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A50403 A memento to young and old: or, The young man's remembrancer, and the old man's monitor. By that eminent and judicious divine, Mr. John Maynard, late of Mayfield in Sussex. Published by William Gearing, minister of the Gospel Maynard, John, 1600-1665.; Gearing, William. 1669 (1669) Wing M1451; ESTC R216831 88,644 216

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that are young and yet enjoy the good daies of your life do not ye make them evil Remember your Creator in the daies of your Youth take heed to your ways according to the word of God so shall these daies indeed be good daies to you and you shall prepare your selves either for an honourable Old Age or for a blessed end and an happy death preventing the evils of Old Age and putting you in possession of everlasting life which never seeleth the decays of Age. Finally let me in a word beseech those who have already out-lived their best daies to look back seriously and speedily upon the times and courses of their Youth and see how those daies have been spent observing what matter of joy and thanksgiving or what causes of grief and humiliation they may find and accordingly to be affected If you have made them evil daies how should you mourn for this How should you seek God now that it draweth towards the eleventh hour before the night cometh when no man can work which burieth all secure loiterers and unprepared ones in an everlasting night of utter darkness where is weeping and gn●shing of teeth The night cometh the darkness is coming yet before it cometh do ye that great work that your Soul may live and not die eternally CHAP. V. Eccles. 12. 1 before the evil days come OF the next point I shall speak very briefly and that is this Observ. That the daies of Old Age are evil daies So the Spirit of God here calleth them This the Holy Ghost here and in other Verses of this Chapter sheweth in divers circumstances Here he saith They are daies wherein there is no pleasure daies wherein there is much matter of grief and vexation little contentment when a man's life is like gloomy daies such as St. Paul met with in his Sea-voyage when neither Sun nor Starrs for many daies appeared to such daies Old Age is here compared daies of darkness wherein Sun Moon and Starrs have their light hidden and darkened and the Clouds return after the Rain Though the showres fall yet it doth not clear up but the Clouds grow up and gather together again so it is in Old Age the end of one trouble is but the begnning of another affliction like to that In the words following these evils of Old Age are more particularly expressed and numbred up The keepers of the house do tremble the arms which are to guard and defend the body shake with the Palsey the strong men the Leggs which are the pillars to bear up this house of clay begin to fail with weakness and to double under their burthen like posts worn and weakened with age The Grinders the Teeth cease because they are few and the Windows shall be darkned c. In a word we may summe up the evils of these Aged daies in these two heads Evils of Loss and Evils of Sense The loss of Contentments in God's good blessings the loss of ability for many good Offices on the other side the suffering of many inconveniences in body and mind which maketh a man a burthen to himself being burthened with such an heap of years CHAP. VI. Use. THe use of this is to renew the former Exhortation to the younger sort that they may prevent these evil daies and remove the evil of them by timely repentance and sincere obedience in their Youth Impenitency and ungodliness makes the good daies of Youth to become evil daies repentance and an holy conversation make the evil daies of Old Age to be good Godliness is profitable to all things saith the Apostle and so it is profitable for all times for times of Youth as well as times of Old Age for health for sickness for life for death it shall do thee good and not evil all thy daies If Old Age bring so many inconveniences with it how careful shouldest thou be to remove the guilt of thy sins before the burthen of Old Age cometh upon thee If these wounds of thy conscience be truly healed by the blood of Christ aforehand sprinkled on by the hand of faith then shall thy Spirit be enabled to bear the infirmities of Old Age yea thou shalt be able to do all things through the Spirit of Christ strengthening and supporting thee Oh how miserably is that poor Soul burthened that hath an heap of years and an heap of sins unpardoned lying upon it but how blessed how honourable is the gray hoary head found in the way of righteousness whose unrighteousness is forgiven whose sin is covered Such shall be Trees planted in the house of the Lord which in their Old Age shall be more and more far and flourishing and their last works as it is said of the Church of Thyatira Revel 2 19. shall be more than the first their last daies better than the first Such a good old age they shall have as divers of the Saints are said to have had Labour then so to live now that the evils of your Age may be mitigated and removed But on the other side how evil and wretched must those daies of Old Age be which are accompanied with the guilt of many sins when years encrease and wickedness encreaseth when a man will not be admonished but as he hath been rebellious in his Youth so he will be obstinate in his Old Age Oh take heed of this if these evil daies have overtaken thee before thou hast put away thy sins before thou hast sought the Lord with all thy heart repent now in the anguish and bitterness of thy soul. SERMON V. Eccles. 