiefe Rulers believe in him but they confessed him not lest they should bee put out of the Synagogue for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God Sometimes againe they take offence at the lives of those that seeme to bee more godly than themselves and are so at least by profession Indeed these should bee very carefull to adorne the doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ and therefore many excellent exhortations are spent upon them in the most sure Word of GOD. Sometimes they are called upon to behave themselves wisely to them that are without Sometimes to walke honestly towards them that are without sometimes to give no offence neither to Jew Câ—â—iaâ— nor Church of GOD yet are they not so carefull in the workes of holinesse righteousnesse and sobriety as they ought This is soone espied by wicked men and so made an argument to stumble at You will say They are in darknesse how then can they spie such a hole in the coat of him that is better than themselves I le tell you when men see a thing that may further them in the way to Heaven they do receive it inward by the meanes of the spirit and the sweet beames of grace which shine about them For every good giving comes from the Father of lights but when they see any thing that helpes them onward to Hell they have a power of seeing from within As a Cat sees in a darke night by fyring the aire to her selfe and for her owne uses so wicked men being set on fire of Hell can in their darkest state easily kindle a light for their owne uses to find fodder for their soules in their way to Hell-ward They stumble Lastly at the peaceable end of sinners Truly they dyed like Lambes There are no hands in their death just like the good thiefe upon the Crosse which with quiet and sweet reaches after grace and glory breathed out his soule to GOD notwithstanding all the wickednesse of
strength is pulled this way or that way so is it with you who are ready to bee swayed with winde and tyde every way Secondly you will easily savour ever of that first liquor which is put into you Receive the distilled dewes of grace from the Spirit of God and what a sweet savour shall yee be in the nostrils of God and man Receive the bloudy showers of devillish and worldly temptations and how will ye stinke like Sodome and her Sisters If a man by his owne and others disorders have his body made crooked when young he will be crooked in bud blossome leafe fruit and age but if hee bee strait thâ— hee by the grace of GOD continues strait still So will it bee with you that which is crooked cannot be made straite and that which is wanting cannot bee numbred Thirdly ye are now subject to the horriblest sins That natural corruption which is rooted in all mankinde hath in your age more instruments to bring it to outward appearance as flourâ—shing wit to invent and dexterity in other members to put in execution As therefore they that are sick of burning feavers have need of cooling things and stomackefull Colts have need of stronger bits so the fury of your age must bee held in as with a bit and bridle lest it run upon you and lay your honour in the dust Fourthly your sinnes being committed will cry loudest These made David cry out remember not the sins of my youth when my service would have beene most acceptable These made Iob complaine Thou writest bitter things against mee and makest mee possesse the iniquities of my youth These made Paul ply Timothy to flee the lusts of youth And these will make you pittifully cry out too late We have wearied our selves in the wayes of wickednesse when our paths were spred with butter When we were strong lusty and able to doe God service wee served the Devill and now when God distributeth sorrowes in his anger our bones are full of the sinnes of our youth which shall lye downe with us in the dust 5. Lastly you think that you have a priviledge by your age youth must have its course they must sowe their wilde Oats But the counsell of the Spirit is otherwise In the morning sow thy seede and in the evening with-hold not thy hand for thou knowest not whether shall prosper Therefore Salomon thinkes such more worthy to be laught at then to bee anred Rejoyce O young man in thy youth and let thy heart cheere thee in the dayes of thy youth and walke in the wayes of thy heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know thou that for all these things GOD will bring thee to judgement And David doth tie up your untamed age to the hornes of the Altar saying that even you must clense your wayes by taking heed thereto according to his word If therefore there bee any feare of GOD before your eyes if yee have any bowels of compassion to your poore soules walke not in the darke waies of the wicked Open your eyes to see all the stumbling blocks of wicked men and stumble not into their paths O thinke what may come hereafter how soone you may die goe hence and bee no more