A SERMON Preached before the King Queen AT WHITE-HALL March 23. 1689 90. By the Right Reverend Father in God EDWARD Lord Bishop of Worcester Published by their Majesties Special Command LONDON Printed for Henry Mortclocke at the Phoenix in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1690. ECCLESIASTES xi 9. Rejoyce O young man in thy youth and let thy heart chear thee in the days of thy youth and walk in the ways of thy heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment IF Solomon had said Rejoyce not O young man in thy Youth neither let thy heart chear thee in the days of thy Youth walk not in the way of thine heart nor in the sight of thine eyes for know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into Iudgment the Sense had been so easie and plain that there had been no Appearance of Difficulty in reconciling one part with the other For the whole had been look'd upon but as a necessary and seasonable Admonition to such who by the Heats of Youth and Strength of Inclination and Allurements of the World are too apt to be transported with the Love of Sensual Pleasures And this had been very becoming the Wise Man towards the conclusion of his Book wherein he had not onely before set forth the several Vanities of Humane Life but so soon after bids Men Remember their Creatour in the days of their Youth while the evil days come not nor the years draw nigh of which they shall say they have no pleasure in them i. e. in the days wherein they are most apt to walk in the way of their hearts and in the sight of their eyes For he knew very well that nothing is so powerfull a Check and Restraint upon mens inclinations to Sin as the serious consideration of that God that gave them their Beings and will bring them to an Account for their Actions But how then comes he in this Verse to seem rather to give a Permission to Young men in the time of Youth to indulge themselves in their mirth and vanity Rejoyce O young man in thy Youth c. Some think that the Wise Man onely Derides and Exposes them for their Folly in so doing but that seems not agreeable with the grave and serious advice which follows And we find nothing like Irony or Sarcasm in any part of the foregoing Book for he begins it with a Tragical Exclamation against the vanities of humane life Vanity of vanities saith the Preacher vanity of vanities all is vanity And he pursues his Argument by a particular induction of the most tempting and pleasing vanities of Life and particularly all sorts of Sensual delights as Mirth and Iollity in the first place then Wine and Musick fine Palaces curious Vineyards Gardens and Pools a great Retinue and which was needfull to maintain all this Abundance of Silver and Gold But what a melancholy reflection doth he make on all these Pleasures of Life Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought and on the labour that I had laboured to doe and behold all was vanity and vexation of spirit What incouragement then could the Wise Man after so much experience of the World give to Young men here in the Text to Rejoyce in the days of their Youth and to walk in the way of their hearts and in the sight of their eyes i. e. to pursue Vanity and to lay the Foundation for greater vexation of Spirit when they come to reflect on their own Follies What then is the meaning of these words For this we are to observe that the Preacher having declared his own main Scope and Design in the beginning and conclusion of his Book brings in sometimes the different senses which mankind are apt to have concerning the Happiness of Life And that is the reason that we meet with such different Expressions concerning it In one place it is said that there is no better thing under the Sun than to eat and drink and to be merry but in another he saith Sorrow is better than laughter and by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better In one place he saith All things come alike to all there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked But in another That it shall be well with them that fear the Lord but it shall not be well with the wicked How can such Passages as these be Reconciled if we look on them as expressing the sense of the same Person But if we allow them to be the different notions of two sorts of Men in this World they are easie to be understood although not to be reconciled And the one sort is of those who place all Happiness in this Life without regard to Religion or Vertue or another World and the other of those who look on this Life onely as a Passage to Another and that all Persons ought to behave themselves here so as conduces most to their Happiness hereafter And according to these different Schemes we have in the words of the Text two very different sorts of Counsel and Advice to Young men I. The first proceeds upon the Supposition that all the Happiness of Man lies in this Life and in the Enjoyment of the Sensual Pleasures of it Rejoyce O young man in thy Youth and let thy heart chear thee in the days of thy Youth and walk in the way of thy heart and in the sight of thy eyes We have no other Rule here given but the sight of the eye and the way of the heart i. e. outward Appearance and inward Inclination and these are the beloved Rules