12. 1. before the evil days come c. CHAP. I. THus ye have heard how Old Age is said to consist of evil daies now here we see how the Holy Ghost doth call away the thoughts of young men from the pleasures and vanities of Youth wherein they are usually drowned and over-whelmed and giveth them a foresight of a change letteth them know that it will not alwayes be thus with them they must look for other times hereafter to pass over them now they have their good daies their daies of Youth but they must perswade themselves there be other daies coming these good daies will not last alwayes Hence I observe Observ. That it is Christian wisdom to foresee and provide for changes ere they come it is a brutish and sensual folly to have the Heart so possessed and taken up with present prosperity and earthly contentments of any kind as not to have any serious and effectual regard of such changes as may be brought upon us Therefore the Spirit of God having to do with young men in this place who did please themselves in themselves and in their present youthful wayes delights and contentments he setteth before their eyes a lively image of Old Age with the many evils grievances and blemishes of it yea he leadeth them along to the death-bed and hangeth out their winding-sheet before their eyes and by the way presenteth them with many objects unpleasing
others with them in the same wayes of Destruction and being joyned together in a wretched society by lewd and lustful songs scurril jests abusive speeches loud laughter ruffian-like out-faceing better and wiser men than themselves they encourage each others they harden their hearts they drown the voice of Conscience they contemn the Word of God they fight against Heaven with prophane and horrible Oathes and as it were seal al● their leagues of pretended good-fellow-ship even with a resolved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a decreed forgetfulness of God and so of godliness o● Death and of Judgment to come wherewith St. Paul made even his Heathen Judge to shake as he sate upon the Bench. 2. Secondly and especially a company o● grounded Drunkards that are up and down i● the Countrey old Sotts that are setled upon their lees who know almost every corner in every common or blind Ale-house as well as the rooms in their own houses and never think themselves so well at home as in a Tap-house Oh how do these work about to poyson the youth of our age and to make them like themselves the children of hell who by the assistance of the Devil abuse their old crafty pates to ensnare young heedless Souls and to bring in Captives to the Prince of Darkness Doth not the same doom belong unto these which was due to Elymas the Sorcerer for seeking to turn away the deputy from the truth to whom St. Paul himself used this language Thou Child of the Devil and enemy of all goodness wilt thou not cease to perven●● the streight wayes of the Lord Do not these by the enchantment of their fawning tongues bewitch green years and cast them into a dead sleep of security and forgetfulness of God Oh that miserable experience did not prove my words too mild which yet some that in their own causes can be merciles perhaps will accuse me of too much roughness But who can forbear when he seeth them to be the very Emissaries of Hell and as I may so speak Ipsius ebrietatis leannes the very Panders or Bawds for Drunkenness an inferiour sort of Tempters or Devils Satan's under-Officers and Factors for the Land of Darkness who are not content to go to Hell without a Troop at their heels as if it were not sufficient for them to be guilty of destroying their own Souls unless they have many more Murthers of the same kind to be put into the same Indictment I tell you who soever ye are your society is more to be shunned than his that hath a Plague-sore upon his body ye are to be poynted at and accounted by all that know you as the very Mothes that fret the newest and the strongest Cloth Juventutis pestes The very bane of youth and the corrupters of the next age which shall then arise when your bodies are rotten under ground yea the sins you now set in a course may stream down unto the end o● the World whilst they that are infected b● you shall infect others and so again successively so that by this means ye may b● guilty of those sins which shall be committed many hundred years hence if the World so long continue 3. Those Ale-house-keepers who giv● way to all manner of excess in their houses whose Motto may be Lucri bonus odor c. In whose ears Swearing is good Musick in whose eyes beastly vomits are a pleasing spectacle and the Lords day a fit time for tipling and swilling with greediness so that they may take mony feed higher go braver and look bigger than men of more worth and better employment These have their trains to draw on the younger sort who know not that their houses go down to the chamber of Death 4 Those Magistrates and Officers cannot by any means be excused under whom these youthful sins