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A61630 Thirteen sermons preached on several occasions three of which never before printed / by the Right Reverend Father in God Edward, Lord Bishop of Worcester.; Sermons. Selections Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699. 1698 (1698) Wing S5671; ESTC R21899 215,877 540

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have no hopes yet herein God hath magnified his abundant Love towards Sinners that although they have sinned to a high Degree yet if they be so far wearied with the Burthen of their Sins as to take Christ's Yoke upon them then he hath promised Ease and Rest to their Souls which is the greatest Blessing in the World especially to repenting Sinners But some may again say we have repented and sinned and sinned and repented again and can hardly yet tell which will get the better at last we cannot say that we have entirely submitted our Necks to Christ's Yoke for that requires a great deal more than we can perform how then can we be thought Righteous I answer therefore 2. Where there is a sincere and honest Endeavour to please God and keep his Commandments although Persons fail in the Manner of doing it God will accept of such as righteous But where they please themselves in their Unrighteousness and go on in it hoping that God will accept some kind of Repentance in stead of it or where there hath been long struggling and many Acts of Repentance and the Interest of Sin prevails the Case of such is very dangerous but not desperate For as long as there is hopes of a true Repentance there is of Salvation and there is still hopes of Repentance where Men's hearts are not hardned by an incorrigible Stiffness For according to the best Measures we can take by the Rules of the Gospel none are effectually excluded from the Hopes of Salvation but such as exclude themselves by their own Impenitency SERMON IV. Preached before the King and Queen AT WHITE-HALL March the 23 d 1689 90. Ecclesiastes XI 9. Rejoyce O young man in thy youth and let thy heart chear thee in the days of thy youth and walk in the ways of thy heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment IF Solomon had said Rejoyce not O young man in thy youth neither let thy heart chear thee in the days of thy youth walk not in the way of thine heart nor in the sight of thine eyes for know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into Judgment the Sense had been so easie and plain that there had been no Appearance of Difficulty in reconciling one Part with the other For the whole had been look'd upon but as a necessary and seasonable Admonition to such who by the Heats of Youth and Strength of Inclination and Allurements of the World are too apt to be transported with the Love of sensual Pleasures And this had been very becoming the wise Man towards the Conclusion of his Book wherein he had not only before set forth the several Vanities of humane Life but so soon after bids Men Remember their Creatour in the days of their Youth while the evil days come not nor the years draw nigh of which they shall say they have no pleasure in them i. e. in the days wherein they are most apt to walk in the way of their hearts and in the sight of their eyes For he knew very well that nothing is so powerfull a Check and Restraint upon Men's Inclinations to Sin as the serious Consideration of that God that gave them their Beings and will bring them to an Account for their Actions But how then comes he in this Verse to seem rather to give a Permission to young Men in the time of Youth to indulge themselves in their Mirth and Vanity Rejoyce O young Man in thy Youth c. Some think that the wise Man only derides and exposes them for their Folly in so doing but that seems not agreeable with the grave and serious Advice which follows And we find nothing like Irony or Sarcasm in any Part of the foregoing Book for he begins it with a Tragical Exclamation against the Vanities of humane Life Vanity of Vanities saith the Preacher Vanity of Vanities all is Vanity And he pursues his Argument by a particular Induction of the most tempting and pleasing Vanities of Life and particularly all sorts of sensual Delights as Mirth and Jollity in the first Place then Wine and Musick fine Palaces curious Vineyards Gardens and Pools a great Retinue and which was needfull to maintain all this Abundance of Silver and Gold But what a melancholy Reflection doth he make on all these Pleasures of Life Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought and on the labour that I had laboured to do and behold all was vanity and vexation of spirit What incouragement then could the wise-Man after so much Experience of the World give to young Men here in the Text to rejoyce in the days of their Youth and to walk in the way of their hearts and in the sight of their eyes i. e. to pursue Vanity and to lay the Foundation for greater Vexation of Spirit when they come to reflect on their own Follies What then is the meaning of these words For this we are to observe that the Preacher having declared his own main Scope and Design in the beginning and conclusion of his Book brings in sometimes the different Senses which Mankind are apt to have concerning the Happiness of Life And that is the Reason that we meet with such different Expressions concerning it In one Place it is said that there is no better thing under the Sun than to eat and drink and to be merry but in another he saith Sorrow is better than laughter and by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better In one Place he saith All things come alike to all there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked But in another That it shall be well with them that fear the Lord but it shall not be well with the wicked How can such Passages as these be reconciled if we look on them as expressing the Sense of the same Person But if we allow them to be the different Notions of two sorts of Men in this World they are easie to be understood although not to be reconciled And the one sort is of those who place all Happiness in this Life without regard to Religion or Vertue or another World and the other of those who look on this Life only as a Passage to another and that all Persons ought to behave themselves here so as conduces most to their Happiness hereafter And according to these different Schemes we have in the words of the Text two very different sorts of Counsel and Advice to young Men. I. The first proceeds upon the Supposition that all the Happiness of Man lies in this Life and in the Enjoyment of the sensual Pleasures of it Rejoyce O young Man in thy Youth and let thy heart chear thee in the days of thy Youth and walk in the way of thy heart and in the sight of thy eyes We have no other Rule