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 â—nfluence of Life unto the Body in youâ—h than â—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 thâ—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
to me CHAP. II. WHerefore that this may be made more clear unto us let us consider how and in what respects the daies of Youth are called good daies They are good daies 1. Because they are the first daies of a man's life Childhood is but as it were a preparative to the life of man Children while they are Children have but some imperfect beginnings of the life of reason which is the proper and peculiar life of man therefore we may reckon the daies of Youth as the first daies of man's life when he first beginneth to live as a man and to live the life of reason in some degree of perfection Now ye know that the first in every kind hath the preheminence the first-born of men the firstlings of beasts the first-fruits of the earth the morning of the day the first age of the world the spring of the year So there is a kind of preheminency in the first daies of man's life which are the daies of Youth they are a man's prime and his good daies 2. The daies of Youth are good daies because ordinarily they are the daies of best health and strength daies wherein we are of able bodies for any special service For although it be true that in the worship of God bodily exercise profiteth but little in comparison of the inward power of godliness yet strength and health when they are made serviceable to a sanctified upright heart are of special use both in the immediate worship of God and in the performance of many offices of love which we ought to do towards our Brethren in the Lord. Mens sana in corpore sano as they say a sound mind and an heavenly spirit furthered in the worship and service of God by a strong healthy well-tempered body hath a great advantage in it's work and in that case the daies of health and strength are good daies In Prayer although the strength and force of Prayer doth not lie in the strength of the sides or loudnes of the voice yet it is no smal advantage to the Spirit when in it's fervour and strength of affection it gathereth up and putteth forth all it's powers in earnest supplication before the throne of Grace if then it hath a sound healthy body able to bear the intention of a fervent spirit without fainting or distraction You know that if the arrow be long and drawn to the head it is needfull that the bow and the string should be of sufficient strength to hold drawing And a Christian that will not content himself to shoot those fools bolts mentioned Eccles. 5. 1. but desireth to send forth winged shafts of fervent Prayer that shall pierce the Clouds and enter the Heavens findeth it an help not to be despised when the strength and health of his body is suitable to the vigour of his spirit This holdeth as ye may easily conceive in those exercises of hearing reading meditation c. 3. Daies of Youth are times wherein the powers of the Soul are also quick lively and able by the communion with the body The Soul by reason of it's near conjunction of the body hath it's Childhood Youth and decaying time In younger years it hath those golden daies wherein the understanding is quick in apprehension teachable and apt to receive impression the Memory faithfull the Judgement good and sound the Affections strong and stirring Therefore these are the good daies wherein it is fit to be used in the work and service of God And as in the Spring all these concurring together the Trees in their fresh clothing the face of the Earth renued the beauty of Herbs and Flowers together with the Sun 's shining brightly in his strength and glory make up good daies whereas in the Winter the brightness of the Sun maketh but an imperfect good day whiles the Trees and Fields are stripped dead and withered the ground covered with mire and dirt so the meeting of these together the birth-right of Youth the strength and health of the Body the quickness of the Senses the activeness and abundance of the Spirits the perfections of the Soul c. make the daies of Youth good daies whereas although in the winter of Old Age the Sun may shine the principles of wisdome stored up in Youth may be preserved yet there are those defects naturally clogging that dying age which do ecclipse the brightness and lessen the goodness of those daies CHAP. III. Use â— THis may serve to reprove those who do allow some fleshly liberty to the daies of Youth Many who themselves are aged out of a kind of fatherly experienced gravity as they would have men think and out of a kind of moderation to which their years have brought them as they will have us believe do give liberty to a kind of latitude in the ways of Youth and young men must be born with Who doubteth but that there is a Christian moderation and compassion to be exercised towards such infirmities of the flesh which the Spirit wrestleth and laboureth against either in young or old when the heart being given up to Christ and brought under the soveraign command of his glorious Gospel and blessed Spirit cannot yet wholly free it self from the law of Rebellion nor utterly shake off the body of Death But out of a pretence of levity to flatter the enormities of Youth and to excuse those vitious unbridled courses which stain the glory of those best daies what is it but to say that hard Frosts deep Snows Inundations thick mire and dirt are not to be accounted strange in May nor to be wondered at in the prime and spring of the year Is it to be endured when the best daies of a man's life are wasted away in such courses as are contrary to the end for which a man liveth most contrary to the glory of that great God who hath given them these choice daies of Youth To speak plainly when are you more carefull to fence your Copses Pastures Meadows than in the Spring and will ye say the spring of our life which is the time of Youth may be laid open to the invasion of lusts to the assaults of Satan to the pleasures of Sin Let other men applaud their own gravity and condemn the rashness of others I cannot believe that Solomon wanted either years gravity wisdome or due moderation when he checked the folly of Youth in an holy Irony Eccles. 