grows● fast whiles they hold the Sword that is put in to their hands rusting in the sheath where is the Spirit and courage that should be in these that are the very Triarii in the armies of the Lord of Hosts the stoutest and choicest Soldiers Are ye afraid of those who are but Lixae calones Scullions and Tapsters under Satans Banner should such Men as ye fly or fear and not dare to face those who at the most are but Milites levis armaturae Souldiers lightly armed as I may so speak What can they do against a Justice of the Peace a Constable or an Head-borough more than let flye their Arrows even bitter words I know not what policy is in this connivance unless it be to leave the envy and burthen upon us of the Ministry whiles we alone fight against these things with the Sword of the Spirit But if ye refuse utterly to joyne with us in bearing your part of the burthen you must not look to share in the reward I desire above all that you would let the honour of God prevail with you your Charge your Oathes but if these things move not take heed lest the Lord repay you in your own Coyn and whiles you tender not the Glory of God nor the good of the younger sort in general by restraining their licentious meetings by informing against or punishing those that entertain them he may justly leave your own Children to be thus corrupted or at least your Childrens Children of the third or fourth Generation The Lord give you zeal and courage that you may not have your portion without among the fearful CHAP. VII Vse LEt me speak a few words to you that are of the younger sort When soever you see a young Man or Maid carried to their graves that spectacle of Mortality forbids you to be forgetful of your Creatour in any Age or part of your Life Look upon that Coffin that holdeth a body young and very lately strong in constitution and let it be unto thee O young Man an use of instructio● n●t to trust to long life in the heat of thy youth or the best of thy strength not to please thy self in a self-content arising out of thine own form youthful lively temper not to magnify thine happiness in regard of a seeming advantage which thou thinkest thou hast of old age in being more capable of carnal delights than it that thou art able to take in more of the Devils baits which he never casteth forth without an hook Let it teach thee not to hearken to the enticements of Sinners old or young nor to think that house of all others the best adorned that hath a Sign-post Let it reprove thy great forgetfulness of thy Creatour in the daies of thy youth Let it strike a deep apprehension into thine heart of the necessity of present repentance without all delay and let this so work upon thee and stick by thee that no potts m●y wash it off nor no loud Ale-house clamours may drown the voice of thy Conscience when it shall bring this to thy remembrance Oh let not Satan bewitch thee Weart thou as certain of a long
the heart is in the liveliest temper then the spirits are freshest and quickest and natural cheerfulness being Sanctified is a furtherance of spiritual joy The quickness of the natural temper which is in youth most vigorous is a good servant to quickning grace Think not that God is best pleased with the lumpish old age which many times is little more than a dead piece of Earth with a little portion a small remainder of life abiding in it God is the living God and he requireth living Sacrifices Rom. 12. 1. Now thy youth hath more life in it than thine old age There is as it were a close union between the Soul and Body in youth The Soul imparteth a more plentiful ●nfluence of Life unto the Body in you●h than ●n old age by the quickness and plenty of the Spirits which in youth are more abundent than in age Give up therefore this most living part of thy life thy young daies unto God and not only that part of life which partaketh more of Death than of life th●ne old decrepit and disabled age The hoary head is a Crown of Glory if it be found in a way of Righteousness Prov. 16. 31. Found He doth not say if it enter into the way of Righteousness but if it be Found there If a Man hath turned to God in his youth and persevered in upright walking before him until gray haires come upon him that Man needeth no Crown of Gold to adorn his head his hoary head is a Crown of Glory to him If under the Law a Man did burn the prime of his Beast in Sacrifice it was accepted yea when it was almost consumed even the remainders that were half burnt did yield a sweet savour to the Lord because the best was burnt also upon the Altar of the Lord. So let a Man consecrate the prime of his daies his youth to the Lord offer up this as a living Sacrifice and then even his worn old age which is like a Sacrifice half burnt and spent shall be exceeding sweet and pleasing to the Lord because the best was given up unto him whereas on the other side should any of the Priests have burned a Sacrifice upon the Altar of Baal and then when it was half burnt should have brought the gleanings and laid them upon the Altar of the Lord this would have been a grievous abomination in the sight of the Lord. So in this case c. Oh then Remember thy Creatour in thy youth lest he forget or despise thee in thine age Remember him in thy youth that thy hoar head may be found in the way of Righteousness and so