seene One dies in full strength being wholly at ease and quiet His brests are full of milke and his bones are full of marrow and another dies in the bitternesse of his soule and never eateth with pleasure and then without the grace of Repentance the mercy of pardon I must to Hell to millions of millions of torments Farewell companions farewell time farewell pleasure farewell friends farewell all your perswasions c. and shall I say welcome Hell O no I would give thousands of Rams and tenne thousand Rivers of Oyle yea the fruit of my body for the sin of my soule but the just Iudge will not accept it cut it downe why cumbreth it the ground depart from me I know thee not Thus you have had your example and your rule both shewing the misery of a wicked life you have had my charge and discharge Shall it fall like raine upon the barren Rockes and Mountaines without fruit Shall it not move one soule to goe from the dens of sinne to GOD If not as noble Terentius when hee had petitioned for the Christians and saw it torne in peeces before his face gathered up the peeces and said I have my reward I have not sued for gold silver honour or pleasure but a Church So say I in the middest of your neglect I have not sued for your gold or silver for your houses and lands for your drinkes dice or drabs but for your soules your precious soules If I cannot or shall not wooe them to come to Christ God raise up some child of the Bride-chamber which may doe it better If neither I nor others can prevaile feare that speech of Elies sons they hearkened not unto the voice of their father because the LORD would slay them In such a case Oh that my head were full of water and mine eyes a fountaine of teares that I may weep day and night for the miserable young men of my people But GOD grant I may have no such cause God grant you may not bee in such a state God grant you may bee now wise to salvation For it is your salvation God would have it is your salvation I would have and woe unto you if you bee enemies to desires so good and no lesse usefull than for your salvation your salvation for ever and ever GOD guide your hearts to the love of God and to the waiting for of Christ FINIS A POST-SCRIPT TO THE READER of this Warning-peece of the use of examples LONDON Printed by T. B. 1639. A Post-script to the Reader of this Warning peece of the use of Examples GOod Reader stay a while thou hast not yet done I have for thy good set before thee an old Rule and new examples and of the abuse of examples I am not ignorant Some looke upon them so as to imitate them be they never so bad As Augustus a learned Prince filled his Empire with Schollers so Tiberius a dissembling Prince with dissemblers Iulian an Apostate Prince with Apostates and Jeroboham a Calvish Prince with Idolaters Others looke upon them so as to hate the persons as well as the sins Every fearefull accident either in the life or death of men speakes to them the language of damnation Howsoever they be abused I am sure it is most fit yea excellent to have the white booke of Gods mercies and the blacke Booke of judgements alwayes before our eyes The abuse doth not take away the use no more than the Spartans shewed themselves wise in rooting out their Vines because their people abused their Wine to drunkennesse I am sure wee have the example of GOD Himselfe who would not silence the patternes
both of sinne and judgement of those hee dearely loved And if we be versed in his Booke wee may observe that he hath beene pleased to make many uses of such examples Sometimes by them hee doth threaten Remember what the Lord did unto Myriam Did not Acham the sonne of Zerah commit a trespasse in the accursed thing Wherefore doe you harden your hearts as the Aegyptians and Pharaoh If yee doe as they have done yee shall bee punished as they have beene Sometimes by them hee doth reproach unthankefull people Did not I deliver you from the Aegyptians and from the Amorites from the children of Amon and from the Philistims O my people remember what Balack King of Moab consulted and what Balaam the sonne of Beor answered from Shittim to Gilgal Are yee not ashamed to offend such a GOD as I who have neither beene a barren Wildernesse nor a dry Land Sometimes by them he comforteth and strengtheneth the hands of the weak Thine eyes have seene all that the Lord your God hath done unto these two Kings This your trouble is as the waters of Noah to mee as I have said they shall no more goe over the Earth so nor your afflictions shall overwhelme you Will you be dismaied in any trouble or cast off your confidence as if Gods hand were tyed up now more than in those dayes Sometimes by them hee doth maintaine great points of godlinesse Was not Abraham our Father justified by workes Not to glory in before God for Abraham beleeved God and it was counted to him for righteousnesse but to make him stand out against the blasphemies of the world