6. God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The Sun-beams do as it were guild things whereon it shineth and make them look bright and pleasant whereas they looked dull before without any such lustre or comeliness This Heavenly Knowledge is a shining knowledge it brightâ— ens and beautifies the Mind and Soul and the more fresh and nimble the witt and understanding is the more it is adorned by it no skill no knowledge no learning is so comly for a young Man as this true saving knowledge of God in Christ. II. Hath the young man some strength of memory what can become this Treasury or Store-house so well as Gold Silver Pretious-Stones as the Apostle calleth holy Truths what should hay and stubble trash and dirt do in so pretious a Cabinet what is more unseemly than to have it filled with wanton idle Songs with scurrilous jests with airy vain conceits foolish ballaâ—s legendary tales or the like that which is fit for the Dung-hil is not seemly for a Cabinet III. Is youth full of lively and stirring affections what is more seemly than for the quickest affections and for the most lively motions of the Heart and Spirit to be exercised about Heavenly and Spiritual things The World is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of its comliness which God gave it in the Creation Now God hath thus ordered the World in its several parts that the quickest and nimblest should be highest in their rank and the slowest and dullest should be lowest So the Heavens which are of a most strange and wonderful swiftness are highest and of other things the quickest in motion are nearest Heaven so the Air and in the Air the Birds whereas the Earth being slow and without Motion lyeth below all the rest and is farthest from Heaven So what is more seemly than for those winged affections of young Men and Women to mount up to Heaven and the quicker and swifter they are in their Motions the higher it becometh them to fly what should they do creeping on the Earth like Snailes or earthing themselves in the Earth like Moles or mudding these lively affections in sinful fleshly pleasures Why rather should they not in their daies of youth cast their Souls upon the wing earnestly desiring God to draw them that they may run after him Is it a seemly thing to see a Lark or an Eagle to make her self a burrow or nest under ground or to plunge her self in the Mud No it becometh her to be aloft so it becometh not the winged affections of the younger sort to bemudd themselves with sinful pleasures but to be lifted up in the power of Gods Spirit and to converse with him who is invisible The dullness of age hath more affinity with Earth than the vigour of youth which yet must not perswade old Men to follow the inclination of age and because their backs are bowed with years to think themselves warranted to debase their Souls to earthly affections but rather to conceive themselves directed to look themselves out a burying place entring into a serious Meditation of the Grave whiles their bodies by the decaies of age are daily preparing for their last dissolution into those first earthly Principles of which they were compounded IV. And as the quickness of young Mens affections should thus set them in a course of holiness so the quickness of their Spirits which is one cause of the quickness of their affections doth exceeding well suit with true grace and holiness The Activity and as the Country-word is the Mettle that is in the younger sort is very suitable to an holy Conversation This is one thing which maketh many men falsely to think that Religion is not seemly for youth but these are such as know not the power of godliness and therefore think it to be a lumpish dulling thing But what blindness is this to imagine that the blessed Spirit of God is a duller to the Spirit of a Man when he worketh upon it by his sanctifying power and vertue No it is enough indeed to put life into a dead heart when the blessed Spirit affordeth his gracious Influence unto it If the Sun doth dull and dead the Earth the Trees the Herbs in the Spring-time then may ye imagine that the Spirit of God doth dull the Spirits of Men by Sanctifying and Quickening them It taketh away indeed their wildness and madness that is to say their untowardness unseemliness and uncomeliness but it rather encreaseth and purifieth their kindly vigour and giveth them yet a greater and an higher life and maketh them more lively than before but with a sweet spiritual and heavenly kind of Life It is true that in the beginnings of grace there is some drooping and dejectedness but that is but in the turn when they are coming out of their natural estate from under the Curse and Wrath of God But if once they be indeed set in a course of holiness and find the comfort of Gods love in Christ they shall find themselves more enlivened and quickened by the Spirit of God than they can be by nature only Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty saith the Apostle The Spirit of Christ enlargeth the heart striketh off the fetters of Corruptions and maketh it more free and full of Life Therefore David often calleth upon God to quicken him He was a man naturally of a quick temper of a fresh lively Spirit as appeareth by that Description given of him 1 Sam. 16. 12. He was ruddy and withal of a beautiful countenance and goodly to look to But he knew that grace would quicken him more and give him a heavenly activity of Spirit and therefore desired to be more and more quickened by it And how can the vigour and quickness of youth be better imployed than in the work and service of God Is not the Service of God a race And who are so fit to run as those who are young and of nimble Spirits Let us run with patience the race that is set before us and else-where so run that ye may obtain Which as it implyeth a winged swiftness and quickness of stirring affections in the service of God so also a ready diligence and active chearfullness in any work of his to which the heaviness of old age is a clogging hinderance and which doth exceeding well become the liveliness of youthful Spirits V. Are young Men strong and of able Bodies What is more comely for them than to serve the Lord with all their Strength The weakness of the Body doth even make the Spirit fail and faint and hindereth it many times in the Service of God Strength is an help in the worship of God and the Spirit in a strong Body is like a work-man standing upon firm ground which is an help and furtherance in the work VI.
