Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	year_n	young_a	youth_n	103	3	8.2370	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41668	The young man's guide through the wilderness of this world to the heavenly Canaan shewing him how to carry himself Christian-like in the whole course of his life / by Tho. Gouge ...	Gouge, Thomas, 1605-1681.	1676 (1676)	Wing G1387; ESTC R32454	122,357	176

before old age seiseth on thee which will be full of pains and sorrows so that thou canst take no delight in any thing neither canst thou find any desire or strength for service Here the dayes of old age are called evil because men are then subject to manifold infirmities and afflictions as if he had said seeing the Elder dayes are like to be evil dayes full of pains and griefs be sure thou do not add thereunto the bitterness of thy youthful lusts and pleasures and the butthen of those duties which should have been the business of thy youth Shall the sins and the works of an whole age be laid upon thi●…e aged Shoulders what an intolerable burthen will that be to thee who wilt find it hard enough for thee to bear up under thy diseases and infirmities Be doing rather now in the dayes of thy youth lay up against the time to come be aforehand with thy necessary work get to be rich in greace abundant in good works serving the Lord in holiness and righteousness all the dayes of thy life which may comfort thine heart against the evils of thine old age that so it may not be unto thee an evil but as it was to Abraham a good old age Gen. 25. 8. The drift of the Wise man in these words is to stir up young men to consecrate their youth and younger years especially to the remembring and serving of God because old age being full of weaknesses and infirmities is very unfit then to begin to serve God or to mind the great work of Repentance and Reformation CHAP. II. Containeth the grand proposition with the Reasons thereof FRom the drift and scope of Solomon in these words may be raised this point of Doctrine Doct. It is a duty incumbent upon all young men to consecrate the prime and strength of their dayes to the service of God So to remember God as to devote themselvs to him This was Typified under the Law where the Lord required the first-fruits to be dedicated unto him the first-born to be sanctified unto him and the young Bullocks and Lambs to be offered in Sacrifice unto him Which was written for our learning to teach and instruct us to offer unto God the service of our youth as well as of our old age And is it not most equal that as the first-fruits of other things so the first-fruits of man of his ripened understanding and affections should be given unto God Was the Lord greatly offended when as men reserved the best of the flock to themselves and offered the old the blind and the lame unto him And will he be well-pleased that we devote our youth and younger years to the service of Satan and the satisfying our own lusts and reserve for him only our decrepit old age This is likewise commended to us in the example of divers young men recorded in Scripture We read of Isaac that while he was young he accustomed himself to prayer and meditation Gen. 24. 63. Of Iosiah that when he was eight years old he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord And in the eighth year of his reign while he was yet young he began to seek after the God of David his Father 2 Chron. 34. 1 3. Of Obadiah that he feared the Lord from his youth 1 King 18. 12. And of Timothy that from a Child he had known the holy Scriptures which were able to make him wise unto salvation 2. Tim. 3. 15. If any shall ask wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way Surely by following the example of such rare young men as these were The Reasons of the point Reas. 1. Youth is the fittest time that can he given unto God as being the Spring time and excellentest part of thy life In the grave there is no serving God in thine old age it is bad serving him by reason of the manifold weaknesses and infirmities which do accompany the same therefore thy Youth must needs be the fittest time for his service For 1. Youth is most active and vigorous quick and lively being not at all clogged with the infirmities of age Then is thy body strongest thy wit sharpest and thy memory most capable and retentive How unworthy then is it for thee to Sacrifice thy youth to Bacchus and Venus to ungodly sensuality and luxury and at last to lay thine old bones upon Gods Altar O what Pity is it that the Devil the world and the flesh should have thy cream and flour And how shameful that God to whom thy whole life is due should have only thy bran and dreggs 2. Youth is the time of strength and the service of God being no easie work calls for thine utmost strength the strength of thy body as well as the strength of thy mind Our Saviour requires strive to enter in at the strait gate The word in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth a striving with our utmost skill strength and activity as wrestlers do for mastery And saith the Apostle work out your salvation where the word in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth to work with the greatest industry Old men whose strength is wasted are like to make but poor wrestlers and as poor workers And therefore what fitter time can there be in earnest to set upon the difficulties of Religion and Godliness and the mighty and weighty works thereof than in the strength of our days Reas. 2. The service of thy Youth is the most acceptable service unto God When Abraham manifested his willingness to sacrifice his young Son Isaac upon the Command of God oh how kindly did the Lord take it and thereupon promised yea swore unto him saying Because thou hast done this thing that in blessing I will bless thee Gen. 22. 16. In like manner if thou shalt consecrate thy younger years unto God which is as it were to sacrifice thy Isaac he will take it kindly at thy hands and thou shalt be remembred with a blessing in thine age for with such sacrifices God is well pleased When our Saviour heard the rich man in the Gospel say All these Commandments have I kept from my Youth the Evangelist no●…eth that beholding him he loved him to shew possibly how he loveth the service of young men how pleasing and acceptable it is to him And it is questionable whether God who calls for the first fruits of thy life if thou deny him that will accept the gleanings of thine age Reas. 3. Another reason may be taken from the momentary shortness and mu●…able uncertainty of thy life So short it is that the whole of it from first to last is little enough for thy necessary work To get an interest in Christ to mortifie thy Lusts to furnish thy self with Grace to fill up thy fruits of righteousness and thereby to make sure to thy self a bet-ter life believe it these are not the works of a few days or hours And so uncertain is thy life that thou hast no

