A YOUNG MAN'S LEGACY TO The Rising Generation Being a SERMON Preached upon the Death and at the Desire of John Tappin of Boston Who deceased at Fairfield the 10th of October 1672. being in the Nineteenth year of his Age. By SAMUEL WAKEMAN Pastor of the Church of Christ there Eccles 7.2 It is better to go to the house of mourning then to go to the house of feasting for that is the end of all men and the living will lay it to his heart Eccles 11.9 Rejoyce O young man in thy youth and let thy heart chear thee in the dayes of thy youth and walk in the wayes of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know thou that for all thâ—se things God will bring thee into judgement CAMBRIDGE Printed by Marmaduke Jâ—â—â—sâ—n 1673. A YOUNG MAN'S LEGACY TO The Rising Generation Eccles 12.1 Remember now thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth while the evil dayes come not nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them BE pleased to understand That the Text that I have now read unto you is not of mine own choosing but was chosen by him a little before he left us who is now in another World It was his earnest desire about two or three dayes before his death being apprehensive that his change was at hand that I would Preach a Sermon for him upon this Text His surviving Friend and Companion who held him very dear and with whom he left it to prosecute this his desire hath been unsatisfiedly urgent with me in this behalf That the earnest desire of the dying and the will of the dead as to this matter might be fulfilled which seconded by others hath drawn me to this which iâ— may be I have been too loth to attend I would not reluct or deny when mans will and desire carrieth with it any signification or intimation of the will of God or shun any occasion or opportunity of doing any the least good which his Providence is commending to me and such I dare not say but this is You may look upon this Sermon then as the Request of the Deceased as The Legacy which this Young man hath left by his last Wâ—â—â— to the Rising Generation Me-thinks it seems to me that our business with this Text at this time mine and yours is from the becknings of Divine Providence thereunto directing for not onely the desire of the deceased calling us as it were with his last breath to the consideration of this Subject but his Death nor his alone but that of others lately taken away both among our selves and in Neighbour-Plantations whose gray hairs and wrinkles of Age Death hath prevented and the solemn and awakening Providence of God in these Dispeâ—sations are loudly calling me and you and all of us ye Younger sort especially who are apt to put it off to an early timely remembring God according to the Counsel given in our Text Remember now thy Creator in the dâ—yes of thy youth c. THis whole Book is in the substance of it a serious calling men back unto God a recalling men that are forgetâ— ng God forsaking their own mercies and following after lying vanities from those vain emp y fruâ—tless pursuances to the remembrance of him The sum of this whole Discourse wherein Gâ—eat and Wise and Experienced Solomon is giving us in his own account that we may know what to trust to stand upon these two Points 1. That the Chief Good of the sons of men is not to be found in all Creatures under the Sun nor in mens labours and travails about them all the good that by the greatest industry can be gotten out of them being but vanity and vexation of spirit as he after a thorow tedious search had found â—y woful experience 2. That mans Happiness is to be found onely in God and in the being unto Him This is that great Conclusion that he is laying down as the sum and issue of all in the 13th Verse of this 12th Chapter Let us hear the Conclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole of man Upon these grounds we have him throughout this Discourse as cautioning men against Creature pursuaâ—ces and seekiâ—â— happiness where it is not to be had and nothing can be extracted by the most skilful Chymistry but vanity and vexation of spirit so calling them to the Creator and the remembrance of him in whom and wherein their Happiness doth indeed consist Amongst many other Arguments Motiv s and Perswasions which we have used all along in this Book to disswade men from an over-mindfulness of thoughtfulness about and eager seeking happiness in the Creature the Wise-man drawing towards a conclusion is urging home this great Argument taken from the brevity of life the certainty of approaching death and the solemn and momentous Consequences attending and following upon it We have him sometimes touching upon it before but more fully falling in with it at the 7th Verse of the 11th Chapter and prosecuting it to the 8th Verse of this 12th Chapter Of alâ— the Argumentâ— which to untye and take us off from the Creature as vain and provoke and necessitate