Ecclus. Li. 23 25 26 30. Unto which Reward God Almighty bring us all Amen Admonitions TO THE AGED TIT. II. 2 That the Aged Men be Sober Grave Temperate Sound in Faith in Charity in Patience THe last time I was called to speak in this Audience I took upon me to be a Remembrancer to Young Men and exhorted them with many Arguments to Virtue and Goodness from the sixth verse of this Chapter where the Apostle bids Timothy exhort Young Men to be Sober-minded Now I shall carry over my Discourse from the Young unto the Old and speak if I can something in season to you that are the grave Magistrates and Citizens on whom lyes the Government of this great City and the present good Estate of it so much depends You that have lived in former Days and are able to tell of the times that are past You to whom God hath shewn many Noble Acts of his Power and Providence Give me leave now to be your Monitor also that joyning with your Experience a prudent a sober and a godly Conversation you may in your Places and Callings contribute to the bringing down God's Blessing upon your selves and upon us all And truly it is sad to consider what very Slaves to Vice and Sin many Aged Men are Their Passions and their Follies are grown up with them The sinful Frailties of their Youth are turned into the very Habits of their Old Age and the longer they have lived the worse they have been instead of growing better and wiser They have smarted many times past of their Lives for their Vices and Iniquities and yet have not had the Grace to mend them nor to forsake those things that have cost them dear Their bought Experience hath not made them wiser They have felt God's Hand many a time upon them for their Sins and yet they remain as bad as they were before And so they grow Old and Gray-headed in their Evil Courses as tho they resolved to live and dye in them Days should teach Wisdom saith the Spirit of God somewhere but neither Days nor Years have taught them Wisdom Vanity and Folly hath been bound up in their Hearts from their Childhood and it is so fast bound up there that it remains with them even to their Old Age and none of God's Rods of Correction have driven it out How many Men and Women have we known nay perhaps do know far gone in Years that have spent Forty or Fifty or Threescore Winters in the World and are passionate and hasty Covetous and Worldly minded unclean in their Desires Blasphemous and Vain in their Speeches wofully negligent of God and their Souls to this Day They draw near to Eternity and yet little think of it They are going to their long Homes and have one Foot in their Graves and yet take no care to make themselves fit for that other World And have little regard of putting their Souls in such a Posture as they may be able with Comfort to stand before God Gray Hairs are here and there upon them and they consider it not Well then be you Judges whether even Aged Men have not need to be called upon and to have a Monitor as well as the Younger St. Paul knew this well enough and therefore he instructs Titus to exhort the Aged to be Sober Grave Temperate Sound in Faith in Charity in Patience In all which respects the Aged in his Time were oftentimes too defective and perhaps were neither Sober Grave nor Temperate however Old they were nor Sound in Faith in Charity nor Patience But sure it is these things are mighty becoming Years and are proper Lessons and Practices for Elder Age Namely Sobriety Gravity Temperance Soundness in Faith in Charity and in Patience These O Fathers and Brethren will be very great Ornaments of your Age and not only Ornaments of your Age but of your holy Profession too Now that I may discourse suitably and profitably upon this Argument I shall do these two or three Things I. I shall shew you what that Behaviour is that is suitable unto Aged Men. II. Unto this holy Behaviour I shall excite and stir them up by some Considerations III. I shall make a Practical Conclusion of my Discourse I. I shall shew Elderly Men what that Good Behaviour is that they should follow after and make their Practice And for that I shall refer my self unto the Apostle in the Text. I shall not offer mine own Conceptions here to the Aged but what Paul the Aged nay Paul the Saint the Inspired offers to them He it is that would have them instructed to be 1. Sober 2. Grave 3. Temperate 4. Sound in Faith 5. Sound in Charity 6. Sound in Patience And that you may know the full Import and Meaning of each of these which will make a very accomplisht Old Age I shall speak of them distinctly I. Aged Men must be Sober This Word our Translaters do interpret sometimes To be Watchful and sometimes To be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sober And therefore Bullinger in his Exposition of this Place useth both words Vigilantes ac Sobrios Which two Expressions may inform us of the full Sense and Meaning of it First They must be Sober that is Abstemious in Drink avoiding all Excess in that