11. and setteth before all vain young men the Judgement of the great day shewing that for all these things even these excesses of Youth they shall be made to give account nor when he did put down this serious admonition in the words of this Text backed with so many pressing motives Remember now thy Creator in the daies of thy youth while the evil daies come not c. and had there been any defect in the pen-man yet I am sure the Holy Ghost which held his hand would not have suffered him to write one syllable amiss Neither
an old man If sin grow to an habit and custom custom being another nature makes it as ordinary to men as to eat and drink But if any of us have spent the flower of our youth in vice and vanity Let the fruit of our age only savour of vertue Indeed an old man of youthful behaviour is more ridiculous than a wanton toying young man Let every man then especially old men put their houses in order and prepare for Death when Death is between their teeth it is too late to provide remedies for the Terrours thereof A MEMENTO To Young and Old Sermon I. Ecclesiastes 12. verse 1. Remember now thy Creatour in the daies of thy youth while the evil daies come not nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them CHAP. I. THe wise man having first run through the vanities of Life by his own bitter experience now also hath taken a review of them as it seemeth with a penitent heart and an amazed spirit and drawing towards a Conclusion of this work as a principle Master of the assemblies desireth to leave on naile driven to the head and well fixed in the hard heart of the younger sort who are so possessed with those vanities of mind which he had all this while laboured to purge that they think themselves priviledged in youthful wantonness and conceive that all restraints of their unbridled Lust are but the froward or envious cavills of discontented old Age or sullen Melancholy Therefore it was expedient that this 〈◊〉 prejudice whereby they hurt none so 〈◊〉 as themselves should be removed by a coâ—trary Exhortation strongly enforced 〈◊〉 Pen-man beyond exception a man of grâ—â—test sufficiency every way among the Son of Adam excepting that only Immanuel But let them not think that the force of this exhortation is dead with the writer or worn out of date with age but let them know for a certainty that a greater than Solomon is here that the Spirit of Truth who liveth for ever breatheth most Manifestly in this holy Text who must be heard and obeyed by all that would not be found to fight against God Let every one then whose ears God hath opened hear what the Spirit speaketh unto the Church in this place and especially to the younger sort within the Church Remember now thy Creatour in the daies of thy youth c. In which words we have first an Exhortation and then an enforcement of it pressed and amplified at large in many verses following In the Exhortation there is 1. The Duty what 2. The Object whom 3. The Time when all laid down in words of special weight 1. The word Remember 1. implyeth much danger of and inclination to forgetfulness 2. It includeth Heart as well as Head Affection as well as Memory 2. The second thing The Object Thy Creatour a Word that addeth much force to the Exhortation Taken either absolutely as implying the Creatour of all things whom all Creatures at all times must glorify in their kinds or with special relation to those to who the Exhortation is more particularly directed Thy Creatour Remember him whom Created Thee and hath right to thy whole Self thy whole Life and especially to the best of thy Life and Strength 3. The Third thus In the daies of thy youth In the daies rather than years for they are but a few May-daies soon gone and vanished of thy youth The word in the Original is derived from a word which signifies to chuse and thence issueth a word signifying a young man and thence again this in the Text signifying Youth both shewing that younger men are the choycest of men or should be so and that youth is the principal and choicest part of our Life So some render these words In the daies of thy youth in the daies of thy choyce The sence therefore ye may take in these few words O ye young men who are of all others exceeding apt to forget him of whom you ought to be most mindful Let me perswade you to know to love to delight in to fear to remember to cleaue unto and obey even in the best of your time and strength your young vigourous and flourishing daies Him who is the great Creatour of all things Him who gave you in particular that breath which is in your nostrills Him who gave you this heat this strength these Spirits this lively temper of youth Him in whom you live move and have your being CHAP. II. THese things being briefly and plainly opened the observations which I shall make I shall refer to two heads Observ. 