us to the remembrance of God there is none more plain sensible palpâ—ble prâ—ssi g cogâ—nt and that may go further to convince flâ—sh and bâ—ood a Se◠〈◊〉 â—t himself thâ—n the considâ—â—◠〈…〉 the brevity 〈◊〉 Life a d the l ng Eternity â—fter the certainty of Dâ—â—â—â— a d the strict Aâ—count that follows i◠〈◊〉 Aâ—gument 〈◊〉 the most fo cibâ—e tak ng p eâ—â—ent the W se-man is reseâ—ving to and improvi g in the last pâ—ce taking in with iâ— â—s we were sâ—yiâ—g at ver 7. of t e foâ—â—going and urging 〈◊〉 home in the sâ—â—â—â—l of that and in the b g nâ—ing of this Chap 〈◊〉 especially upâ—n Yoâ—â—g m n that are most apt t pâ—â—â—sâ—â—nd pamper themselves 〈…〉 flâ—urish â—g Age putting the evil any fâ—r off Bâ—â—n a few words to come to our â—ext I 〈◊〉 in in Argument tak n from the brevity of Lifâ— the certainty of Death and the momentous C â—sequences attending it which we have the P â—a her propoâ—â—ng in v r. 7. 8. of the foregoing Chap er Truly â— ght is â—weet anâ—â—â—pâ—â—â—â—nt th ng it is for the eyes to behold the Sun but if a man â—ive many years and rejâ—yce in them all yet let him remember the dayes of darâ—ness for they shall be many all that cometh is vanity and closely â—nd cuttingly applying to young men that are most apt to put it off in vâ—r 9. R joyâ—â— O young man in thy youth and let thy heart chear thee in the dâ—yes of thy youth and walk in the wayes of thy heart and in thy sight of thine eyes but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into judgement We have â—im making two Inferences or exhorting to a twofold duty the forme we have in
disappointment will be the issue a ruinous heap irrepairable frustration causing grief and desperate sorrow shall be the harvest which the flourishing seeds-time of all their cunning careful painful pleasing promising projects shall afford them You may see how the awhile flourishing but after-withering estate of such as forget God is described Job 8.11 c. and frequently elswhere in Scripture I beseech you think of it for a time you may thrive without God in the world the more you forget him the more you may prosper and the more you prosper the more you may forget him as too many times men do they feel the world a coming and cool apace Godward the world grows upon them and God grows more and more our of remembrance with them think I say whatsoever your present flourishing estate may promise you the harvest will be a heap in the day of grief and desperate sorrow 3. Consider the forgetting God will provoke him to bring upon you Spiritual Judgements to give you up to blindness of minde hardness of heart to infatuate and befot you leave you to a seared Conscience and a senslesness in sinning You have Psal 81. God calling upon Israel while he graciously remembers them of himself to be owning and acknowledging of him but they will not and what comes of it ver 11. So I gave them up to their own hearts lusts and they walked in their own counsels You may reade and tremble to reade what is said of them Rom. 1. that when they knew God did not glorifie him at God that did not like to retain God in their knowledge that for this cause God gave them up to vile affection to a reprobate minde to be filled with all unrighteousness to all excess of and besottedness in sinning A hard heart a reprobate minde a seared Conscience a being past feeling a committing sin with greediness are the sad effects of not remembring of forgetting and disacknowledging God And Oh that those of the younger sort would think of this that blindness of minde that hardness of heart that spiritual stupor and benummedness of Conscience that greediness in sinning that excess of riot which many run unto and which grows upon them with their years are the sad and vindictive effects of their not remembring and turning to the Lord in their younger time 4. And lastly Consider God will finde a time to remember such as forget him he will finde a time to be remembred and sadly remembred too by such as most slight him God will have his glory his acknowledgement he will fetch it out of those that forget and disacknowledge him upon earth in Hell Psal 61 17. The wicked shall be turned into Hell and all the nations that forget God then and there God will be righted he will come ever with thee for all thy neglect contempt forgetfulness of him and casting him behinde thy back Prov. 16.4 The Lord hath made all things for himself yea even the wicked for the day of evil q. d. God will not lose his labour in making them neither he will have his honour out of them too in their perdition and destruction as God saith of Zidon Ezek. 28.22 that he will be known glorified sanctified in her in the executing of Judgements so if now thou wilt not voluntarily remember acknowledge glorifie him a day is coming when God will make thee remember acknowledge him serve to his glory though little to thy benefit or comfort