That it may not impair their Health nor their Understanding Both which Age renders so infirm and places in so uncertain and ticklish a Condition And therefore especially Men in Years should not be Drunkards or Sots but use Wine or Strong Drink moderately Which if they especially take in too great Quantity it will soon wear their Bodies out and weaken their Minds Memories Judgments and Understandings Which Age of it self will do at last and needs not to be helped and furthered by our own Vices And indeed to see an Old Man a Drunkard to see him intoxicating himself and falling into all the frantick and foolish Frolicks that that Sin draws with it how odious is it how unbecoming that Gravity that Years call for And what an abominable ill Example will this give unto Children and the younger sort And what a Sport and Pastime will an old Drunkard render himself unto such who are called upon to reverence the Aged and to respect Gray-Hairs And what an Aggravation and weight of Guilt will it add unto the old Man's Drunkenness that he who by his Age ought to excel others and to go before them in a vertuous and sober Demeanour should hereby invite them to Sin and tempt them to follow him in these Excesses A thing which Young People are very apt to do viz. to follow such Examples especially if they have a Dependence upon the Elder If they be their Masters or Fathers their Landlords or Superiors This then is one Sense of the word Sober that is Not addicted to too much Wine and to use no more than may tend to the supportation of Nature and preserving the Body in Health Secondly They must be sober that
vigorous so they are more violently carried out towards external Objects that promise them Pleasure in the Enjoyment And they cannot bear any Restraint They must have their Desires however inconvenient or unlawful they be Their Lusts and their Appetites and Passions must be satisfied And they will break through all Bars and Impediments whatsoever for the Gratification thereof The Pleasures and Vanities of the World impetuously assault them and they cannot withstand And they want an Ear to listen to Reason and good Counsel whensoever these would stop them in their Careers Their Humours must be gratified whatever come of it And it is not Counsel and Consideration nothing but Force can keep them in And therefore it is so necessary for such to be under Tutors and Governours And this is the proper Weakness and Frailty of Young Men Great Addictedness to Pleasure and Violent Pursuits of it Now the contrary to this is Modesty or Sobriety Which therefore Titus is bid here to take care to exhort them to To be Sober-minded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It signifies to use a Bridle to be Modest and to keep in our Lusts and our Passions within their due Bounds and Limits That we gratify them not at any time or in any thing whatever Cravings they make if God forbid it if Reason disallow it if it draw Sin or Inconveniency after it if God should be thereby disobeyed or Religion dishonoured or if it bring a Guilt upon Conscience And thus you have seen what it is to be Sober-minded and what Reason the Apostle had to advise Titus to exhort Young Men so to be My Business now shall be only I. To do that which the Apostle here exhorts Titus and in him all Gospel Ministers to do namely To instruct Young Men to be Sober-minded II. That my Exhortation may take the better Effect I shall propound to them divers Motives and Considerations And III. I shall Conclude all with some short Address to them I. To Exhort Young Men to be Sober-minded And they have certainly great need of it because there are so few that are so The younger sort is sadly corrupted and vitiated ever from their tender Age. They have imbibed loose Principles that may best comport with loose Inclinations and suit to their Lusts. And as they grow up in Years they grow up as fast in Folly and Rashness They do not love Advice and Detest sober Counsel and hate to be checked in their Pursuits and Appetites and are apt to despise and scoff at their Elders and to think themselves far wiser than they That they may the more securely and uncontrollably follow their Vanities And so they commonly stain their Souls with grievous Blots of Sin and Wickedness It is a sad Consideration indeed to observe how viciously disposed the Youth of our Age for the most part is And it is a rare thing to see a Man young in Years Sober and Modest in his Manners Ingenuous in his Behaviour choosing good Courses and treading in the Steps of Virtue This I say is somewhat rare to see scarce one in a Thousand And this I speak not only of the Youth of the common sort but of the Superiour Ranks and Degrees among us the Children of Worshipful and Honourable Families Who if they live must have a great Influence upon many their Dependents their Servants Tenants and Inferiours that will follow their Example So that whole Towns whole Counties the whole Kingdom is in