at But this is Man's misery that his Eye is now not single nor can he rightly discern what becometh him so that many times he shunneth those things as unseemly which would be his greatest ornaments and goeth about to deck himself with such things as do but lay open his nakedness and discover his shame The Apostle saith that long hair which is a Womans ornament is a Man's shame If a man wear long hair it is folly and shame to him 1 Cor. 11. And yet many men account this a special ornament whereas indeed it doth as ill become them as a Distaff doth almost as ill as a womans Garment Thus it is in many other things disguised fashions c. But besides these there seemeth to be a conceipt among Men that a licentious liberty an unlimited looseness of Conversation becometh the younger sort in the daies of their youth and that nothing is more unseemly for that age than an humble holy subjection and obedience to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But here ye see the wise Man who was a Man that did much affect decorum whilst he continued in his integrity as appeareth by that which the Queen of Sheba observed even to an extasy I Kings 10. 4 5. And when the Queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon 's Wisdom and the House that he had built and the Meat of his Table and the sitting of his Servants and the attendance of his Ministers and their Apparrel and his Cup-bearers and his Assent by which he went up to the House of the Lord there was no more Spirit in her And so ye may gather by many passages of his story how exact he was in observing decorum and shewing forth his Royal Magnificence according to his place He I say that best knew what was comely and seemly for young Men Sheweth here that it is not only good but seemly for them even in the daies of youth to be seriously mindful of their Creatour and so in all things to shew themselves as Men that have him and his fear before their Eyes For to omit this that whatsoever is good is also comely being suitable to the holiness and purity of God who is most glorious and beautiful it is plain here by the opposition that is made between the daies of youth and old age that he commendeth it to them in special as a thing exceeding fit and seemly for the younger sort Remember thy Creatour in the daies of thy youth whilst the evil daies come not As if he had said It is a most absurd and unseemly thing not to be truly mindful of him that made us in our best daies but then to begin when the evil daies come And if you mark it is plain by those passages that follow That he still fastens a notorious absurdity and unseemliness upon this carriage of Men who defer till the last The years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them How absurd and unseemly then to give up thy self to God when thou art weary of thy self and not before while the Sun or the Moon or the Starrs be not Darkned and the Clouds return after the Rain A most absurd thing to give all the cleer Sun-shiny daies of youth to sin to lose all thy good daies wasting and wearing them out in vanity and then in the dull cloudy rainy times of old age which are most unfit for employment to begin to serve the Lord and so in the verses following So that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an absurd thing or a thing out of place an unseemly and uncomely thing for young men to live unmindful of their Creatour and of the end of their Creation whilst they are young and to leave him nothing but the Lame and Blind Sacrifices of their decrepit age which the Psalmist sheweth plainly Psal. 119. 9. Wherewithal shall a young Man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to thy Word That which is cleanly ye know is comely Now the Psalmist sheweth that if they that be young will walk in clean waves they must take heed to the Word of God and follow the light of it Ye know that a fair clean way is more pleasant and comely by farr than a foul deep miry way and it is more comely for a man to walk in such a way if he can than to be mired with dirt in a foul way So the Psalmist sheweth That then a young Man walketh in a clean way and so in a comely manner when he followeth and obeyeth the Word of God iâ— an holy and gracious Conversation On thâ— other side when he casteth the Word behind his back and walketh in the Lusts of his own heart followeth his own will and seeketh to please himself in all things he walketh in a foul dirty way and is bemired 〈◊〉 it were with Drunkenness or Whore doâ—â— or Idleness or Prophaneness c. And hâ— carriage hath no more true comeliness in iâ— than his clothes have when he falleth in the mire CHAP. II. THis we might see plainly if we did bâ— consider the nature and temperâ—â— youth and then think what correspondeâ—cy and suitableness there is between it 〈◊〉 true grace and holiness He that will maâ—â— a comely garment for another must not only make one part of it proportionable to anâ—ther but must take measure of him that 〈◊〉 to wear it that it may be comely and fit iâ— him A Man's garment though never 〈◊〉 comely and proportionable in it self will nâ—ver be comely and fit for a Child Here then let us take measure of youth and see how well it will become him to put on the new Man to put on the Lord Jesus 1. Hath the young man a special quickness of witt and apprehension what can become him better than to search into the glorious Mysteries of Christ's holy Gospel and not content himself with a few answers committed to Memory which he is able to fit to some questions of Chatechism but seriously and with most earnest endeavours to study the Doctrine of Godliness and carefully to learn that wisdom which is from above There is no knowledge can so well become the best witt and understanding as the best and most excellent knowledge and that is the true saving knowledge of God of Christ Crucified which St. Paul esteemed incomparably better than all his other learning This will beautify the freshest and most sparkling witt it will make the very Spirit of a Man shine within him This was young Timothy's ornament 2 Tim. 3. 15. From a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto Salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus That wisdom must needs beautify a young Mans mind which maketh him wise unto Salvation wise for Heaven which putteth such a light into him as is suitable to Heaven and Everlasting light which is like the wisdom of the Saints and Angels above of which knowledge St. Paul saith 2 Cor. 4.