1. That young men are especially apt to forget their Creatour 2. That young men ought especially to remember their Creatour The first of these is certainly implyed the second plainly expressed in the words of the Text. Of the first the wise man seemeth of purpose to have deferred this Memento until the latter end of his discourse as knowing how apt the younger sort are to fail in this art of memory concerning the best things and hoping that of all others a speech of farewell would make some notable impression In this point I will shew 1. Wherein this forgetfulnes consisteth 2. I will prove it to be especially incident to youth 3. I will shew the reasons or causes of it I. Now for the first that I may shew wherein forgetfulness consisteth both reason and our own experience in the working of the powers of our Souls shew us That memory is properly seated in the brain and therefore that forgetfulness is a kind of emptiness in the same place But we must attend to those Idiomes of the Holy Ghost who by reason of that near knitting of all the faculties of the Soul in one single root of a Spiritual and Intellectual Being doth promiscuously translate the name of the one to the other and oftentimes include all in one Thou shalt love the Lord thy God saith our Saviour with all thine Heart and with all thy Soul c. Math. 22. 37. Why All the powers of the Soul are not love There is knowledge memory imagination will fear joy sorrow hatred courage c. which are all distinguished both in their Beings and Effects from Love But He in whom all the Treasures of Wisdom were hid knew well that when the heart by love did truly close with God and cleave unto him it could not leave any of its effections behind it but all must be given up unto him The Lord complaineth Isa. 1. 3. Israel doth not know my people do not consider Ignorance was not the only sin whereof the Lord held them guilty but in this was included as well want of love of fear of delight in God as of knowledge of him Not to go too far about This forgetfulness which now we have in hand you shall find to have the same force in the Scripture Psal. 137. If I forget thee O Jerusalem let my right-hand forget her cunning ver 6. If I do not
remember thee let my Tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth c. The course of the words shew manifestly that it was not simply to remember this City and Temple which he undertook but to be deeply affected with its calamity for he preferred Jerusalem above his chiefest joy But most plainly doth Moses expound this word unto us Deut. 8. ver 11. Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God in not keeping his Commandements and his Judgments and his Statutes which I command thee this day Where to forget is as well not to embrace in affection and not to observe in practice as not to keep in memory Many other examples we have of like nature in Psal. 119. besides many other Texts of Scripture So that in a word Forgetfulness of God is a withdrawing declining and turning aside of the Heart and Soul from God upon Earthly things manifested in a course of neglecting God's Service and his Commandements and running after the vanities of this life CHAP. III. II. NOw that this is especially incident to the younger sort I wish the lamentable experience of all times and of this especially did not too much ease me of the labour in proving yet something must be said for it according to promise The wise man in setting forth the impudency of a graceless Strumphet sheweth that young men are especially apt to forget God and to be ensnared by her Prov. 7. 6 7. At the window of my house I looked through my casement and behold among the simple ones I discerned among the youths a young man void of understanding passing through the street near her corner and he went the way to her house c. These are the men who in the pride of their youth and heath of their Blood value their own witts at an high rate and think themselves the wisest in the Countrey despise the dulness of elder years and more setled spirits as if wisdom were born and should dye with them Yet here ye may see how the wisest of men doth censure them for fools simple ones void of understanding men especially forgetful of God of his Word and Will such a one was seen going toward the house of a strange Woman toward a Whore-house and such are some Ale-houses frequented so much by young men for I know none so fit to keep a Stews as those who professedly without regard of Magistracy Ministry Credit c. do keep common shops for Drunkenness But mark the Wisdom of our young man 21. 22 23. With much fair speech she caused him to yield with the flattering of her lips she forced him he goeth after her straight way as an Oxe goeth to the slaughter or as a fool to the correction of the stocks till a dart strike through his liver as a bird hasteth to the snare and knoweth not that it is for his life She filled his head with her prateing and enticeing speeches and put better things out of his mind She caused him to forget God and cast his fear behind his back so she carried him captive in the bonds of lust and driveth him as an Oxe to the slaughter and as a fool to the correction of the stocks c. So the wise man in Eccles. 11. 9. Sheweth the solly and forgetfulness of young men where by way of Irony and in an holy scorn he bideth them do that which they will do though never so much forbidden and threatned Rejoyce O young man in thy youth and let thy heart cheer thee in the daies of thy youth put God the Judge of all the World out of thy thoughts lay aside all sad remembrance of the last Judgment let none of these Melancholick passions any whit interrupt thy youthful delights walk in the waies of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes Follow thy lusts and senses like the bruit beasts and forget all that will follow even as if thy Soul should vanish away in the ayr at the hour of thy Death like the breath of a Beast without hope of Joy or fear of Vengence in another World By this irronical concession he giveth us an excellent description of the brutish and sensual forgetfulness of the younger sort minding present things with the full bent of their Souls and never