A New-Years Gift FOR YOUTH Being the Substance of a SERMON Preached at the Funeral of M RS. Elizabeth Bell Aged Sixteen Years odd Months AT St. M. Overies in Southwark Decemb. 1. 1686. Upon those Words chosen by her of Solomons Eccles 12.1 Remember thy Creator in the days of thy Youth while the Evil days come not By Samuel Peck Minister of Popler Printed by Alex. Milbourn for J. Blare at the Sign of the Looking-glass on London-Bridge Imprimatur Ian. 4. 1686. Guil. Needham R. R. in Christo P. ac D. D. Willielmo Arehiep Cant. a Sacr. Dom. The Substance of a Sermon Preached at the Interment of MRs. Elizabeth Bell c. Eccles 12.1 Remember thy Creator in the Days of thy Youth while the Evil Days come not SAint Paul who knew by experience the great disadvantage of losing the Prime of our Age in the ways of Sin commands Titus to use his utmost endeavours to perswade Men to an early Piety betimes to mind the best things and lead a Life becoming the Gospel of Christ saying Young men exhort to be sober minded Tit. 2.6 using such a word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as implys a continual Consultation with a Man's self for the due government or well-ordering of his whole Course that Wisdom Vertue Religion and Piety may shine forth in all his words ways and actions or prevail upon him as the Apostle expresseth it To deny all Vngodliness and Worldly Lust and to live soberly righteously and godlily in this World. Ver. 12. An Exhortation or Caution not unlike this of the Wise Man's Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy Youth while the Evil days come not And indeed Youth have need great need to be often thus admonished for the sooner Satan takes possession of any Soul and the longer he keeps it the harder 't is to dispossess and cast him out which makes him so diligent and desirous to corrupt Youth and to steal away the hearts of young Persons from their Maker hoping that if he be first served by them he shall at last serve himself upon them Therefore if any Motive if any Wile Stratagem or Argument will prevail he will see that shall not be wanting He will watch and wait all opportunities and occasions make large and fair promises of Profit Honour and Pleasure and allures them to smaller Sins first thereby making way for Temptations to greater sticks not to alledge and pervert the very Word of God to draw them to and encourage them in a licentious Course or sinful Liberty saying GOD himself makes an allowance for your Years Rejoice O Young-man in thy Youth and let thine Heart cheer thee in the dayes of thy Youth walk in the sight of thine Eyes and in the ways of thine own Heart As if God gave young Persons a Liberty to Sin But in the mean time conceals from them the following Memento of the Wise-man But know that for all these things God will bring thee to Judgment Eccles 11.9 And therefore Remember now thy Creator in the dayes of thy Youth From which words two things offer themselves to our consideration Viz. 1. There is in Young Persons a proness to forget their Creator and their Duty towards Him. 2. That GOD requires and looks for Service from young Persons Of each of these I shall speak somewhat briefly Prop. I. THere is in Young Persons a natural proness to forget their Creator and their Duty towards Him. This appears by the Advice frequently given in Scripture to and concerning Youth sometimes by Solomon who speaking to Parents and Governours adviseth that they Train up Children in the way they should go the way of Piety and Religion and when they are Old they will not depart from it For Young Ones like new Vessels Quo semel est imbuta recens sevabit Odorem testa diu long retain the relish of those Principles or Instructions that are first poured into them Sometimes again the Wise-man directing his Discourse to young Ones themselves saith My Son be wise hear Instruction and incline thine ear to Vnderstanding my Son if Sinners entice thee consent thou not Prov. 1.10 Seek Wisdom and lift up thy voice for Vnderstanding Chap. 2. and 3. Seek her as Silver dig for her as for hid Treasure she is more precious than Rubies all things thou canst desire are not to be compared to her length of days are in her Right Hand and in her Left Hand Riches and Honour And in the Text he counsels thee to Remember thy Creator in the days of thy Youth That is Be mindful of thy Duty towards him Shun and avoid with all thy care the Sins the Vices and Vanities of this Age and devote thy self to God by an Early Repentance and an Holy Life In like manner David calls upon Young-men and Maidens to praise the Lord or to live his praises Psal 148.12 And St. Paul exhorts young persons to be sober-minded Tit. 2.6 Which implys Evangelical affections or an holy frame and temper of mind Now I say such frequent Exercitations and Calls as these to young persons in the Word of God does imply a proness in them to forget God and their Duty to Him in their Youth to be regardless and unmindful of Religion and the serious practice of it Yea and daily experience