Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A41668
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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 ...
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Gouge, Thomas, 1605-1681.
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1676
(1676)
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Wing G1387; ESTC R32454
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122,357
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176
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CHAP. III. Containeth a sharp reproof of those who devote their Flower and Prime to the service of Satan and their sinful lusts and reserve their decayed strength for God Use 1. IS it a duty incumbent upon all Young Men to consecrate themselves to the service of God then such are to be reproved who devote their Flower and Prime to the service of Satan and their sinful lusts and reserve their decayed strength for God and his service accounting the very dregs and refuse of all to be good enough for him for whom the best and principal is not worthy Under the Law they were forbidden to offer any thing unto the Lord that had a blemish or that were lame and blind Lev. 3. 1. 22. 18 19 20. and Deut. 15. 21. And for transgressing this Law the Lord reprehended his people by the Prophet Malachy 1. 8. If ye offer the blind for Sacrifice is it not evil and if ye offer the lame and sick is it not evil Offer it now to thy Governour will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person saith the Lord of Hosts Was the Lord greatly offended when as men reserved the best of the Flocks to themselves and offered the old the blind and the lame unto him And will he be well pleased that thou shouldst dedicate thy best unto Satan and reserve for him only thy decrepit lame and withered age when as thy body is full of diseases and thy mind of infirmities Will God accept the Devils leavings Shall sin have thy blood and thy spirits and thy marrow and thy God be put off with skin and bones He that hath had the best may even take all God will laugh at thee in thy Evening who laugh'st at him in the Morning of thy days Is it not extream folly while the Ship is sound the Tackling good the Marriners hail and strong to lie playing and sporting at Road and when the Ship is crazy the Tackling weak and rotten the Marriners sick then to hoyse up sail for a Voyage into a far Country And how wise a man art thou who wilt delay the Voyage for Heaven till thy Vessel be broken and those Worms thy Lusts that have been bred in it have eaten it through and made it utterly useless We generally confess that our sins must be left and that God must be sought and served but we cannot accord of the time when to begin One saith he will begin when he hath served his Apprenticeship and is out of his time another when he is made Free and set up for himself another when he is Married another when he is Old Thus every one is apt to procrastinate The whole World almost are men for hereafter When must God be minded Hereafter When must these souls be looked to Hereafter When must these sins be sent packing Hereafter When we have served our selves of this World then we 'l be for the other World and when we have satisfied our Lusts then we will satisfie our Consciences and when we are unfit and unable for any thing else then we will follow God When we are scarce able to turn our wearied bones in our bed then will we think of turning to him Canst thou think God will accept thereof Believe it if thou canst Mark what the Prophet Malachy speaketh Chap. 1. 14. Cursed be the deceiver that hath in his Flock a Male and voweth and consecrateth unto the Lord a corrupt thing Who hath the Male of thy Flock whose is the First-born of thy strength Doth the Devil carry away that and must this corrupt thing this weak and weary and sickly time of thine age be the offering for God what thinkest thou will he say to thee but cursed be the deceiver that hath in his Flock a Male and consecrateth unto the Lord a corrupt thing CHAP. IV. Containeth an Use of Exhortation unto all young men to offer unto God the First-fruits of their lives Use 2. OF Exhortation unto all Young Men to offer unto God the First-fruits of their lives to give themselves to him betimes and forthwith to have done with the service of their sins and in earnest to betake themselves to holiness and righteousness of life Though the Devil the World and the Flesh have been aforehand with Christ and have gotten possession of thine heart yet now without further delay give a Bill of Divorce to them all cast out the Bond-woman and her Children and open unto Jesus Christ who stands knocking at the door of thine heart for entrance who by the admonitions of his Ministers the motions of his Spirit and checks of thine own Conscience doth call out unto thee Open to me I pray thee let me come in Oh let not thy love to thy Lust so far prevail with thee as to put off Christ to another time but this day open to him imbrace him for thy Prince and Saviour resign up thy self unto him to serve and obey him before thou art too far ingaged in the service of sin and Satan say with David That God shall be thy God and thou wilt seek him early Psal. 63. 1. Even now in the spring of thy life while the day of health and the day of Grace hath dawned upon thee Consider O Young Man how unfit old age is either to grapple with thy Lusts or thy duties to resist the tyranny of sin or to bear the difficulties of Religion We find by experience that the soul acting by and through the body acts according to the disposition thereof When the body is dull and heavy through age or infirmity the soul acts thereafter Is thy dulness and coldness all that thou wilt spare to the God of thy spirits How will he take it at thy hands when the Devil hath rode thee off thy legs and so lamed and cripled thee that now thou canst do no more then thou wilt be for God think how well this will please thy Maker Ye shall not see my face said Ioseph to his Brethren except you bring your younger Brother with you Gen. 43. 2. And how canst thou look to behold the face of the Lord Jesus with comfort if thou bring not unto him thy Youth and strength Now therefore O Young Man in the morning of thy life while the faculties of thy soul and parts of thy body are fresh and quick set thy face Heaven-ward especially considering how great thy work as a Christian is like to be even greater than thou canst dispatch in an Age. Those evil customs and habits which have been long growing cannot easily be cut off Those strong corruptions which have taken root in thine heart cannot readily be removed That knowledge grace peace comfort and assurance which thou needest cannot be attained without great labour and industry The work of Religion requires time it concerns thee to set upon it presently and not to be so very a Fool as to say It 's time enough yet Though thou hast foolishly mis-spent so much of thy Oyl already in