of the most Sensual and Voluptuous persons and they judge of Happiness onely by the pursuit of them Here is nothing mention'd of Reason or Conscience or a regard to Vertue in the Restraint of Natural Inclinations Nay here is nothing of that Severity which Epicurus himself thought necessary towards the maintaining of a pleasant state of Life which he granted could never be done without some restraint of Mens Appetites and Inclinations to the Pleasures of Sense and it is not to be imagined that Solomon should give Young men greater Liberty than the corruptest Moralists did Therefore I cannot look upon these words as a Permission for them to doe what is here expressed but as a full Description of that method of Living which the jolly and voluptuous Corrupters of Youth would instruct them in Rejoyce O young man in thy Youth and let thine heart chear thee c. II. We have here the most Powerfull Check and Restraint laid upon all these Sensual Inclinations of Youth But know thou that for all these things God will bring thee to Iudgment Which Words are the Wise Man's Correction of the foregoing Liberty or the Curb which Reason and Religion give to the pursuit of Natural Inclinations wherein every Word
a sincere and hearty Repentance David saw nothing more as to the Guilt of his Sins when he penn'd his 51st Psalm than his own Reason and Natural Conscience might inform him before but he had quite another Sense of his Sins then his Heart was broken and his Soul wounded under the Apprehension of God's Displeasure and this makes him pray so earnestly and so importunately to God for the Pardon of his Sins And if it were thus in the case of a Man otherwise after God's own heart i.e. afraid of offending him and carefull to please him what may we imagine it to be in those who in the time of Youth walk in the way of their hearts and in the sight of their eyes i. e. allowing themselves in all Sensual Inclinations and pursuing Carnal Delights so far till they have lost all Sense of God and another World and such as these nothing but the Powerfull Influences of Divine Grace can awaken and recover 3. The Third Reason is A General Presumption upon God's Mercy The first thing which Sinners in the Heat of their Youth and Pursuit of their Lusts aim at is to think as little as may be of what they are doing or what will be the Consequence of their Actions For every thought of themselves is very uneasie to them and every thought of God is much more so therefore they drive away all such thoughts by one means or other by Sleep Diversion Company and such Publick Entertainments as rather heighten and inflame their Vices than correct them If all this will not doe but there will be some Melancholy Hours wherein Conscience begins to rouse it self and to awaken the Sinner to some Sense of his Folly then he is ready to hearken with Pleasure to any Raileries against Religion and Morality and admires the Wit of any one who dares say a bold and sharp thing against the Wisdom of all Ages and of the best Men in them And one or two such Sayings without Proof are cried up as far beyond the best Rules of Morality or the Evidence of natural and revealed Religion Any Sceptical Disputes are sufficient Demonstrations to them and the most unreasonable Cavils against Religion are embraced because against the thing they hate and even a Jest against the Day of Judgment shall signifie more with them than the strongest Arguments in the World to prove it The true Reason is they love their Vices and hate every thing which makes them uneasie to them and nothing doth more so than the thoughts of a Judgment to come But suppose after all the terrible and frequent Expressions of Scripture concerning the Day of Judgment joyned with the Reasonableness of the thing do make such Impression on their Minds that they cannot wholly shake off the Fears and Apprehensions of it then their last endeavour is to mitigate and lessen them from a General Presumption of God's Mercifull Nature and therefore they are willing to suppose that however God to keep the World in awe hath threatned them with the dreadfull Severities of the Great Day yet as a tender Father who threatens his Disobedient Son in order to reclaim him with no less than Disinheriting him for ever yet when it comes to Execution he may Relent not from his Sons Deserts but his own Compassion so they hope or believe or are willing to doe so that God at the Great Day will not proceed according to the rigour which he hath threatned to use And to comfort themselves in these hopes they find out all possible Extenuations of their Sins If we say they had been created purely intellectual Beings free from this load of Flesh and the Inclinations which are natural to it then it had been more reasonable to have called us to a strict Account for every Action of our Lives for then every Inclination to Evil must have come from our Minds but now our Bodies corrupt and draw them aside and the Inclinations to Evil grow faster than our Reason which should check and restrain them And when those Inclinations are strongest Men have not that Judgment which is necessary to the Government of unruly Passions So that the very frame of humane Nature seems to plead for Sins committed in the Heat