may be a Crown of Glory and not a Spectacle of Reproach and Contempt unto thee 3. Consider especially the unspeakable danger of Sin confirmed and rooted with time wrought and wreathed into the heart and clasped in the affections by long custom in sin Oh when sin hath been thirty or forty years in growing and taking root it cleaveth like the skin to the bones like the Leprosy that was rooted in a wall which could not be taken away untill the wall were pulled down That sin which is in growing the whole time of a Mans youth during the best of his strength it is even a Wonder if it doth not accompany that Man to his Death-bed yea to the Judgment-seat of God I know the mercy of God is infinite and he calleth at the Eleventh hour but I am perswaded those are very few which are so called and especially very few if any of those who have had the means of Grace in their youth and regarded them not Oh this willful hardning of the heart is dreadful This continuing in sin against knowledge this with-holding the truth in unrighteousness moveth the Lord to give men over to a Reprobate sence Rom. 1. 21 24 25 28. Into such a state that he becometh uncapable unteachable that neither blessings nor crosses neither the Rod nor the Word neither sickness nor health neither gray haris nor the approach of Death can work him to to sound Conversion Ah poor forsaken Soul such a one may come to say with Saul God hath forsaken me A speech that might rend a render heart to hear it I speak not this to bring you to despair but to stirr you up to speedy Repentance that ye may prevent this desperate and woful condition CHAP. I. IN the last place let me speak a few words to Parents and old People 1. To Parents Ye that are Parents labour ye to season the very Child-hood of your Sons and Daughters with the true knowledg and fear of God pray over them daily instruct exhort rebuke and use all good means that the prime of their daies may be given up to God Teach them to Remember their Creatour in their Childhood that they may neither forget him in their youth nor forsake him in their old age I fear that most Parents among us by neglecting their Duty herein are guilty of their Childrens Destruction 2. To the Aged Ye that are grown old and have not remembred your Creatour in your younger daies whose bones are full of the sins of your youth Oh know that your case is exceeding dangerous therefore bewaile your lives whereby ye have so much dishonoured your Maker humble and judge your selves in the bitterness of your Souls cry continually and importunately in the ears of the Lord that if it be possible the sins of your youth and the long continued wickedness of your Lives may be forgiven you that the often resistance which ye have made against the spirit of God may be pardoned if it be possible that the frequent casting of the Word of God behind thy back may be forgiven Oh how odious and contemptible is the hoary head found in the way of wickedness in a state of impenitency What is an old Drunkard or Adulterer a gray-headed Swearer an old Covetous Worldling an hoary headed impenitent person but even a monster among Men What dost thou not yet remember thy Creatour not in old age not at fifty at sixty or seventy years Oh wreched security Awake awake unto Righteousness unto Repentance ye old ones that sleep in sin lest ye sleep the sleep of everlasting Death and never behold the face of God in Righteousness SERMON III. Eccles. 12. 1. Remember now thy Creatour in the daies of thy Youth c. CHAP. I. BEsides what hath been already observed something yet may be further noted Viz. Observ. That Grace and Holiness are exceeding fit and no way unseemly for the younger sort Man's Life hath in some regards been compared to a Comedy or Enterlude Acted upon the Theatre or Sage of this World and the truth is many a Mans life is but a Play and many in their courses do but act other mens parts not in sincerity express their own inward dispositions And therefore that decorum which they suppose may grace them in the eyes of Men is the thing they most of all affect and aim
people are called by the name of that Idol-god which they worshipped as the Moabites were called the people of Chemosh because they worshipped an Idol so called Jerem. 48. 46. So likewise the Ammonites are called the people of Milcom because they worshipped an Idol so called And Euripides calleth the Athenians the people of Minerva because they worshipped that Goddess by this you may gather that those whom God owns for his people are in Covenant for to be the people of God is a Covenant-stile and this the Children of all believing Parents are V. Godly Parents are a glory and honour to their Children in that for their sakes the blessing of the Lord falls upon their Children Prov. 20. 7. The just man walketh in his integrity his Children are blessed after him The Hebrew word denoteth one that walketh in all godliness constantly to the end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beat itudines blessings shall be upon his Children God hath graciously promised that he will shew mercy to thousands of them that love him and keep his Commandements What a motive should this be to Parents to stir up Parents to labour after godliness Ye would have your Children to be rich and many men do adventure the loss of their immortal Souls to advance their posterity now the blessing of the Lord maketh rich and addeth no sorrow with it God doth sometimes divert his anger from the Children of Godly Parents and give them special mercies It is a frequent passage in Scripture nevertheless for my servant David's sake c. So God saith of Solomon I will make him Prince all the daies of my life for David my servant's sake whom I chose c. 1. Kings 10. 