to me CHAP. II. WHerefore that this may be made more clear unto us let us consider how and in what respects the daies of Youth are called good daies They are good daies 1. Because they are the first daies of a man's life Childhood is but as it were a preparative to the life of man Children while they are Children have but some imperfect beginnings of the life of reason which is the proper and peculiar life of man therefore we may reckon the daies of Youth as the first daies of man's life when he first beginneth to live as a man and to live the life of reason in some degree of perfection Now ye know that the first in every kind hath the preheminence the first-born of men the firstlings of beasts the first-fruits of the earth the morning of the day the first age of the world the spring of the year So there is a kind of preheminency in the first daies of man's life which are the daies of Youth they are a man's prime and his good daies 2. The daies of Youth are good daies because ordinarily they are the daies of best health and strength daies wherein we are of able bodies for any special service For although it be true that in the worship of God bodily exercise profiteth but little in comparison of the inward power of godliness yet strength and health when they are made serviceable to a sanctified upright heart are of special use both in the immediate worship of God and in the performance of many offices of love which we ought to do towards our Brethren in the Lord. Mens sana in corpore sano as they say a sound mind and an heavenly spirit furthered in the worship and service of God by a strong healthy well-tempered body hath a great advantage in it's work and in that case the daies of health and strength are good daies In Prayer although the strength and force of Prayer doth not lie in the strength of the sides or loudnes of the voice yet it is no smal advantage to the Spirit when in it's fervour and strength of affection it gathereth up and putteth forth all it's powers in earnest supplication before the throne of Grace if then it hath a sound healthy body able to bear the intention of a fervent spirit without fainting or distraction You know that if the arrow be long and drawn to the head it is needfull that the bow and the string should be of sufficient strength to hold drawing And a Christian that will not content himself to shoot those fools bolts mentioned Eccles. 5. 1. but desireth to send forth winged shafts of fervent Prayer that shall pierce the Clouds and enter the Heavens findeth it an help not to be despised when the strength and health of his body is suitable to the vigour of his spirit This holdeth as ye may easily conceive in those exercises of hearing reading meditation c. 3. Daies of Youth are times wherein the powers of the Soul are also quick lively and able by the communion with the body The Soul by reason of it's near conjunction of the body hath it's Childhood Youth and decaying time In younger years it hath those golden daies wherein the understanding is quick in apprehension teachable and apt to receive impression the Memory faithfull the Judgement good and sound the Affections strong and stirring Therefore these are the good daies wherein it is fit to be used in the work and service of God And as in the Spring all these concurring together the Trees in their fresh clothing the face of the Earth renued the beauty of Herbs and Flowers together with the Sun 's shining brightly in his strength and glory make up good daies whereas in the Winter the brightness of the Sun maketh but an imperfect good day whiles the Trees and Fields are stripped dead and withered the ground covered with mire and dirt so the meeting of these together the birth-right of Youth the strength and health of the Body the quickness of the Senses the activeness and abundance of the Spirits the perfections of the Soul c. make the daies of Youth good daies whereas although in the winter of Old Age the Sun may shine the principles of wisdome stored up in Youth may be preserved yet there are those defects naturally clogging that dying age which do ecclipse the brightness and lessen the goodness of those daies CHAP. III. Use â— THis may serve to reprove those who do allow some fleshly liberty to the daies of Youth Many who themselves are aged out of a kind of fatherly experienced gravity as they would have men think and out of a kind of moderation to which their years have brought them as they will have us believe do give liberty to a kind of latitude in the ways of Youth and young men must be born with Who doubteth but that there is a Christian moderation and compassion to be exercised towards such infirmities of the flesh which the Spirit wrestleth and laboureth against either in young or old when the heart being given up to Christ and brought under the soveraign command of his glorious Gospel and blessed Spirit cannot yet wholly free it self from the law of Rebellion nor utterly shake off the body of Death But out of a pretence of levity to flatter the enormities of Youth and to excuse those vitious unbridled courses which stain the glory of those best daies what is it but to say that hard Frosts deep Snows Inundations thick mire and dirt are not to be accounted strange in May nor to be wondered at in the prime and spring of the year Is it to be endured when the best daies of a man's life are wasted away in such courses as are contrary to the end for which a man liveth most contrary to the glory of that great God who hath given them these choice daies of Youth To speak plainly when are you more carefull to fence your Copses Pastures Meadows than in the Spring and will ye say the spring of our life which is the time of Youth may be laid open to the invasion of lusts to the assaults of Satan to the pleasures of Sin Let other men applaud their own gravity and condemn the rashness of others I cannot believe that Solomon wanted either years gravity wisdome or due moderation when he checked the folly of Youth in an holy Irony Eccles. 11. and setteth before all vain young men the Judgement of the great day shewing that for all these things even these excesses of Youth they shall be made to give account nor when he did put down this serious admonition in the words of this Text backed with so many pressing motives Remember now thy Creator in the daies of thy youth while the evil daies come not c. and had there been any defect in the pen-man yet I am sure the Holy Ghost which held his hand would not have suffered him to write one syllable amiss Neither