seriously looking towards the things that are above But what is the issue but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee to Judgment Even these things which thou makest nothing off as pardonable Errours of youth shall be scanned in the impartial judgement of God and he will bring thee to Judgment for them all CHAP. IV. III. IN the next place I am to shew the causes of this forgetfulness in the younger sort and here it were but an idle piece of Philosophy to ascribe it to the natural moisture and fluid temper of their brains whereby the impressions of things are presently dissolved like letters written in the water No this forgetfulness is as well in the heart as in the brain and requireth a further search into it's causes 1. In the first place then one special cause is a fleshly confidence in the natural strength of body and hope of long life They look at Death as a thing afar off even out of sight and therefore suffer not the apprehension of it to make any such impression upon them as in any degree to lessen that carnal sensual content which they take in the glut of earthly Vanities The blind Worldling when his barnes were full blessed himself in his own conceited happiness Soul take thine ease thou hast goods laid up for many years But these persons think they have the advantage of him for whereas his Soul that night was to be taken from his goods they think they have life in store for many years an so with the unfaithful servant conclude that their Master will defer his coming and they may safely delay their Repentance and put him out of their remembrance As Gaal and the men of Shechem could eat and drink and curse Abimilech because they thought he was not near them though he was nearer than they were aware so the younger sort can satisfy their lusts and please themselves and do what they will scorning all admonitions or threatnings of Death because they think it not neer unto them Whereas perhaps Death as the punishment of Sin lyeth at their door and will be found to have way-laid them in the midst of their vanities and to cut them off in the midst of their strength and sins Strength Health abundance of Spirits freedom from aches pains and bodily distempers do put Death out of their thoughts and they will leave crooked and way-ward old age to vex it self with pensive remembrances of the Grave 2. The lively vigour of youth filleth them with a kind of carnal self-content and maketh them please themselves in themselves and so to feel no need they have of happiness and of delighting themselves in the Lord and therefore to neglect and
life as thou art uncertain yet canst thou not possible be certain of the grace of Repentance which is a rare gift and I am perswaded seldome bestowed in decrepit years where it hath been rejected in the more able age especially by such as all their time have lived under a faithful and convincing Ministry Doth the Apostle say That the Gentiles were given up to a reprobate sence because they did with-hold the truth in unrighteousness going on in those unrighteous courses which the Light of Truth Manifested to them by the works of Creation did discover and Condemn How much more mayst â—hou tremble at this dreadful Judgment who continuest in the pride of thy youth to sin with greediness against that Light of the Word which shineth unto thee farr more brightly than that twilight of Nature The Lord make you wise unto Salvation and suffer you not with blind eyes and obstinate Spirits to run upon your own Destruction forgeting him that made you puting off the remembrance of your latter end passâ—â—◠〈◊〉 in a dead sleep of present impenâ—â—er 〈…〉 selfe dream of future 〈…〉 very flashes of Hell-fire 〈…〉 which the Lord preserve you 〈…〉 of your Consciences through 〈…〉 and Grace that ye may not sleep 〈…〉 of everlasting Death SERMON II. Eccles. 12. 1. Remember now thy Creatour c. CHAP. 1. HAving spoken of the former point I proceed unto the Second Observ. That young men ought especially to Remember their Creatour in the daies of their youth What it is to remember in the language of the holy Ghost you may gather by that which I spake of the contrary in opening the former point where I shewed you That this remembrance is not only of the brain but of the heart together with the head implying affections as well as memory and such as are powerful Manifesting themselves in answerable Practices So that as to forget God is a with-drawing declining and turning the heart aside from God so to remember God is a cleaving of the heart to him in love whereby all the Powers of the Soul are given up to him waiting upon his Will in an holy attendance upon the directions of his Word readily practising whatsoever he commandeth and carefully shuning whatsoever he forbideth We read Num. 15. 38 39 40. That the Lord would have the people of Israel to have fringes on their Garments that they might remember his Commandments but not barely to keep them in their memories but saith he That ye may remember and do all my Commandements and be holy unto your God An effectual remembrance that should work upon the affections and make them holy that should shape them out an holy course of Life and make them do all that the Lord had Commanded This doth the Scripture in special manner require of young men Psal. 119. 