34. So in the daies of Abijam it is said Nevertheless for David 's sake did the Lord his God give him a Lamp in Jerusalem to set up his Son after him ●nd to establish Jerusalem 1 Kings 15. 4. God ten saith that he remembreth the Covena●●t that he made with their 〈…〉 shew how faithfull God is in his promise● to his believing servants VI. It is a glory to a Child that his Father dies a servant of the Lord his death is precious in the sight of the Lord and in the sight of man It is the highest commendation that can be given of any one that he died the servant of the Lord Moses my servant is dead said God to Josua Jos. 1. 2● Such a one is dead that was the servant of the Lord what greater commendation than this can be given to any Worldlings will say such a one died worth so many hundreds by the year worth so many thousands of pounds poor creatures did not the fool in the Gospel die rich Did not the glutton die rich What commendation is it to say of such a one he was rich but a glutton a fool an adulterer an oppressour a covetous unjust dealer What honour is this to the Children of such a man enjoying his wealth and riches And as his death is precious so the memorial of a good man after his death is precious The memory of the just shall endure but the name of the wicked shall rot CHAP. IV. IN the next place I shall also shew how Children are the glory of their Fathers I. Their filial obedience to their just and lawful commands is an honor to their Parents Therefore in the fifth Commandement it is said Honour thy Father and thy Mother that is out of reverential obedience to them St. Paul saith Eph. 6. 2. That it is the first Commandement with promise But it may be said Is not the second Commandement with promise The answer is two-fold There is a double Commandement affirmative and negative This is the first affirmative Commandement or rather it is the first Commandement in the second Table to shew that next after the care of Religion our duty to Parents must be regarded Aristotle could say God and Parents cannot be sufficiently required The Heathen punished injuries to God and Parents alike Valer. lib. 1. Qui dubitat utrum oporteat Deos revereri aut Parentes non indiget natione sed pari poenâ Arist. Topic. lib. 8. He that doubteth whether God or Parents be to be reverenced needs not to be confuted by reason but by the same punishment Now stubbornness in a Child is a reproach to his Father Who so keepeth the law is a wise Son but he that is a companion of riotous men shameth his Father Prov. 28. 7. God ordained a Law that such Children should be stoned to death and the Parents should be the first that should throw a stone upon them to shew how hainous a sin stubbornness is in Children Deut. 21. 20 21. The sins of Riot and Drunkenness were not by Moses's Law punishable by death this punishment therefore was inflicted upon a riotous Son in respect of his disobedience to his Parents which greatly aggravated his sin and for which he was to die when other Drunkards escaped with lighter punishment The Rechabites were an honour to their Father in that they kept the Commandement of Jonadab the Son of Rechab their Father II. When they shall give pliable attention to the godly instructions and admonitions of their Fathers A wise Son heareth the instructions of his Father but a scorner heareth not rebuke Prov. 13. 1. It is an high point of folly and contempt when the Father is wisely charming and the Son stoppeth his ear against the voice of the charmer Hear ye Children the instruction of a Father and attend to know understanding Prov. 4. 1. Children are sluggish had need to be often called upon to hearken to pious instruction None can be more faithfull to give counsel to thee than he that loveth not thine but thee saith Gregory Such indeed are Parents therefore most worthy to be heard Godly Parents take care of their own Souls and therefore will not neglect the Souls of their Children Therefore saith Gregory Committe an●mam diligent bu suam commit thy Soul to them that love their own Let not Children slight the sharp rebukes of faithfull Parents seeing it is for the good of their S●uls Quem enim se●ret patrem si n●n ferret suum Trent For whom should a Child bear withall if not with his own Father III. When Children walk in the holy steps of their godly Parents and are followers of them as they are of Christ. Such a one is an honour and no shame to his Father There cannot be a better resemblance between a Child and a Father than this spir●tual resemblance in that which is good This was ever the praise or ignominious brand of the Kings of Israel That those that were godly they did walk after the Lord as did David their Father or who walked in the way of Jeroboam who made Israel to sin So it is the high commendation of a Son when it shall be said he walketh in the same holy religious course as did as doth his Father It