whether thou wilt or no. Lay these things together then and think that as in nothing you so much remember your selves your own concerments as in remembering God so in nothing you so much forget your selves your own good as in forgetting disacknowledging him I have been longer upon this Use then I intended and must necessarily be more contracted in what remains Vse II. is for Exhortation and earnest perswasion unto all and every one to remember his Creator and do it now Remember now thy Creator c. doubtless it is a duty incumbent upon all and of every age to be now attended by them the notion of a Creator challenges this at every mans hand and that presently and out of hand be they young or be they old have they more or have they less neglected it it abides the now duty of every one it is the sin of such that have forgotten God in their youth but it is their duty to remember him in their age hast thou forgotten God so long or so long it lyes upon thee now to remember him Somewhat would have been spoken more generally unto all but time scanting upon us we shall especially urge the Exhortation upon such as are the persons to whom the Text is directing it And I beseech you my Brethren of the Rising Generation Suffer the word of Exhortation which speaketh to you and to every one of you in particular Remember now thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth It is not said Remember now your Creator or let all men remember now their Creator but Remember now thy Creator that none may put it off to the general God puts it home to each one in particular To thee young man it is spoken and to thee young woman to thee John and to thee Thomas to thee Mary and to thee Sarah the Exhortation as much as particularly concerns thee as if thy Name were written in the Text and Oh that I might be a poor Instrument in the hand of God to bring home this word to thy heart Oh that I might be thy effectual Remembrancer upon the account Oh that I might perswade prevalently perswade thee now in the dayes of thy youth to remember thy Creator Oh that now man now in the dayes of thy youth while it is yet morning with thee thou wouldest take time at advantage and improve this present precious peerless season which will be but for a little while in the serious applying thy self hereunto and minding the God and thy duty towards the God that made thee now while the evil dayes come not Remember and turn unto him now set up and acknowledge and love and fear and serve him now Do not think there is no such haste if any man may put it off for a while I may there can be no great danger or damage in deferring it a little There is such haste no man may put it off no not a while neither mayest thou the danger the damage of deferring but a little a week a day may be thy eternal undoing O do not think it is duty indeed to remember God 't is matter of importance 't is what must be done I will do it I will do it more I will be more serious in it hereafter but look upon it as thy now duty as matter of importance and necessity to be done and to be done to purpose to be seriously dealt in now truly hic labor here is the difficulty to perswade men that it is duty to remember God to convince men
for and bestow the refuse the leavings upon him when the world and flesh have drunk up the wine of thy strength and time as I may so speak then God shall have the lees Oh man is not this the very reason why the call of God to remember him so little prevails with thee but that thou art putting off and delaying of it is it not this because thou hast other lovers to take up thy present thoughts hence men hope they may mind their pleasures in their youth and then hope they may mind the world in their middle age In elder years they hope they purpose and intend to remember their Creator nor would they intend him this allowance neither but that they know the dayes of their youth will not alwayes last and that the dayes of old age and death must and will overtake them God is made a meer reserve they will minde the world their pleasures while they may and minde God at last because they needs must upon the account of a meer self-necessity Is it not very thus with thee man and dost thou think this will do is it reasonable is it right is it equall thy self being Iudge that the first fruits nay the whole harvest it may be the flower of thy youth and the strength of thine age shall be otherwhere bestowed and God put off with the afteâ— gleanings is this right is it equall is it worthy thy Maker man that the flesh and world and devil should skim the Cream and drink the top be first and best served and the God that made thee maintains thee and must save thee or thou perishest everlastingly be served with the last and worst Look into Mal. 1.14 Cursed be the deceiver which hath in his his flock a male and voweth and sacrificeth to the Lord a corrupt thing for I am a great