danger to be corrupted and spoiled by their Means And therefore surely there is high Reason most earnestly to deal with Youth by all the Ways and Means possible to Season their early Years with Sobriety to excite them to be Wise and to lay Restraint upon themselves and to prevail upon them not to run out into those Excesses of Riot and Wantonness that others do To all Young Men therefore I say as St. Paul did to young Timothy Flee also youthful Lusts. But follow Righteousness Faith Charity Peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure Heart 2 Tim. II. 22 Flee these Lusts as ye would flee from a Serpent For they have as much deadly Venom But that my Exhortation may take the better Effect II. I shall in the next place propound divers Motives and Considerations for this Purpose 1. Let young Men consider Seriously what Obligations lye upon them from God Oh! let them remember how peculiarly good and gracious he hath been to them And will not they express their Sense of Gratitude to this their good God by being Sober and keeping his Commandments It was his Goodness that brought them into the World and provided them kind and indulgent Parents that cherished them and most tenderly brought them up in their helpless Infancy Their helpless Infancy I say For a Humane Creature of all others when it is first born is most unable to help it self and must inevitably perish from the very Womb without the mere Mercy of God encline others to interpose their tender Care of it to feed and cloath and keep it warm and defend it from Injury This is God's Goodness thus to incline the Hearts of others to us in this poor forlorn State wherein we are cast when we first come into the World And it is God's Goodness still to us that under all the Troubles and Sorrows we create our Parents and Friends and our many unhansome and disobliging Carriages towards them while we are thus young their Tenderness and Patience towards us still perseveres and holds out And as we grow up in Days and Months and Years they take care of our Youth to Educate and Instruct us and to Supply us with whatsoever we need Streightning themselves for our Accommodation and procure to have us informed in such Knowledge Arts and Sciences as may enable us to provide for our Selves and to live comfortably when they are dead and gone and can take no more Care of us These Instincts of Love Tenderness and Kindness are all owing to God that inspired our Friends and Relations with these Indulgences towards us Moreover 't is his Goodness to thee O Young Man that he hath made thee a Rational Creature given thee Reason and Understanding and advanced thee above the Rank of inferiour Creatures That teacheth thee more than the Beasts of the Earth and maketh thee Wiser than the Fouls of Heaven Job xxxv 11 It is Elihu's Contemplation Again It is his Goodness to thee O young Man that when thou hast not remembred thy Creator but hast so often and so sadly forgotten him he hath spared thee and not punished thee with some grievous Judgment in the Act and Commission of thy Sin Thou hast broken his holy and awful Commandments it may be from the first Commandment to the last notwlthstanding thou hast known them and been taught them by thy Parents and by thy Instructers Nay and in the mean while thou hast been so far from Repentance that thou hast hardly been sensible what
is they must be watchful For so the word also signifies And therefore Watch and be sober are the Phrases that the Scripture puts together as being very near of kin or all one Therefore let us not sleep as do others but let us WATCH and be SOBER So St. Paul And so the Apostle St. Peter Be SOBER be VIGILANT or Watchful But in other places this very Word Be Sober is translated Be watchful So St. Paul exhorts Timothy Watch thou in all things And so St. Peter Watch unto Prayer Where the word Watch is of the same Original with the word Sober in the Text. Hence we may infer That the Meaning of this word and perhaps the chief Meaning and Sense of it relates to Watchfulness A great and a proper Duty and Exercise for Aged Men above all others To watch for their Lord 's Coming whose Time is so near spent in the course of Nature To watch and be in Expectation of their Departure into another World To Watch unto Prayer in the place before mentioned or In Prayers as the Words may be rendred That is to be always praying unto God lifting up their Hearts to him in holy and devout Ejaculations spending much of their Time in converse with their Maker and in earnest Addresses to Him to forgive unto them all their past Errors to beg and implore his Grace to be their Comfort in their old Age and that He would not leave them in the needful time of their Trouble their Sickness their Pain their Dying Hour Again They must be watchful to keep themselves clear and free of Sin to preserve themselves in a holy blameless Behaviour that they may be fit to meet the Lord and to make their personal Appearrance