Selected quad for the lemma: order_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
order_n	consider_v	young_a	youth_n	24	3	8.4932	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61859	Lessons moral and Christian, for youth and old age in two sermons preach'd at Guildhall Chappel, London : chiefly intended for the use of this city / by John Stryp ...	Strype, John, 1643-1737.	1699 (1699)	Wing S6022; ESTC R33818	27,625	134

heed now to themselves that they preserve themselves in Sobriety and Virtue that they may not afterward have such severe Reckonings and lay a Foundation of so much Trouble and Sorrow to imbitter their future Days 4. On the other hand consider the Comforts that will arise to Age from an innocent well-spent-Youth When we come to Years and begin to grow Gray and our Age puts us in mind of our Mortality and that we must not can not tarry much longer in this World then we begin I trust to think seriously what sort of Entertainment we are like to meet with in the other World and how God will look upon us when we come to dye and how it is like to fare with us to all Eternity And this will put us upon thinking on our past Lives And our Thoughts will run back to our early years how we led our Lives then how God was sought and served by us from our Youth And if after this Search we find that God's Grace restrained us from youthful Follies and that we remembred our Creator in the Days of our Youth that we were just and honest sober and clean then there cannot happen a greater comfort to us It will mightily strengthen our hopes that we are among the Number of God's Elect and that our Lot is among the Just. Besides the Comfort of our Youth spent soberly and well appears in this that a Man hath kept up his Credit and Reputation throughout his whole Life that from his Youth to his Old Age he hath constantly walked as became a good Man that he hath never stained nor bespotted his Life with deliberate and habitual Sins and Evils that his Life hath been all of a piece and his Youth hath not shamed his Old Age. What a Comfort and a Rejoycing will this be There were two Sorts of Old Men among the Jews One Sort were such as had lived loosly in their younger days and afterwards took up and grew Sober and Wise. But there was another sort among them whose Youth and Old Age both were well spent They began well and so they continued These two Sorts of Old Men in one of the great Feasts at the Temple used to stand in one of the Courts and pronounce these Words The former sort said thus Blessed be our Old Age that hath made amends for the Sins of our Youth But the latter said with more Comfort Blessed be our Youth that hath not shamed our Old Age. For indeed there is a Shame belongs to a Man as long as he lives for the Intemperance and Vices of his younger Years But when any of us have had the Grace to spend our young days well it will be a Reputation and Honour unto our Old Age. And the Consideration of it as it is matter of Thankfulness to God that hath given us such Grace in our Youth so it is matter of Peace and Comfort unto us that we have kept up a fair Name in the World all our Days 5. Young Men are subject to Death as well as the Elder Nay sometimes the younger are taken off when those that are gone further into Age and Years remain behind And therefore ought not they to be Sober that whensoever they dye they may not be taken unprovided It is a foolish thing to put off the Purposes of a good Life on this Score that Men are young and may have many years more to live because nothing is so uncertain as the Life of Man And we see Thousands of Instances of Men young in Years strong in Body vigorous in Health cut down suddenly by Fevers or some Accident or other And they dye and go to their long home as well as such who have lived to Gray Hairs And what a sad thing would it be for a young Man to suffer himself to be so cheated out of Heaven and Happiness because of the Conceit that he was young and might have lived many years more Oh! it ought to be every Man's Care above all his other Cares to think of Death and to prepare for the main Chance that when he goes out of this World he may pass into a better and leave a good Name behind them And of all the Madnesses of Youth certainly this is one of the greatest that they are so apt to put away the Day of their Death from them and to indulge to all Sensuality as tho they were sure of many future years and to cry that it will be time enough hereafter to grow Sober And then Alas Death comes on a sudden and surprises them with all their Sins and Faults and Follies about them And so they are undone to all Eternity And therefore it is the only wise Course for young Men to take Viz. To Fear God in their Youth and to Depart from Evil at this present Time that in case Death should overtake them as it hath done others as young and flourishing as they it may not endanger their Everlasting Well-being 6. To name no more in order to a sober Conversation let young Men consider some notable Instances of Persons that have been exemplarily good from their Youth For thanks be to God however corrupt the Generality of Youth are and have been yet there have been some admirable Instances of young Men that have begun and held out well in a holy chast wise and Godly Conversation And methinks these Examples should inflame Youth to labour to imitate them and to live and to do as they have done Youth is apt to Aspire and to be Ambitious and to reach after high things Certainly there is no Ambition no Aspiring like that of endeavouring to come up to that Perfection and Glory that some young Men like themselves have done What a brave young Person was Obadiah one of Ahab's Courtiers A wicked Prince and a wicked Court but yet Obadiah was not infected by either but feared the Lord from his Youth when almost all the rest had cast him behind their Backs He would not turn Idolater when the King and every one else did No he feared the Lord from his Youth So he tells Elijah But I thy Servant fear the Lord from my Youth 1 Kin. xviii 11 And that made him do such an adventurous Act to hide God's Prophets by Fifty in a Cave and feed them with Bread and Water when Iezabel had slain so many as she could find and probably had made it Death to conceal them And what a World of Good did that single good Man in those wicked Times And that chiefly because of that Fear of God which possessed his Mind from his Youth and so influenced all his after-Age Again What an incomparable Person was young King Iosiah and what admirable Service did he do for God and his Honour when his Kingdom had been by the Default of former Kings so polluted with Idolatry What a Reformation did he make in Iudah when he was very Young What Zeal for God was he endued withall and how sweet is