the accusations of Conscience and the upbraidings of a dead faith And will not yee who must bee the children of Abraham or perish walke in the way of so worthy a Father Sometimes by them hee doth disswade from vice Bee not Idolaters as were some of them Let us not commit fornication as some of them did and fell in one day three and twenty thousand Let us not tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of Serpents Neither murmure as some of them murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer if yee goe on in such a way and will not be disswaded yee will meet with the same plagues which they have found or worse Sometimes by them he gives promonition and caution I feare least by any meanes as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty so your mindes should bee corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ Will yee not take heed lest lesse policy make you to fall as Eve fell which was full of bitternesse to her and hers All this use and more hath our good God made of examples not onely because like leaking Vessels we are apt daily to runne out and to forget our fashion which we saw in the Glasse if it be not still represented to us but also because of the singular profit of examples For as they profit a world of people they being like a burning Beacon giving light before men and being like fire whereat we may give light to thousands of Candles so doe they last long and hold out to the worlds end as the poore Widowes mites and Lots Wifes transmutation Neither is it in vaine that GOD hath taken such a course as this It is all for our good that wee may know how to use examples according to their severall natures But among the rest you may reape a threefold benefit by them First an Observation of the customes and usages of the Church and enemies of it This will bee an adjument to wisdome which is ordinarily attaineable by experience of our owne dayes and memory of others Next an Illustration of the faith and manners of others what ever they be For examples doe not make faith and manners but give patternes of Gods rules for the more Expedite practise of them And lastly a declaration of Gods ordinary providence in his acts of wisedome goodnesse mercy justice and the like From these two uses the world doth mostly too farre wander For want of the first the Church is many times filled with Schismes and disorders For want of the second faith and manners are not so cleared and examples are taken up as necessary Lawes which onely shew a lawfulnesse where the rule of Scripture doth not oppose For want of the third God passeth by and wee know it not Let him bee never so wise by the neglect of the example we admire it not Let him be never so good by the neglect of the example we love it not Let him be never so mercifull by the neglect of the example we imbrace it not Let him be never so just by the neglect of the example wee doe not feare and tremble and avoide the rockes of sinne and hence it is that I have beene induced to propound these examples unto you also It may bee that sometimes men doe observe the way of GOD in the whirewind of justice but either they are willing to thinke it not so great as it is or to judge it to reach further than our good God intendeth it If men do think the first it is because they would flatter themselves in like sinnes Loth they are to thinke that God should punish that which they love or that danger should happen to them who have done as they meane to doe still If men judge the second it is because they want charity and judgement in the wayes of God Sometimes GOD gives an example of his justice which begins here and continues for ever and ever as in many of the drowned first world and roasted Sodomites God never made mee so skilfull in his Throne businesse as to define peremptorily that every suckling and infant of those miserable ones were cast into the bottomelesse hell Hee onely sayes that the floud did sweepe them away and they were burned with fire and brimstone and there leaves us to leave the rest to GOD. They were not in the Arke indeed nor was Iob in the visible Church as Isaac and the rest of the Patriarchs were yet might the All-eye looke upon them as he pleased and judge or spare Sometimes God gives an example of his justice which dies here and for ought wee know may end in glory Thus we are said to bee judged that wee might not bee condemned by the world No man will judge Iosiah or Ionathan for their untimely deaths They died in peace though they died in warre in peace with God in warre with men Nor will they resolvedly reprobate the soules of Er and Onan Nadab and Abihu Ananias and Saphira or their likes Their sins were great and grievous yea damnable and therefore GOD brought fearefull judgements upon them and as hee hath said so hath hee done bloudy and deceitfull men shall not live out halfe their dayes But for their soules and how farre his justice