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
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
unseemly for those of the younger sort it layeth open the shame of their folly and when they think highly of their own witts and perhaps scorn the advice of their Auncients they make it known to the World that through the greatness of their folly they know not themselves nor their places aright nor what becometh them Idleness and Vanity are most unseemly for them the loss of these precious daies of youth to sleep away these best daies or to triffle them away whiles the Sun shineth upon them it is most unseemly Finally to live in impenitency and security not to seek the love and favour of God in Christ to put off Repentance till old Age is most unseemly and uncomely To sleep all the day and put off a man's main business until night is most foolish and uncomely Conversion to God it is thy main work and the beginning of all the work and service which thou doest for him that made thee and gave thee thy life and continueth it to thee every hour Thou dost never truly put thy self into his Service until thou art truly converted and turned unto him All that thou dost in the Worship of God before is no true Service no work of a faithful Servant acceptable unto God therefore to give him that gave thee all thy daies no part of these best daies of youth to give him that gave thee all thy strength no part of thy strength to give him that gave thee all thy witt and understanding nothing but the ruines and decays of witt memory and understanding in old age or sickness is most unseemly and such as cannot any way become any one that would be called a Christian especially if thou considerest that when thou deniest thy best time to God he may justly deny thee the rest of thy time which thou hopest to enjoy and cut thee off in thy sins CHAP. IV. Vse 2. THis should teach Parents and Masters that have any of the younger sort under their charge to be very careful and diligent to teach them what doth most of all become them even the fear of God and Faith unfeigned Instead of teaching them vain fashions which they are too apt to learn of them to teach them that it will best become them not to fashion themselves according to this evil world but to be transformed in the renewing of their mind to teach them that the words of heavenly wisdome the word of God laid up in the heart and shewed forth in the life will be their richest ornament Let them know how well Humility Modesty Temperance Chastity Sobriety Holiness and the knowledge of God will become them Let them not only be taught how good these things are but how seasonable how fit they are how seemly for them at those years how necessary Let them understand how ill it becometh them at this age to want these Jewels and what deformity the contrary sins do put upon them As it becometh them of younger years to be thus qualified so it becometh you that are elder by all means both in word and conversation to shew them what becometh them CHAP. IV. Use 3. IF Grace and Holiness are comely ornaments of Youth then how unseemly is it for those that have passed the daies of Youth to continue yet without it hast thou out-lived thy Youth and hast thou not yet done that which thou shouldest have done in thy Youth Not yet so remembred thy Creator as to turn unto him and to seek him with thy whole heart Oh blame thy self for this before the Lord and if thou hast lost the first season take heed thou doest not foreslow the latter Art thou now past the Spring of Youth It is more than time thou hadst sown in Tears The Harvest draweth on and then as a man hath sowen so shall he reap He that hath sowen to the Flesh following his lusts and his will shall of the flesh reap corruption but He that soweth to the Spirit being led by the Spirit in the wayes of holy obedience shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting Think then with thy self if it be a shame for young men to be without Grace it is a double shame for me that am past the daies of Youth Iâ— God hath shewed thee patience in not cutting thee off in the sins of Youth oh take heeâ— of abusing that patience any longer Wilt thou sin because thou hast escaped hithertoâ— God forbid The longer thou hast sinned the more hast thou provoked the eyes of Gods glory the more dangerous is it to continue any longer in sin The longer the Fig-tree had cumbred the ground the neareâ—â— it was to the cutting down the more it was in danger of the Axe Therefore repent heartily and speedily of the sins of Youth and yet whiles thou maist do somewhat for the Lord hast some strength and abilities for his service let him have thy heart and hand thy body thy soul sacrifice thy self to him consecrate thy whole man to his worship and service even in thy middle-age CHAP. V. Use 4. IF Grace be the ornament of Youth then doubtless Sin must be the shame of Old Age. What an old man an old woman and yet a graceless sinner A gray-head found in the ways of unrighteousness the ways of folly What is this but to be a spectacle of reproach among men How many years hast thou lived an enemy to God Couldest thou find no time for reconciliation in thy Youth nor in thy middle age nor yet now thou art thus far gone in years What is an impenitent old man but a kind of monster among men What a shame is it to see a gray-head quaffing by the fire-side in an Ale-house a man of fifty or sixty years haunting the Ase-house and wanton dallyance A profane Oath in an old mans mouth how odious and shamefull is it Is it not a double shame for old men to be more and more covetous the elder they are to cleave more and more close to the world As one that is to be executed if he hath his hands at liberty when he is turned off the Ladder will catch hold again and cling fast unto it being loth to let go his hold so such a one being summoned by death to leave the world catcheth hold again fastening his very heart unto it and cleaving more strongly and more closely thereunto How much better were it to have loosened the heart from the world by unfeigned repentance that the world and it may part with ease For part ye must though thy heart should be pulled in pieces in parting How ill doth it become an old man that all this while he hath not learned to see into the vanity of the world which a wise man in a little time of experience may easily discern O thou old sinner learn greatly then to bewail the sins of thy Youth that length of time wherein thou hast gone on in sin wherein thou hast hardened thy heart and resisted the spirit of God