9. Where-withal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to thy Word CHAP. II. THis Point may be made more plain by Reasons Reason 1. The former Point shall be a Reason of this Young Men are especially apt to forget their Maker and therefore young Men ought to be especially careful to remember him The greater defect there is in any the greater care is required in supplying that defect The stronger inclination there is to any sin the greater watchfulness there ought to be in resisting and subduing that sin The more unapt and sluggish we are towards any duty the more careful should we be to quicken and encourage our selves to that duty The weakest parts of a City have special need of guarding Men that have but weak memories and have much dealings in the World are so much the more careful to use their Pens and commit such things to books and memorials with which if they should trust their memories they would deceive them So especially in heavenly things the more apt young Men are to forget their Creatour the more careful should they be to remember their Maker because their affections are violent because they are apt to be blinded with a fleshly confidence in youth and strength of body because they are apt to doate with a carnal complacency upon the natural vigour of their youthful temper because they are more capable of carnal pleasures than the elder sort because there are so many snares laid for them above others by all which means they are apt to lose the best and happiest use of their memories and to live in a sensual forgetfulness of and neglect of their God and Creatour therefore should they with a double care and watchfulness endeavour to stirr up their hearts to a conscionable and affectionate remembrance of their Maker 2. We may also gather a reason from the second word in my Text. Now Remember now c. which noreth a special excellency of this time above others As if he had said Now is the chief time wherein thou mayst do God best Service So then young men ought especially to remember their Creatour because Now in their young daies is the chiefest and choyceest time wherein they may glorifie their God and do him acceptable Service Remember now while sin is but budding whiles corruptions are but twiggs while lust is but conceiving while passion and anger is but a green wound not festered and turned into a setled and cankered malice and revengeful disposition Now whiles thy senses are quick thy spirits lively thy temper healthy thy body strong while thy blood is warm and every part is fit for that imployment for which it was ordained Now shew they self mindful of thy Creatour careful of his service respectful of his Glory Now thou canst do something for him Now is the time wherein thou art able and therefore Now especially thou must remember him 3. This word Now may seem to imply somewhat more viz. That this which is here required must be done now or never True it is some few may be converted in their elder years who in their youth were forgetful of their Maker but ye must observe that here the Lord requireth of every one that he should give up the strength the morning the freshest and principal part of his life unto him and his service Now this can never be done but in youth and he that spendeth his youth in sin and impenitency can never perform this work he can never give up his strength and the best of his time to God The Lord saith Remember ye keep holy the Sabbath day this should be presently done without delay but yet some who have been careless prophaners of the Lords day have afterwards been conscionable observers of it But when the Lord saith Remember your Creatour in youth this cannot be done but in youth He that spendeth his youth in impenitency and ungodliness can never afterwards give up his youth and the strength thereof unto God Under the Law the Lord required the best of the Flock for Sacrifice Now he that should sell or kill all the best and leave none but
doth the Psalmist return an answer sutable to these mens conceits when the question is moved Wherewithall shall a young man cleanse his way but quite contrary By taking heed thereto according to thy word Where ye see both the Rule by which and the manner how they are to frame their Courses requireth a special strictness The very Word of God that pure and holy Rule of Righteousness and not the customs of the time nor the ordinary practice nor lusts of youth must guide them and this Rule they must heed with much attention and watchfulness having one eye upon their ways another upon the word taking heed thereto according to the word ever marking the steps they tread and observing how it suiteth with the precious truth of God This is the wisdom of the Antient of daies and whatsoever is contrary to it gray hairs cannot exempt from folly CHAP. IV. SECT I. II. THis should perswade the younger sort not to make those daies evil which God hath made good Oh do not abuse your choycest daies to the basest employments Think the spring of your age too good for Satan too pretious for Lust for Drunkenness for Vanity too good to be so spent that in old age ye shall not be able to remember it without shame without a sting Ye know what the Lord spake long since to Israel If ye walk contrary unto me I also will walk contrary unto you How can ye walk more contrary unto God than to make those the worst daies which he hath made the best To have abused any of God's good Creatures under the Law had been sin to have profaned the first fruits a double sin to give any of our time to the service of sin is unworthy of a Christian but to abase the prime of Youth and the crown of our years the choicest of our daies to this slavery what is it but to set our selves to cross the Lord in the wisdom of his wayes and to make these daies evil because he hath made them good Regard not those who scoff in their carnal folly at the uniting of these two together Youth and Holiness as at an unequal match as if a young man and an old woman were joyned together in marriage Assure thy self that nothng can so well become the best daies as the best affections and the best conversation that nothing is more seemly for a vessel of honour than to be seasoned with true grace and sanctification even while it is now in the daies of Youth 1 Joh. 2. 