and Violence of Youth Besides such is the Strictness and Purity of the Law of God and so great the Weakness and Disability the Ignorance and Inadvertency of Mankind that if God will make no Allowance for humane Frailty who can stand before his Tribunal And if any Allowance be made for Sins of Infirmity there are so many Abatements to be made for Sins committed through sudden Passion through Mistake through the unavoidable Impotency of humane Nature in this degenerate Condition that the Severity of that Day is not much to be feared This is the utmost of the Sinners Plea against the Severity of the Day of Judgment But to shew how faulty it is I shall offer these Considerations 1. That God will certainly Iudge the World in Righteousness and therefore none shall have Cause to complain of the Harshness or Severity of his Proceedings For this Righteousness is not the Rigour of Justice but that Equity which hath a Regard to the Circumstances of Actions and the Abatement and Extenuation of Faults which arise from them 2. None shall suffer at that Day but for their wilfull Impenitency and obstinate Continuance in Sin For this is not onely agreeable to the Mercifull Nature of God to forgive Repenting Sinners but it is one of the great Designs of the Gospel to assure Mankind of it by the highest Testimonies even by the Death and Resurrection of the Son of God and all the Miracles wrought in Confirmation of it and of the Truth of his Doctrine 3. There are several Degrees of Wilfulness and Obstinacy and Mens Judgment shall be according to them Some Mens Capacities Opportunities and Helps have very much exceeded others some have broken through stronger Convictions and more powerfull Assistences of Grace than others some have had more early Instructions more frequent Warnings more obliging Favours from Heaven than others And as it is reasonable that Persons suffer for their Obstinate Continuance in Sin so that they should suffer according to the Degrees and Circumstances of it 4. It is not unjust Severity in God to deprive Men of that Happiness which they have wilfully refused and to condemn them to that Misery which their Sins have deserved Hath not God made the most condescending Offer of Mercy and Salvation that it is possible for Creatures to expect from him after so many and great Provocations Could Heaven stoop lower than it hath done to vile and ungratefull Sinners When the Son of God came down from Heaven on purpose to reconcile God and Man together When the Spirit of God warns and excites their minds to the Consideration of their Eternal Welfare When the Messengers of this Reconciliation are to woo and intreat and beseech Sinners in Christ's stead as
though God did beseech them by them that they would be reconciled to God When the Patience and Goodness and Long-suffering of God is exercised so much on purpose to lead them to Repentance When God instead of perfect Obedience is willing to pardon and pass by so many Offences if they truly Repent of them and to receive them still into his Favour and Mercy When after all this men do rather prefer the present Pleasures of Sin before all that happiness which God so freely offers is it any Injustice in him to suffer them for ever to be deprived of that which they so wilfully so ungratefully so obstinately refused And supposing the Souls of Men to subsist in another World free from all those Clouds of Errour and Mistake and the false Notions they are deceived by here as well as all the Diversions and Pleasures of this Life it is not to be imagined but they must for-ever suffer an intolerable Anguish within called A Worm that never dyes and a Fire that never goes out from the Reflexions upon their own Folly What Vengeance beyond this God may inflict we now know not may none of us ever know it but we are sure it will never exceed the proportion and desert of their Sins Which is sufficient to clear the Justice of God in his Proceedings with Mankind in the Day of Judgment 2. It remains now onely to shew by what means God's bringing us to Judgment may make a deeper Impression upon our Minds By considering thâ—se two things 1. That our not considering it will not make our condition bâ—tter but much worse 2. That our Considering it is the best means to prevent the evil Consequences of it 1. Our not considering it will not make our Condition better There were great Reason indeed to walk in the way of our hearts and in the sight of our eyes and never trouble our selves with what will happen at the great Day if the putting it out of our Heads would make our Accounts the easier when it comes But alas Whether we think of it or no the Account runs on and we must answer to every particular at last and how unprovided shall we be if we spend no time here in examining stating and clearing of them as far as we are able It is a mighty Priviledge we have by the Gospel that God allows us to clear our Accounts with him in this World For if we would judge our selves we shall not be judged i.e. If we call our selves to a strict Account for our Actions if we Repent heartily and sincerely of our Sins if we seek earnestly to God for Mercy if we have our Consciences cleansed by the Blood of Christ from the pollution of our Sins then we may