gives us but too sad a proof of the Truth of this Look abroad into the World consider the generality of our Youth in this Age what they are what manner of Lives they lead how vain lewd and debauched the most are in their Conversation how rare it is to find one amongst many that is solid sober and religious that makes real Conscience of avoiding all known Sin and of performing Holy Duties or of exercising himself to Godliness as becomes his Christian Profession Nay do not many of them walk and act and talk more like Atheists or Infidels than Christians as if they believed no future State no Judgment no Punishment or Reward to come And what is the ground of all this irreligion and prophaness but an utter forgetfulness of the God that made them and will shortly judge them A forgetfulness of their own Mortality and approaching Dissolution which when ever it comes will make them as happy as Angels or as miserable as Devils for ever I know Young men you have sometimes some Convictions wrought in you by the Word of God and thereupon promise fair talk of returning to God and of forsaking your youthful Lusts and Vanities yet set not about this great and needful Work in good earnest but this your goodness is as the Morning-Cloud and early Dew which quickly passeth away Sirs as in the Presence of God ask your Consciences if this be not Truth Do you not alwaies find something in your hearts ready to stifle all your purposes and promises of Repentance and Amendment of Life so that you are delaying from this day to another and still delaying hoping for a time at last till God
take you away with his stroak till you drop into your Graves and all your thoughts perish And what is the reason of this procrastination but an Oblivion of your Creator The sooner you repent and are pardoned Is it not the better The sooner you are reconciled to God are in the way to Heaven and obtain a well-grounded Hope of Gods saving-love in Christ to your Souls Is it not the better What is the ground then of your delay to be religious of your forgetfulness of God and of your Duty to him and your own Souls Why 1. Solomon tells you one Reason is Sloth and Idleness Prov. 6.10 You are loath to buckle to the Yoke of Gods Commandments you look upon him as an hard Master account his ways too strict and holy his Injunctions and Institutions unreasonable and grievous and so are unwilling to submit and conform to them 2. Another may be excessive Love to youthful Lusts and Pleasures These stoln Waters are sweet to your Souls so that tho' you hear you Sins Reproved and think of forsaking them yet God knows that 's all you do but think of it for your immoderate love to and delight in them obstructs your doing it 3. Confidence of long Life and that you have time enough before you and Repentance hereafter will do as well as now God upon true Repentance forgives all Let the Wicked forsake his way and the Vnrighteous man his thoughts and turn unto the Lord he will have Mercy upon him and to our God He will abundantly pardon Isa 55.7 This is Gods promise and it holds good to the Old as well as Young Penitent or Convert Since therefore my Sins may be pardoned and my Eternal State secured by repenting any time before I dye as well as now why should I imbitter my youthful days with the unpleasant severities of Religion and sowr acts of Repentance and Mortification Not I Old Age suits melancholly and sorrow much better than Youth then I may hearken to your Advice but not before 4. The many Escapes that young persons have from Dangers and dangerous Sicknesses Nature is strong and vigorous in them and they wade through all and when the Danger is over they forget the vows and promises their Lips have made in the day of their distress and that Reformation and Holiness which they were so forward to put on and engage in in their Adversity they are as ready to forget and put off again in the day of their prosperity Well but remember what Solomon saith here The Evil days will come Sickness and Death will come and how soon you know not You have here an Example before your Eyes that Death lays his cold hand upon Youth And daily experience tells you that For One that dyes in his Old Age there are Hundreds dye in their Youth therefore saith he Now in thy Youth remember thy Creator while the Evil days come not And this brings me to the second Observable in these words Namely Prop. II. THat God expects and looks for Service from young persons That these should set their Hearts and Affections upon Him honour glorifie and serve Him by doing his Will and keeping his Commandments for so this Phrase Remember thy Creator imports Affection Practice Love and Obedience That of Moses may serve for a Comment upon this Text of Solomon Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God in not keeping his Commandments his Judgments and his Statutes which I command thee this day Deut. 8.11 Mark Sirs to Remember thy Creator then is to keep his Statutes and to obey his Commandments and that in your Youth whilst all the