Custom 5. Thy long continuance in a sinful course of life will make thy Repentance much more grievous and bitter Some men in their New-birth feel far greater pangs and throws than others some are even on the wrack through dreadful horrours in their Consciences and a deep apprehension of the wrath and vengeance of God due unto them for their sins and these are usually such as are either guilty of some gross and heinous sin or else have for a long time run on in a course of sinning against God St. Paul having been a blasphemer and a persecutor of the Church of God his New-birth cost him many a bitter throw he was so deeply humbled and cast down with a sight and sense of his sins and heinousness of them that for three days he did neither eat nor drink Act. 9. 9. Mary Magdalen having been a notorious sinner it is recorded that at her Conversion she wept so abundantly that she washed the feet of our Saviour with her tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head Luk. 7. 38. And indeed most mens sorrow and humiliation for their sins is usually suitable to the number and heinousness of their sins As therefore thou wouldst avoid those dreadful terrours and bitter throws those heart-melting sorrows which possess many in their New-birth it will be thy wisdom speedily even now in thy Youth and younger years before thou hast contracted many great and heinous sins to ingage thy self in the ways of godliness 6. Continuance in sin without sincere repentance will make thy condemnation more intollerable By delaying to turn from thy sins unto God as thou dost prepare more matter for thy grief and sorrow so thou dost treasure up more fuel for thine everlasting burning which the Apostle plainly expresseth Rom. 2. 5. But thou saith he after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thy self wrath against the day of wrath and Revelation of the righteous Iudgment of God who will render to every man according to his deeds whether they have been good or bad So that continuance in sinning without true and unfeigned repentance must needs occasion an heavier weight of vengeance at the last For he that adds to his sins doth certainly add to his own punishment treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath and gathering as it were more wood to increase those flames which shall burn to all Eternity Reas. 6. May be taken from the benefits which follow and accompany thine early serving of God 1. Thereby thou wilt prevent manifold sins especially thy youthful lusts which to many prove very bitter in their Age when God is pleased to set them home upon their Consciences or suffer them to fly in their faces As every Calling so every Age of life hath its special and peculiar sins unto which it is most subject Thus Covetousness is usually the Old Mans sin and Voluptuousness the Young Mans sin the remembrance of which oft-times is very grievous in Old Age Therefore Iob speaks of some wicked men Iob 20. 11. whose bones are full of the sins of their Youth meaning that they feel more smart of them in their old age than ever they found pleasure and delight in them in their Youth It must needs be a sad burthen when men in their old age do feel the heavy weight of their Youthful lusts And yet what more ordinary we read of Iob that though he was one that truly feared God and eschewed evil as God himself restifieth of him Iob 1. 8. yet was the remembrance of the sins of his Youth very bitter unto him Thou writest bitter things against me and makest me to possess the sins of my Youth saith he Iob 13. 26. Oh then how bitter and grievous will they be unto them who in their Youth do wholly prostitute themselves to lust and lewdness Such as in their younger years have taken great pains and thereby got heats and colds are apt to cry out of Aches and Stitches in their Age. Young sinner look for it thy early pleasures and youthful wantonness and that drudgery which they have put thee to are like to be Stitches in thy aged sides and Swords in thy heart and soul. Oh young man how should the consideration thereof stir thee up even now in the days of thy Youth to remember thy Creator and to dedicate thy self unto him thereby thou mayst prevent both thy present sins and those bitter returns they are otherwise like to make thee after many days 2. By thine early serving of God the exercises of Religion will be more pleasant and easie unto thee For often use will bring thee to a custom and long custom will work in thee an habit which will be easie and familiar and habits whether good or evil will be more easily gotten in Youth than in Age. We find by daily experience when young men are put Apprentices unto such Trades as are hard to be learned they soon attain unto the mystery of them and become dexterous therein Whereas if men in their old age should set upon the learning of them they would never attain unto any perfection therein In like manner if thou from thy Youth wouldst accustom thy self to the exercise of Religion and works of Sanctification thou wouldst sooner attain the skill and practice of them Whereas if thou shouldst put them off to old age they would come off very hardly and thou wouldst find thy self very unapt and untoward thereunto 3. The sooner thou beginnest to serve God here the the greater will be thy reward hereafter in Heaven For thy reward there will be proportioned to thy work here Though no man shall be rewarded for his works but only for the Merits of his blessed Saviour Jesus Christ yet God of his free grace hath promised to reward us according to our works as the Apostle expresseth Rom. 2. 6. He will render to every one according to his deeds implying that the measure of glory hereafter shall be proportioned to the measure of our sanctification and obedience here So that I may apply that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 9. 6. He that soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly and he that soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully Look as here mens Harvests are usually answerable to their sowing in like manner the reward of Gods people in Heaven shall be answerable to the seed which is sown by them here he who soweth liberally here abounding in duties of Piety and works of Righteousness shall have a liberal reward in Heaven Now the sooner any man beginneth to ingage his heart to God the more service will he do him in this life and consequently the greater reward shall he have from him in the life to come Oh what stronger argument or greater incouragement than this can Young Men possibly have to devote and consecrate themselves from their Youth and tender years to the service of their Creator The point being thus proved by Scripture Examples and Reasons come we now to the application thereof