13 14. I write unto you young men because ye have overcome the wicked one Again I have written unto you young men because ye are strong and the word of God abideth in you and ye have overcome the wicked one Here is the excellency of young men not that they have so much strength oâ— body or daring Spirits to challenge or lay others on the ground as that they have strength of grace and power of the Spirit to wrestle with Satan in all his temptationâ— and tread them under their feet when theâ— have the word of God abiding in them anâ— powerfully enabling them to wrestle witâ— Principalities and Powers and so to wrestlâ— as to overcome These are young men to whom the beloved Apostle of Christ vouchsafeth to write in a peculiar manner aâ— indeed such are young men whose Youthâ— man ought to despise SECT II. TAke heed then of making these goâ—â— daies of Youth to be evil daies whiâ—â— God hath made good daies Quest. But some will say perhaps hoâ— are they made evil daies Sol. I. I answer in general The daies of Youth good in themselves are made evil when they are spent in unregeneration spent in a state of impenitency without sound conversion to God without holy communion with him Every young man who is not brought home to God by unfeigned repentance in his Youth maketh the daies of his Youth to be evil daies Rom. 6. 20 21. When ye were the servants of Sin ye were free from righteousness what fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed for the end of those things is death Whiles a man is an unregenerate person he is a servant of Sin and all that while he maketh his daies evil daies his life an evil life for he is not able to shew any fruit that he hath reaped of all his works and wayes no true benefit no sound comfort ariseth out of all his courses So it is with old men that live in the service of sin without true regeneration In like manner it is in young men that are unregenerate let them do what they will or can let them fill themselves with all manner of earthly pleasures let them please themselves every way and do what they can to enjoy these dayes of Youth walking in the wayes of their own Heart and in the sight of their Eyes please their Senses of all sorts c. Nay let them spend their daies of Youth better than so even in Wars in Study and Learning in getting some useful commendable Trade yet so long as they are unregenerate and do not seriously remember turn to their Creator now in these daies of their Youth they have no true fruit worth the having of all their endeavours of all their daies of Youth Now doth not a man make his daies evil daies when he spendeth them so that no true good cometh of them when they bring forth more evil than good so much evil as that the good that might come of them is not good unto them for the end of these things is death When a man is still hastening to his destruction running oâ— towards his death as every one unconverteâ— is what fruit can there come of any thing he goeth about All ye that are young who put off repentance and are not regenerate nor labour to be so ye make the daies of your Youth which ye so rejoyce in evil daies cursed daies ye walk under the wrath and curse of God and are not freed from the sentence of condemnation Whiles ye are merry and jocund whiles your Hearts cheer you ye do but sport your selves in the midst of your own misery and dangers Canst thou enjoy one good day whiles thou hast no assurance for an hour to be free from the fire that never goeth out whiles thou standest accursed and hast the sentence of condemnation written upon thy conscience and not washed off by the blood of Christ spinkled by faith oh these are evil bitter daies if thou couldest discern them rightly wherein Heaven frowneth upon thee God is angry with thee and all thy sins remain unpardoned Therefore repent and make thy peace with God that so the daies of thy Youth may be good daies daies wherein thou maist be assured that God is appeased with thee daies wherein thou maist walk in the bright Sun-shine and light of his countenance daies wherein thou maist have thy fruit in holiness for the present and be
the old the starveling the blind the lame c. That man could never obey the Commandment so when the Lord biddeth us to remember to give up our youth to him if we spend this and our strength in sin we can never obey this Commandment for that time and strength is gone and our importent time crazy drowsy old age is left 4. From this Word Creatour God made all things for his glory and the more excellent any Creature is either in regard of its specifical nature or kind or in regard of its particular qualities and excellencies the more is it tyed to glorify God that made it such So among all earthly Creatures Man being made of the most excellent nature is most straitly tyed to glorify God the Creatour And among Men such as are in their youth and strength being endowed with the most excellent abilities ought more especially to remember him 5. Consider these Words Thy Creatour God is the Creatour of young Men as young Men. He did nor only give thee the being of a Man but the years the life the health the strength the vigour of a young Man He is the Author of thy youth the Creatour of thy strength he is thy Creatour in special he hath now Created that strength and ability in thee which he hath not yet Created in Children that which he hath taken from old Men. Thou hast that work of his now wrought upon and sheâ—ing it self in thee which is not in others and therefore Remember thy Creatour that hath Created that hot Blood that warmeth thy heart that quickness of apprehension and those lively Spirits that are within thee 6. Consider these Words