Powers and Faculties of thy Body and Soul are strong active and vigorous and most fit for his Service Under the Law God called for the first Fruits and for the Firstling of the Flock the Gospel of it is this That so soon as we come to years of understanding to dispose of our hearts and affections we should offer them first to God. And you have many Examples of this in Scripture Josiah at Eight years old did that which was right in the sight of God Samuel heard and obeyed Gods Voice when a Child Timothy of a Child knew the Scriptures And the Children of the Elect Lady were found walking in the Truth 2. Epistle of St. John. And why may I not propound to your imitation this young Gentlewoman not full 17. years of Age whose Remains lye yet before you who doubtless Remembred her Creator and had a Sense of God and of Religion upon her mind in her Youth I confess I knew her not in her life but being twice with her in her last Sickness I perceived that in her that strong love to God those vehement desires after Him and unusual consolations from Him to her Soul before Death as wrought in me a perswasion that she walked with God in her life Her sweet and inward peace of Conscience her hearty and holy Ejaculations her pious and Heavenly Discourse her freedom from the fears of Death her contempt of this Life and World and all the Vanities of it her impatient longings to depart and to be with Christ insomuch that she begged of me not to pray for her life or recovery that she might enjoy him more fully in Glory I say these are rare to be found in a person so young or in any indeed but those who have kept up a close Communion with God and have walked in Christ as they have received him And if that saying be true Qualis vita finis ita As is the life so is the death we may believe her Life was Holy whose End was so Heavenly joyous full of comfort and consequently that she is arrived at the Haven of all Joy and Felicity in the Morning of her Age. O what a support must this needs be to you who bewail her loss or rather the loss of her for your loss is her gain And O that all you young Ones who knew her would follow her in this to Remember your Creator in the days of your youth Considering That 1. 'T is most reasonable That He who made you should be first served by you that all the affections and motions of your hearts and minds all the works and actions of your lives should be primarily towards Him in whom you live move and have your Beings the Father and Fountain of all your Mercies in this Life and whose love in Christ Jesus is the only Foundation of Hope for Mercy and Glory in the Life to come 2. The time of Youth is the most seasonable time for Gods Service you lose the best part of your life if you lose your Youth Optima queque dies miseris mortalibus avi prima Fugit now you are most capable of any thing that is good most capable of divine Instructions of performing holy Duties of keeping Gods Commandments and of discharging whatever is incumbent upon you in your Christian Calling Remember this
young-men if you forget God and neglect your Duty towards God now you can't imagine what an hard matter you will find it to buckle to the Yoke and sustain the burthen of a Gospel-Obedience and to frame your lives to godliness hereafter If Christs Yoke be easie and his burthen light it is so to them who bear it in their Youth If you are Satan's Scholars young you will be his Souldiers when you are old if you follow him now you will fight for him then For tho' you now think it an easie matter to repent that 't is in your own power and you can forsake your Sins change your Course and become new Creatures at your pleasure yet let me tell you this is only a Diabolical Delusion you will when you come to 't find it very difficult and next to impossible oft Read that of the Prophet Can the Aethiopian change his Skin or the Leopard his Spots Then may you who are accustomed to do Evil learn to do well Jer. 13.23 Here God sufficiently declares the difficulty of it as easie as the Tempter makes it And whom will you believe God or the Devil the Author of all Truth or the Father of all Lyes Again 3. The time of Youth is the most acceptable time the Service you now do for God is the most pleasing What the Apostle saith of the day of Grace in respect to God that may I say of the day of Youth Behold now is the accepted time The Evening or Noon-tide of thine Age may be but to be sure the Morning will be accepted Now to seek the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness before Satan and the World have captivated your affections ravished away your hearts to Sin and Vanity now to dedicate them to God by an Early Piety and the Power of godliness will be as a reasonable so an acceptable Sacrifice or Service Rom. 12.1 2. And this you may be sure of the rather because God calls for and commands it in the Text saying Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth O then Sirs if God requires and expects Service from you 't is high Disobedience in you to deny it yea