it on Scripture Foundations He gave free Invitation and gracious Reception to all Forreign Professors of the Gospel persecuted at home for their Religion So that tho he were but a Child he was a Father a true Nursing Father to God's Church and People And truly it was not without a notable Providence of God not to be forgotten and which under God was the great Cause of the Preservation of the Reformed Religion that while the Gospel at that Time was miserably opprest almost in all Parts of the World in Flanders in Germany in France in Spain in Italy in Poland for in all these Countries the Religion had already taken sooting and Combinations were entred into by the Rulers of the World to extirpate it every where England was in this King's Reign the common Asylum for Religious and Learned Men to fly unto And hither they flocked daily both for Shelter and Subsistence And Abundance of Annuities and Pensions did the young Godly King grant unto them out of his own Treasures and bestowed many of these Exiles in Places in the Church and in both the Universities And such was his Care for the Education of Youth in good and Christian Manners that during his Short Reign which was not Seven Years he founded more Schools throughout all Places of the Nation than I believe did all the Norman Kings that Reigned before him put together And I find that in little less then the space of twelve months he founded at least twelve Free-Schools And his Care of the Education of Youth further appeared in the Order he took in his own Family for his Henchmen that is his Pages and other Youths attending him For whom he appointed a School on purpose and retained a Schoolmaster And for his Encouragement assigned him a Salary for Life And as for his Charitable Mind it was scarce to be paralell'd And this City feels the good effect of it to this day and will do I hope to the World's End For excited by a Sermon which was preached before him by Ridley the Martyr then Bishop of London he settled upon your City for the Relief of your Poor the Hospital of St. Bartholomew the Gray-Friars Church near Newgate now called Christ's Hospital and Bridewell the Antient Mansion of the English Kings and the Savoy too with the Lands thereof But this last Gift he lived not to finish Yet he had such a real Intention to pass it to the City that he left it in his Will That the Grant made to the Mayor and City of London touching the Savoy and the Lands thereof should be performed And as he lived so he dyed most piously and devoutly recommending most heartily himself and his Kingdoms to God He had a grave and manly Mind in a Young Body All Foreigners that saw or heard of him admired him and wrote vast Characters of him Cardanus the great Philosopher who saw and talked with him reported in a printed Book That all the Graces were in him and that he lookt like the Miracle of a Man Caelius Secundus Curio another great learned Foreigner of Basil called him a Prince of Divine Hopes and a Godlike Youth adding That had he lived to adult years and had come to the Government of the Kingdom freed from the Tuition of his Courtiers which were none of the best what Realm on Earth had been happier what Nation ever more blessed But God was minded only to shew him to the World and suffer him no longer to abide in it But I must refrain begging your Pardons for saying so much it being hard in such a pleasant Subject to contain my self To hasten to a Conclusion Are not young Men stirred up by these brave Examples that I have set before them Can they consider these Men how well they began their Lives how Serviceable and Zealous they were for God and his Glory and what Attainments they made in Virtue and Goodness even in their tender Years and are they not inflamed to follow such notable Patterns Is it not more for their Reputation and Honour for their Comfort and the Satisfaction of their Consciences than to run with the Heard of Youth in this our evil Age towards all Loosness and Licentiousness Filthiness and Uncleanness in their Words and Deeds to the Pollution of their Souls and the drawing down the Anger of God upon them III. And now to make an end I cannot think but that all ingenuous Youth after all that I have said will feel strong Inclinations in themselves to take the Apostles Counsel to be Sober-minded To Watch their Affections to lay upon themselves the Bridle of Continency and Modesty to curb and rein up their Passions and their unruly Desires to chuse the Fear of God rather than the Pleasures of Sin for a Season If you want direction in this Work if you would know how you should keep your selves clean David will teach you Who asketh this needful Question and answereth it full well Wherewithal shall a Young Man cleanse his Way By taking heed thereto according to thy Word Psal. cxix 9 Or according to the Old Translation By ruling himself after thy Word Oh! Let God's Word be thy Guide and thy Rule And then thou hast God himself and his Holy Spirit to be thy Directer Who is best able to instruct thee and shew thee the Courses thou oughtest to take and which will prove most advantagious to thee Stir not an Inch from the Prescriptions of God's Word Let that be thy Maxim and thy Principle 'T is a dangerous World we live in and we ought to have our Wits about us how to behave our selves in all the various Circumstances of humane Life lest by some Slip or Error or Inadvertency in the Beginning of our setting out we draw misery and trouble upon our selves ever after And we ought to have some Wise Person to be our Counsellor for this Purpose But there is no Counsellor so safe as God himself And then we have him for our Counsellor when we take his Word for our Rule and ask Counsel there Oh! therefore let all young Men diligently read the Scriptures and make them their Study and their Practice And let them never doubt to follow most strictly the Counsels and Admonitions thereof however at first Sight they may seem inconvenient or dangerous to take For be assured Integrity and Righteousness Truth and Innocency and an Awe of God upon which all the Precepts of Holy Scripture are founded will bear a Man out best at the last and give our Lives the best Conclusion I conclude all therefore with the Son of Syrach's Exhortation to young Folks to get the true Wisdom Draw near unto me ye unlearned and dwell in the House of Learning Buy her for your selves without Mony Put your Neck under the yoke and let your Soul receive Instruction She is hard at hand to find Work your Work betimes that is while you are Young and in his time he will give the your Reward