before their Judge which they are so suddenly to do And therefore Let not them sleep as do others but let THEM especially Watch and be Sober as the Apostle advises all Christians 1 Thess. v. 6 This Watchfulness also consists in their diligent Attendance upon all God's holy Ordinances As for Example in a conscientious celebrating of God's Sabbaths resorting unto the Places where his Honour dwelleth with all Devotion and Seriousness of Soul and and there hearing God's Word read and explained by his Ministers with an humble obedient Ear joyning their Hearts and their Mouths in the Prayers and Supplications that are put up there for our selves and for all the Wants and Necessicities of our Fellow-Christians in an universal spreading Charity And as often as the holy Communion is administred repairing unto God's Table with Earnest Minds and holy Affections to partake of that comfortable Commemoration of Christ's Death and Passion whereby he hath procured of his Father the Pardon and Remission of our Sins to our endless Comfort and Benefit And by these Ordinances we draw near to God and acquaint our selves with Him against the Time we hope for ever to dwell with Him and to enjoy His Blessed Face In these Ordinances we hold a Communion with God and God with us and we do accustom our selves to those very Exercises that if ever God vouchsafe to bring us to Glory shall be in effect our great Employment there Thus the Aged Men should Watch. And what a happy thing would it be for them if Death should find them thus Watching They should and I hope they do consider that God will e're long send for them And therefore it should be their Endeavour that whensoever He doth send He may find them upon their Knees or at their Devotion or busied in some holy good charitable or at least warrantable Exercise And this is the first great Point of that Behaviour that is so sutable to the Aged That the Aged Men be SOBER or Watchful II. The Aged Man must be Grave that is his Carriage and outward Deportment must be managed in that Decency and Reverence as may bespeak the inward Goodness of his Mind He must so demean himself that it may appear That there is within him a true Sense of God and Goodness and an Aversion to every thing that is foul unjust and dishonest All Lightness Idleness Vanity of Behaviour Frothiness of Speech Playing Toying Sporting Chamberring and Wantonness in Words and Actions and such like so contrary to the Decorum of their Age these things are by all means to be avoided by Men of Age and Years so dissonant to Gravity There must be a Severity in their Behaviour They must not endure to see or to hear any thing that is immodest or unseemly much more that is vile and wicked And if they are Magistrates they must shew their Dislike of it by punishing and correcting it If of more ordinary Rank and Quality they must reprove it or withdraw themselves from it or give some plain Evidence of their Disallowance and Disapprovement of it There is a Lightness and Frothiness of Conversation which this present Generation of Ours is too much addicted to And it is this in a great measure more than most are aware of that doth so indispose and prejudice Men against Religion which indeed will not away with it For that is a Serious and Solid thing It will not allow of that Airiness of Behaviour that Vanity and Idleness of Speech and Trivial Conversation that is in too great Fashion and Vogue among us It was a Saying of one of the Fathers Even the Sportings of Christians ought to have a kind of Seriousness in them Every Man should do that which becomes him And there is nothing becomes a Christian but what is virtuous what is just what is innocent and what is modest and what hath the stamp of Truth and Goodness on it A Heathen gave us this Advice Reckon that nothing becomes you but what is good And it is the Apostle's admirable Councel to his Philippians in the Conclusion of his Epistle to them Whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are HONEST The word in the Text i. e. Whatsoever things are Grave or Decent or Agreeable to your most holy Profession Think on these things This then ought to be the Deportment of all Christians all that have taken on them Christ's holy Name but chiefly all Elderly People Their Years call upon them to be Grave countenancing what is Good discountenancing what ever is Evil. Which will shew the inward Good and Godly Temper of their Minds and Spirits The aged Men must be Grave or Serious that is their second Qualification III. They must be Temperate An Aged Man must be a Man of Temper Temper in his Passions He must not be testy morose and froward a Vice to which Old Men are wont to be addicted He must not be a Demea as he in Terence a peevish fretful captious Man He must not be a Nabal as he in the Book of Samuel such a Son of Belial that a Man cannot speak to him There must be a Temper also in his Wrath. He must not let that impotent Passion rule him and carry