and prodigious Folly in you to refuse or delay it God commands his Spirit strives and his Ministers intreat but young Ones will not hearken they will not obey they will not learn to fear an Oath to flee the impurities excesses and follies of a wanton Age and youthful inclinations Certainly Friends you must needs see the folly of this if you would give your selves so much time do your souls so much right as to consider after this manner 1. That all the time you spend in Sin or out of Gods Service is utterly lost or spent to no purpose nothing of the great Work done which you came into this World for which is to glorifie your Maker and make your Eternal Salvation sure Now what folly is it to lose that time which well improved and employed may be as much worth to you as Heaven and endless Happiness 2. The longer you defer your Repentance and turning to God the longer do you put off true Peace Joy Happiness from your selves Peace Joy and Happiness are very desirable and you think you have more of these in the ways of Sin than you ever expect to find in Gods Service This is also your Folly for The Service of God is perfect freedom and his Wayes are pleasantness and his Paths peace O what is the enjoyment of a vile and beastly Lust to the fruition of the Chiefest Good GOD blessed for ever What is carnal Peace and Joy with the World to the Joy and Peace of the Holy Ghost which Joy is unspeakable and glorious and the Peace such as passeth all understanding Or What are the pleasures of Sin for a moment to the pleasures at God's Right Hand for evermore What the Smiles of the World to the Light of God's Countenance the Sense of his Love better than Life it self All which Spiritual Joy Peace Happiness and Pleasure you put off from your souls so long as you forget your Creator and decline his Service and like the prodigal Son are eating Husks when you might be feeding on the fatted Calf and are gathering of Onions while you might be gathering Heavenly Manna And Is not this Folly 3. If ever you do intend to serve God or become Religious 't is great Folly not to begin betimes because there is no reason can be given for doing this hereafter which is not a reason for doing it now As for instance 1. Will this be the way to please God hereafter So 't is the way to please Him now 2. Must you perish if you do it not hereafter So you must now if you dye in your Sins without Repentance And what Assurance have you of your life for a day longer 3. Will the assurance of Heaven and the hoped-for Glory be desirable and comfortable to thy Soul hereafter So it will now it will put more Joy into thine heart than when thy Corn Wine Oyl or Riches encrease So that whatever may be an Argument or Motive to Repentance and Holiness hereafter is and ought to be an Argument and Motive to it now Lastly 4. Consider the Motive in the Text The evil days will come and the years draw nigh wherein you shall say I find no pleasure Come they will Sickness Death and Judgment that is certain these are unavoidable And whether in thy Youth Manhood or Old Age is altogether uncertain And you do but gratifie your Enemy by putting these evil Days far from you You harden your hearts more and render this Work if ever it be done as done it must be or you can never be saved much more hard and difficult Satan no doubt will tell you You have time enough for you are young and shall not dye yet all which he would do if he knew you should dye to morrow or this night before the next morning for he is the Father of Lyes and his Work is to go about Like a roaring Lyon seeking whom he may devour as St. Peter tells you and bids you Resist him stedfast in the Faith 1 Pet. 5.8 9 That is by believing the written Word of God which adviseth you That whatever your hand finds to do to do it with all your might for there is no Wisdom nor Knowledge nor Working in the Grave whither we are all a going Eccles 9.10 For Man knoweth not his time as the Fishes taken in an evil Net and as Birds that are caught in the snare so are the Sons of Men snared in an evil time when it falleth suddenly upon them Ec. 9.12 Therefore let me intreat you and O that I might prevail with some of the Youth who hear me this Evening to take the Wiseman's counsel to be wise for your Souls betimes to Remember now your Creator before the Evil days come wherein the Silver Cord shall be loosed the golden Bowl broken the Keepers of the House tremble the strong men bow themselves the Almond-Tree flourish and those that look out at the Windows be darkned O! before these evil days come wherein you shall find no pleasure Remember your Creator By doing those things by walking in those waies which shall prevent much sin and sorrow to your selves promote the glory of God and peace of your own souls here and secure to them a Blessed and happy Eternity hereafter To which Eternal Felicity God of His mercy in His due time bring us All through the merits of Jesus Christ To whom with the Father and Holy Spirit be praise honour and glory World without end Amen FINIS