In the dayes of thy youth daies and not years daies and not nights Thy youth is but a few May-daies it will presently be gone and therefore in those few daies that short time thou shouldest give up thy self to thy Creatour Could not ye Watch with me one hour a just reproof of our Saviour to his sleepy Disciples Could ye not afford me a few daies a just reproof of all silly souls who are not wise unto Salvation and think their youth too good too much to be given up to God It is not three hundred years that the Lord asketh at thy hands as at Henoch's nor Nine hundred and upwards as he required of other Patriaches but a few daies of youth Daiâ—s and not Nights The times of youth consist of Daies then is the Sun-shine the Night follow dark times of old age aches weakness sickness sleepiness Now because these are Daies they must be given up to God who is Light and not to the Devil who is the Prince of Darkness not to sins which are works of Darkness This is gross folly to give the Days of youth to Satan and to leave the dimme evening of our old declining age to God to give the good the best daies to Satan and the evil daies as they are called afterwards yea the worst to God CHAP. III. Vse 1. THis sheweth the great folly of young Men who think of all others in a Congregation that they have least reason to give any special heed and yield obedience unto the Word Preached Old Men they think had need to look about them they smell of the Winding-sheet the Grave groaneth for them an earthy cold benumeth their Limbs the beginnings of death are already upon them and have taken deep possession of them but as for themselves they are full of Life and feel no messengers of Death Life aboundeth in their Blood in their Spirits it is strongly seated in their Bones it beateth in their pulses it looketh out at their eyes and shineth in their faces there is no sign no shew of Death Alass poor souls Death doth not alwayes give any long time of warning it maketh many sudden surprizals as well as tedious and lingring seiges It hangeth up young Absalom invironed with his Warlike troops it sheddeth young Amnon's blood in the midst of his Cups while Jobs Sons and his Daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest Brothers house there came a great wind from the Wilderness and smote the four corners of the house and fâ—ll upon the young Men and they dyed Job 1. 18 19. In one night Death slâ—yeth the Sons and Heirs of Pharaoh and of all the Egyptians so that there was scarce one house where there was not one young Man dead How often hath the supream Lord of Life and Death taught us by evident examples that no age is privâ—ledged no years are exempted that the youngest cannot promise himself another year another day or hour ye that sit here old and young who knoweth when or where the next blow will light Sin hath perverted the order of Nature and put it out of course and therefore ye must not look that the same order should be kept in passing out which was in coming into the World and that those who came first should alwaies leave those behind them which were born after them The Son dyeth before the Father the Nephew before the Grand-father the Young before the Old the Heir before him that is in possession Sin hath let in Death into the World and that cometh in as an Enemy not upon parly and conditions bâ—â— as a Conqueror by a forcible entry and 〈◊〉 sacketh this City of the World and maketh no difference of Sex or Age but killeâ— and striketh on the right hanâ— and on thâ— left It hearkneth to no such plea Theâ—â— is an elder man There is a Woman that 〈◊〉 old when I was a Child let me alone I am content to yield when mine Auntients aâ—â— gone before me No if I will that he 〈◊〉 what is that to thee follow thou mâ— Some daies in the year are not near so loâ—â— as some others Some mens lives will bâ— reach the middle of some others their 〈◊〉 setteth at noon and the night is come upoâ— them before they have begun their daâ—â—â— work Therefore let young men learn wiâ—dom from the wise man yea from the Spâ—rit speaking in this Text Remembering the Creatour in the daies of their Youth And 〈◊〉 thou O young Man whatsoever thou heaâ—â—est concerning the wayes of God thinâ— that whatsoever remembrances are deliveâ—ed from the Word to put thee in mind of 〈◊〉 Creatour that they concern thee in especial 〈◊〉 there were none but young Men in a Parist that place should have special need of thâ— Word of God If there were no gray-heâ—â— in a Congregation yet there is need of spâ—cial Exhortations from the Word to mind such of their Creatour If thou hearest of present Repentance conceive that it is spoken to thee If the danger of continuing in sin and delaying conversion be set forâ—h in the Ministry of the Word know that this belongeth to thee in special manner who art in the daies of thy youth If thou hearest the charge of our Saviour Watch therefore left at any time your hearts be overcome with Surfeiting