with Joy and Peace in our Minds think of the Great Day of Recompence But if we never enter into our Selves to search and examine our own Actions never look into the Habits of our own Minds nor charge our selves with the Guilt of the Sins we have committed how can we ever hope to escape the Scrutiny or avoid the Severity of that Day For our Account continually increases by our neglect of it and the burden of God's Wrath must be so much heavier when we have taken no care to lessen it but after our hardness and impenitent hearts have onely treasured up wrath against the day of wrath 2. Our considering that God will bring us to Judgment is the best means to prevent the evil Consequences of it For although we cannot hope to plead Innocency yet which is next in point of Wisdom this is the most effectual Motive to bring us to Repentance And that which makes us Repent makes us to grow Wise in time and to lay a good Foundation for Eternal Life There are many Arguments to induce us to it in the Folly and Shame of our Sins the Wisdom of Reflection and Reformation the Instances of it and Exhortations to it recorded in Scripture but there is none more sensible and which touches Men more in point of Interest and Concernment than this of a Iudgment to come Must I then saith a Penitent Sinner give a strict Account to God of all the evil Actions of my Life and suffer according to the Desert of them if I die in Impenitency How much doth it then concern me to Repent betimes to Repent in good earnest to Repent while there is hopes of Mercy Away then all ye deceitfull Vanities of this wicked World ye have too long deceived and seduced me what will all this vain shew this busie Seducer this impertinent Outside of the World signifie when I must be stript of all and stand guilty and accused by my own Conscience before the Judgment-Seat of Christ Oh! how wretched shall I be if my Conscience condemns me before the Sentence of the Judge Therefore I am resolved to prevent the Judgment of that Day I will accuse judge and condemn my self nay I will proceed to Execution as to all the vitious Habits and corrupt Inclinations within me And although I cannot wholly mortifie them yet I will crucifie them i. e. nail them to the Cross and allow them no longer Liberty and albeit they may struggle for a time yet I will never give way to their Dominion over me any more that so Death and Judgment may find me prepared if not with unspotted Innocency yet with hearty and sincere Repentance To conclude all let the Consideration of this Day of Iudgment to come enter deep into our Minds and awaken us out of our Lethargy and Security We are very apt to put off unpleasing things from time to time and to pass away our time here as easily as may be But this is no part of Wisdom and we shall extremely blame our selves for it one time or other The best we can do now is to recover what is past by Repentance and to set our selves to the making up our Accounts with God in this World For we are all walking on the brink of Eternity and know not how soon we may drop into it But what Eternal Horrour and Confusion must follow us if we go on to slight the Opportunities he still affords us of making our Peace with him who is to be our Judge May God therefore of his Mercy awaken us all to a timely and serious Repentance and then our Iniquities shall not be our Ruine FINIS Ch. 12. 1. Ch. 1. 2. Ch. 2. 1. v. 3. v. 4 5 6 7. v. 8. v. 11. Ch. 8. 15. Ch. 7. 3. Ch. 9. 2. Ch. 8. 12 13. Ch. 12. 14. Act. 7. 31. Rom. 2. 16. 2 Cor. 5. 10 Rom. 2. 6. 1 Cor. 7. 31. Matt. 4. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nat. Ausc. l. 7. c. 4. n. 15. Gal. 5. 6. Luke 15. 17. 2 Sam. 12. 7. Acts 17. 31. Mark 9. 44. 1 Cor. 11. 31. Rom. 2. 5.
this of the Day of Judgment of which these seem to be the main Reasons 1. Mens Impatience of Considering great and weighty things at a Distance which cannot affect and move our Senses 2. The bewitching and stupifying Nature of Present and Sensual Pleasures which draw off the Mind from greater things and weaken all the Impressions they make upon us 3. A General Presumption upon God's Mercy towards Mankind on the Account of the Frailty of Humane Nature notwithstanding the severity of his Threatnings in Scripture 1. I begin with Mens Impatience of Considering We flatter and please our selves with the thoughts that we are Intelligent and Considering Beings when it may be Considering especially as to matters of greatest consequence is one of the things which Mankind have the greatest Aversion to For generally they love to go no farther than the Outsides and Appearances of things and have their Minds wholly possessed with false and flattering Imaginations having neither Truth nor Consistency in them And those who account themselves of better Breeding than others are often more imposed upon than others in this way The Pomp and Grandeur of the World the Gaity and Splendour of Living strikes their Fancies with such vehement Impressions that scarce any thing else gets into their Minds or sinks deep into them There are many other things that seem to stand fair in their Opinion at some times but it is as they are thought Serviceable to Worldly Greatness and Honour This after all the Instructions of