King saith the Lord of hosts and my name is dreadful among the heathen Dwell a litle upon that sad text doth it not suit thy case thou mayest and probably wilt put a cheat upon thy own poor immortal soul but will God be mocked let me tell thee that not unseldome the dregs of Gods anger come to their portion that are presuming to put him off with the dregs of their Age take heed man lest it prove thy case thou mayest Esau-like finde no place for repentance not really in thy self nor yet with God though thou seek it carefully with tears thou mayest mourn at the last when thy flesh and thy body are consumed and say How have I hated instruction thou mayest sorrowfully remember in thy shrivell'd Age when thou hast run thy course and worn out thy time and strength in the service of sin and art now dropping into another world and undressing to the fire the seasonable instructions thou sometime hadst thou mayest how upon thy bed at last when the sorrows of death compass thee about and the pains of hell get hold upon thee thou mayest then profess to repent and turn to God when thou canst enjoy the world serve the flesh no longer but will God call such hypocritical sorrow meerly to save thy own skin such a seeming conversion Real Repentances mayest thou not expect that God will make thee the same answer which it is said he did to a wretched old man who now being ready to die would needs repent and turn to God Vbi consumpsisti farinam ibi consume furfurem Where thou hast spent thy flower there go spend thy bran mayest thou not justly dread that God will none of thy dregs Thou art now running out thy life in a wretched forgetfulness of God and thinkest to cure all by a taking on to repent and crying God mercy at lasâ— but hast thou not cause to fear that when at last cast in old Age upon a Death-bed when going out of the world thou art crying him Mercy that God will send thee in the day of distress to the gods whom thou hast served to save thee that he will say to thee Nay now even make an end as thou hast begun make thy best of that thou hast esteemed better and remembred more then me I will none of thy leavings the world and thy lusts have had thy first fruits thy main harvest let them take thy gleanings too O take heed man lest it come to this but now O now in the time of acceptance make haste to turn unto him 4. And lastly Consider now in the dayes of thy youth is the best the choicest and most advantagious season to remember thy Creator because hereby thou shalt best provide most abundantly most surely for thy own good and comfort as is notoriously evident But to instance briefly in three things 1. Hereby much sin and consequently much sorrow many tears and temptations many a sad thought will be prevented thou canst not but know if thou knowest any thing that every day thou art deferring and putting off to remember God every day thou art going on to forget neglect disacknowledge him thou art making work for Repentance thou art hereby laying up sorrow for thy self if God shall hereafter give thee Repentance or if not treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath and the revelation of Gods righteous judgement Thy present neglect most obviously runs thee upon this dilemma either many sorrows sad throws of heart if God peradventure will give thee Repentance here or eternal sorrow in the place of sorrow where there is nothing but weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth hereafter and who would wittingly make a rod for his own back who would willingly persevere in a course of laying up sorrow for himself who would do knowingly continue to do that that he must sorrowfully undo or suffer eternally for who would thus wilfully make work for Repentance Believe it man if ever God give thee sound Repentance Repentance unto life thou wilt finde sin evil and bitter enough thou needest not aggravate it when thou indeed comest to make work for Repentance thou wilt then know what it is to have made so much work of Repentance when God shall set thy sins thy neglects of him a course of forgetting slighting contemning him that thou hast long run on in in order before thee though it be in order to thy Humiliation Repentance Conversion it may make thee wish again and again thou hadst never stood out so long and stored up so much sorrow for thy own soul Let me here intimate to you a little more particularly two oâ—â—hree things I will but intimate them though well worthy your serious consideration 1. As we have been saying Be sure the more thou multipliest to sin the longer thou art going on in a course of forgetting God the more thou art multiplying thy own sorrows if God vouchsafe thee Repentance 2. Late Conversions are like Births in those that are ancient not without much difficulty a hard travail many throws difficult deliverance God saveth some though more seldomly that have longer put him off but