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A61621 A sermon preached before the King & Queen at White-hall, March 23, 1689/90 by ... Edward, Lord Bishop of Worcester. Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699. 1690 (1690) Wing S5661; ESTC R14192 14,698 38

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A SERMON Preached before the King Queen AT WHITE-HALL March 23. 1689 90. By the Right Reverend Father in God EDWARD Lord Bishop of Worcester Published by their Majesties Special Command LONDON Printed for Henry Mortclocke at the Phoenix in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1690. 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 Iudgment 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 onely 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 mens 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 onely 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 Iollity 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 doe 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 onely 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 here given but the sight of the eye and the way of the heart i. e. outward Appearance and inward Inclination and these are the beloved Rules of the most Sensual and Voluptuous persons and they judge of Happiness onely by the pursuit of them Here is nothing mention'd of Reason or Conscience or a regard to Vertue in the Restraint of Natural Inclinations Nay here is nothing of that Severity which Epicurus himself thought necessary towards the maintaining of a pleasant state of Life which he granted could never be done without some restraint of Mens Appetites and Inclinations to the Pleasures of Sense and it is not to be imagined that Solomon should give Young men greater Liberty than the corruptest Moralists did Therefore I cannot look upon these words as a Permission for them to doe what is here expressed but as a full Description of that method of Living which the jolly and voluptuous Corrupters of Youth would instruct them in Rejoyce O young man in thy Youth and let thine heart chear thee c. II. We have here the most Powerfull Check and Restraint laid upon all these Sensual Inclinations of Youth But know thou that for all these things God will bring thee to Iudgment Which Words are the Wise Man's Correction of the foregoing Liberty or the Curb which Reason and Religion give to the pursuit of Natural Inclinations wherein every Word