unprofitable yielding little profit to those who have most of them Matth. 16. 26. What will it profit a man though he gain the whole World and lose his Soul As he assuredly will who sets his heart more upon gold than upon Grace and Godliness and seeketh more earnestly after worldly things than after an interest in Christ after the light of Gods Countenance and the assurance of his loving favour Suppose a man have an affluency of this Worlds goods yet what profit or priviledge hath he above him that enjoyeth but a competency A little will be enough to a prudent mind and enough is a feast When thou hast the most what wilt thou have more than for Food and Rayment out of all thy store For what 's over and above thou must be Accountant to thy Lord and Master at the Great Day how and where thou hast bestowed it for him Obj. It may be thou wilt reply that the rich may have daintier Diet and more costly Apparel than the poorer sort of people A. To which I answer That the rich have no greater priviledge or profit thereby because the pleasure of eating and drinking consisteth not so much in the daintiness of the fare as in the goodness of the stomack He who feedeth on his course fare with an hungry appetite taketh more delight in his Meat than he who is glutted with often feeding on his delicious fare Neither hath the rich man any more benefit by his costly Apparel than the poor man by his plain habit which keeps him as warm as the finer and richer But how many rich Misers are there who though they have abundance of this Worlds goods yet have not the heart to use them but spare from their own backs and pinch their own Bellies to fill their Purses What profit or benefit have such by their riches but only the beholding them with their eyes Besides no outward riches can make us better in the best things They cannot make us more acceptable to God neither can they make us more rich in Spiritual Grace more Vertuous or Religious they cannot assure us of Gods love nor of our future happiness they will not profit us at the day of death being then like Iob's Friends miserable Comforters adding to our grief neither will they benefit at the day of Judgment but rather increase our Bills of account how we have gotten how we have used and spent them Thus you see how unprofitable riches are to the owners and possessors of them 5. Consider how riches are not only unprofitable but also hurtful and pernicious to those who setting their hearts upon them do inordinately seek after the same Hurtful they are not in themselves and in their own nature but through our corruption whereby we are apt to abuse them unto evil 1. The immoderate seeking after riches will both keep us from the performance of Holy and Religious Duties and distract us therein 2. It will expose us to manifold temptations as 1 Tim. 6. 9. and put us upon the committing of any sin for the obtaining a little worldly wealth 3. It will hinder us from attaining unto Heavenly Happiness and like the Camels bunch keep us from entring into the strait Gate These considerations seriously weighed will be a special means to take off thine heart from an immoderate seeking after worldly riches CHAP. XXV Sheweth the danger of bad Company and the advantage of good Company IV. BE careful of thy Company especially whom thou makest thy bosom and familiar friends for that is a matter of exceeding great concernment to thy Spiritual Welfare This I shall branch into two Heads 1. Avoid the Society of wicked and prophane persons 2. Desire and imbrace the Company of the Godly I. Avoid the Society of wicked men which hath been the bane and ruine of thousands of Young Men. I do not say that all manner of Society with graceless and prophane persons is sinful and unlawful and that thou oughts not to come at all into their company nor to have any intercourse and commerce with them in buying selling and the like But thy care must be to avoid all intimate society and familiarity yea and all needless and unnecessary conversing with them 1. For first It is exceeding dangerous without a just Warrant and Calling to be much in the company of wicked and prophane men especially such as are Scoffers of Religion and Traducers of good men who by their loose Conversation and continual railing against Religion and the Professors thereof will take off thine heart from all love and delight in holy and Religious exercises and work in thee a distast and contempt of the ways of Godliness There is a secret and bewitching power in prophane company to impoyson and pervert even the best disposition sin being of a contagious nature more infectious than the Plague and the Soul much more catching of the contagion of sin than the body of any infectious disease It is a thing of great difficulty ordinarily and intimately to converse with wicked men and not to be tainted with their sins For besides that they are apt to infect others we are very apt to receive the infection having the seeds of all sins remaining in us Ioseph though he were a Vertuous Young Man yet living in the Kings Court soon learned to swear ordinarily by the Life of Pharaoh Gen. 42. 13 14. Common experience telleth us how many hopeful Young Men who have blossomed fairly and brought forth some good fruit yet by frequenting the company of wicked and lewd persons have proved very prophane and debauch'd The Philosophers do well observe that all waters both in colour and taste do participate of the nature and disposition of those grounds through which they pass In like manner men do participate of the disposition and manners of those with whom they frequently and familiarly converse 2. It is not for the honour of Gods Children to hold intimate society and 〈◊〉 with wicked men men being generally reputed to be of their temper and disposition with whom they ordinarily and intimately converse according to that old Proverb Birds of a feather will flock together The company in which thou delightest sheweth what courses thou lovest and what spirit thou art of If therefore thou delightest in the company of lewd and prophane persons thou hast cause to suspect that thine heart is not right The beloved Disciple Iohn makes it a sign That we are passed from Death to Life if we love the Brethren 1 Joh. 3. 14. And 't is Love that makes their company delightful And what sign is it in thee that lovest and associatest with the haters of the Brethren Search and consider if this do not mark thee out for one whose Soul abideth in death Therefore O Young Man as thou desirest to keep up the credit of Religion thine own Reputation with the godly and the hopes of thine own uprightness with God beware of evil workers and as much as possible keep