and now be very earnest with the Father of mercies to pass by the multitudes of thy sins whch in these many years of thy life thou hast made thy self and others guilty of CHAP. VI. Use 5. LAstly yea that are young let this enter into yovr hearts and be ye perswaded that nothing doth so well fit you nothing so well become your years as to remember your Creator as to know to love to fear to serve and obey him that made you Now is the Spring now is the time of sowing in tears even in your Youth and if ye sow so ye shall in Youth reap the first fruits of comfort Now is the day and therefore work now the night cometh darkness cometh yea the night of spiritual darkness and blindness of mind may come a dreadfull gloomy night may shade your Souls the spirit of God withdrawing his light against which you have so long sinned in the pride of Youth and Satan drawing a black vail over your Souls then there is a woful night within the night of an hardened heart that cannot repent and of a â—eared conscience and a reprobate sense may come when none can rightly work the works of God Oh then what an extreme folly is it for you now to sleep in Sin whiles it is day and whiles mercy is offered and the way of life is shewed and the works which God hath ordained for his people to walk in are laid before you Now then it becometh you to flee youthfull lusts and not to stay till they flee you Now learn to hate all sin and especially the sins to which your age enclineth you even as Death as Hell Do not think that the sins of Youth will become you because Youth is enclinable to them but rather think they are so much the more unseemly because nature corrupted enclineth Youth unto them Sin is so contray unto that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and right order of things whch God hath made that it enclineth men to those things whch are most unseemly for them And this must needs be so for Sin is most contrary unto God now God by his work enclineth every Creature to that which becometh it and so by his work upon man in the Creation he did frame in him a propension and inclination to that which did every way become him best Now Sin being quite contrary unto God and seizing upon man's nature did so corrupt it as to encline it to that which is most unseemly for it So man in general is enclined to earthly to bodily and sensible things sutable to the body and to neglect heavenly and spiritual things which are sutable to his Soul and inner man which considering the nature and creation of man is most absurd and unseemly as if a man should be more carefull of his foot than of his Head What comparison is there between the Soul and the Body Is not that of far greater excellency than this How unseemly a thing is it to seek the satisfying and contenting of the body rather than of the spiritual and better part of a man's self So Sin enclineth old men in age to become more earthly and covetous than before Now this is most unseemly So the Heathen could observe counting it as foolish and absurd for an old man to grow more covetous and eager after the world as for a Traveller to provide himself so much the more carefully for his Journey the nearer he cometh to his Inne or Journey 's end Were it not an unseemly folly when a man is even at home and seeth the smoak of his own Chimney to seek about carefully for a fresh Horse and other necessaries fit for a Journey of many hundred miles So what more foolish and unseemly than for an old man travelling to his last home to be the more carefull of earthly things the nearer he cometh to his grave which are useful to him only by the way And as sin enclineth old age to that whch is most unseemly so also it doth younger years Oh do not think these things seemly for thee to which Nature corrupted by sin enclineth thee no more than that is wholsome for a sick man to which his Stomach vitiated by a disease doth move him Esteem Grace of all things to be the richest ornament put on Christ Jesus that thou maist partake of the beauty of his Grace and Spirit who is the fairest of ten thousand that thou maist be one of those in whom God himself through Christ Jesus is delighted SERMON IV. Eccles. 12. 1. In the daies of thy youth CHAP. I. IN the next place we may observe under what terms the daies of Old Age are opposed to the daies of Youth it is under the notion of evil daies They are opposed to the daies of Youth as evil to good therefore hence I observe Obs. That the daies of Youth are good daies So the opposition teacheth us to inferr for they are such daies as men enjoy while the evil daies come nor The Hebrews call young men by such a name as imployeth choice and a young man in that Language is as much as a chosen or selected man a man picked out of the multitude for special use and so the time of Youth is expressed as a chosen selected time So in this very place for as he had said before Eccles. 11. 9. Rejoyce O young man Or O thou chosen selected one So here Remember thy Creator in the daies of thy Youth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or thy choicest daies So that ye see the ordinary expression used in primitive significant Tongue which is as it were the fountain of all Languages noteth out of time of Youth unto us as a good yea as a choice selected time So much I think the Psalmist implyeth too Psal. 71. 17 18. O God thou hast taught me from my youth and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works Now also when I am old and gray-headed O God forsake me not c where he seemeth to set the daies of Old Age against the daies of Youth as evil against good O thou hast taught me from my Youth Thou hast vouchsafed me thy presence thy Spirit to teach and guide me in those good and pleasant daies of Youth those good daies when I in confidence of thy presence and assistance encountred the Bear and Lion and rescued my Lambs Tâ—ose daies when I assaulted the Philistine took away the reproach from Israel Those daies when with a lively and ravished Spirit I leaped and daunced before the Ark But now the evil daies of Old Age the winter of my life is growing upon me the times are coming when I shall see no pleasure in them when Clothes shall scarce suffice to warm me and therefore now O my God! forsake me not withdraw not thy presence now in special I find need of thee that thou maist make those daies good unto me through thy love and Spirit which otherwise sin would make exceeding evil and wofull
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 gnâ—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