Philosophers the Declamations of Heathen and Christian Orators and the far more Powerfull Arguments of the Wisest and Best of Men recorded in Holy Scripture is still the great Idol of Mankind which they serve and worship with the truest and warmest Devotion All other things how great and weighty soever in themselves yet are really look'd on by them as a sort of Metaphysical Abstracted Notions of things Invisible and Immaterial quite out of the reach of their Imagination which may serve for the Amusement of some and the Affrightment of others and the Entertainment of Speculative Minds but how to raise themselves in the World to appear Great and have many Dependents to pursue and carry on their own Interests though without regard to Justice and Honesty these they account Great and Noble things and fit to employ their Minds upon But alas How much are such imposed upon by meer Shews and Appearances of things which are really what God made them but are not what we fansie them to be There are no doubt real Conveniencies of Life in Riches and Honour and Ease and Plenty or else they could never be esteemed Blessings nor could we have reason to thank God for them but there is a great difference between the Fitness of things for our present use and for our happiness i. e. when we make them our End and do not employ them in order to a farther End But it is good Advice of S. Paul Vsing the World as not abusing it for the Fashion of this World passeth away it passes like a Ship under Sail while the generality of Mankind like Passengers lie asleep in it Sometimes when Storms arise or Waves cross them they seem to be awake and to look about them and to think whither they are going but those thoughts being uneasie to them they lie down again and are carried they know not whither But still it is but the Fashion of this World a meer Landskip wherein there is great Variety but little Satisfaction the Shew far out-doing the Substance When the Devil shewed Christ the Kingdoms of the World and the Glory of them the highest Mountain could afford but a small Prospect of them but as some think he caused a Representation in the Air of the most tempting Splendour and Glories of them And this was the truest Representation of them by glorious Appearances and bewitching Shews But unless there be something in Humane Nature which makes it very apt to be deceived by such things it were strange the Devil should think to prevail on our Saviour by them We pity those who travelling in the Night are deceived by false Fires and shining Meteors and follow them into Bogs and Precipices but the case of such is so much worse who are deluded by the Deceitfull Vanities of this World to their own Destruction And can there be any greater Argument of the want of Consideration than for Persons to suffer themselves to be so easily and so fatally cheated It is a Wise Observation of Aristotle that True Knowledge and Wisedom lies most in settling and fixing the Mind For it is not the subtlety and fineness of Thoughts not the quickness and sharpness of Apprehension not the close and mathematical Deductions of Reason which make a Wise Man but the having a calm and composed Temper of Mind the subduing our Passions and governing our Actions with respect to our Chief End And in order to this Consideration is absolutely necessary without which that which is nearest to us and offers it self first to our Choice must prevail upon us And here lies the main Difficulty to perswade Mankind to choose a far greater Happiness at a Distance and Invisible before a present Enjoyment of things we are constantly conversant with and have made an early Impression upon us But still we say that it is nothing but Mens Impatience of Considering which makes them have so little Regard to another Life For if they would but lay both Worlds in the Balance one against the other they would soon discover the wonderfull Folly of preferring that which this World accounts Happiness before that which is offered to our Choice in another For let us make all the fair and reasonable Allowances that may be as to our Inclinations and Appetites and Circumstances in this World as to the Distance Obscurity Incomprehensibleness of the Joys of another World yet every considering man that regards true Happiness will be sure to chuse that which is to come For 1. Supposing the Happiness were Equal yet there is no proportion in the Continuance of them and a considering Man will be sure to choose a Happiness that can never have an End before one that may be irrecoverably lost in a moment and can certainly be enjoyed but for a little time if there were any certainty at all in the Enjoyment of it 2. The more any have considered the more they have repented placing too much of their Happiness here because Reason and Experience shews them the Folly of it But the more they have considered the better satisfied the Minds of Good Men are in placing their Happiness above where alone that Good is to be found which can make us truly Happy and is to be enjoyed in that Fulness that Purity that Certainty which makes it fit for the wisest and most considering Men to prefer above a present Happiness if it were to be enjoyed on Earth 3. He that looks after a Future Happiness