that are young and yet enjoy the good daies of your life do not ye make them evil Remember your Creator in the daies of your Youth take heed to your ways according to the word of God so shall these daies indeed be good daies to you and you shall prepare your selves either for an honourable Old Age or for a blessed end and an happy death preventing the evils of Old Age and putting you in possession of everlasting life which never seeleth the decays of Age. Finally let me in a word beseech those who have already out-lived their best daies to look back seriously and speedily upon the times and courses of their Youth and see how those daies have been spent observing what matter of joy and thanksgiving or what causes of grief and humiliation they may find and accordingly to be affected If you have made them evil daies how should you mourn for this How should you seek God now that it draweth towards the eleventh hour before the night cometh when no man can work which burieth all secure loiterers and unprepared ones in an everlasting night of utter darkness where is weeping and gnâ—shing of teeth The night cometh the darkness is coming yet before it cometh do ye that great work that your Soul may live and not die eternally CHAP. V. Eccles. 12. 1 before the evil days come OF the next point I shall speak very briefly and that is this Observ. That the daies of Old Age are evil daies So the Spirit of God here calleth them This the Holy Ghost here and in other Verses of this Chapter sheweth in divers circumstances Here he saith They are daies wherein there is no pleasure daies wherein there is much matter of grief and vexation little contentment when a man's life is like gloomy daies such as St. Paul met with in his Sea-voyage when neither Sun nor Starrs for many daies appeared to such daies Old Age is here compared daies of darkness wherein Sun Moon and Starrs have their light hidden and darkened and the Clouds return after the Rain Though the showres fall yet it doth not clear up but the Clouds grow up and gather together again so it is in Old Age the end of one trouble is but the begnning of another affliction like to that In the words following these evils of Old Age are more particularly expressed and numbred up The keepers of the house do tremble the arms which are to guard and defend the body shake with the Palsey the strong men the Leggs which are the pillars to bear up this house of clay begin to fail with weakness and to double under their burthen like posts worn and weakened with age The Grinders the Teeth cease because they are few and the Windows shall be darkned c. In a word we may summe up the evils of these Aged daies in these two heads Evils of Loss and Evils of Sense The loss of Contentments in God's good blessings the loss of ability for many good Offices on the other side the suffering of many inconveniences in body and mind which maketh a man a burthen to himself being burthened with such an heap of years CHAP. VI. Use. THe use of this is to renew the former Exhortation to the younger sort that they may prevent these evil daies and remove the evil of them by timely repentance and sincere obedience in their Youth Impenitency and ungodliness makes the good daies of Youth to become evil daies repentance and an holy conversation make the evil daies of Old Age to be good Godliness is profitable to all things saith the Apostle and so it is profitable for all times for times of Youth as well as times of Old Age for health for sickness for life for death it shall do thee good and not evil all thy daies If Old Age bring so many inconveniences with it how careful shouldest thou be to remove the guilt of thy sins before the burthen of Old Age cometh upon thee If these wounds of thy conscience be truly healed by the blood of Christ aforehand sprinkled on by the hand of faith then shall thy Spirit be enabled to bear the infirmities of Old Age yea thou shalt be able to do all things through the Spirit of Christ strengthening and supporting thee Oh how miserably is that poor Soul burthened that hath an heap of years and an heap of sins unpardoned lying upon it but how blessed how honourable is the gray hoary head found in the way of righteousness whose unrighteousness is forgiven whose sin is covered Such shall be Trees planted in the house of the Lord which in their Old Age shall be more and more far and flourishing and their last works as it is said of the Church of Thyatira Revel 2 19. shall be more than the first their last daies better than the first Such a good old age they shall have as divers of the Saints are said to have had Labour then so to live now that the evils of your Age may be mitigated and removed But on the other side how evil and wretched must those daies of Old Age be which are accompanied with the guilt of many sins when years encrease and wickedness encreaseth when a man will not be admonished but as he hath been rebellious in his Youth so he will be obstinate in his Old Age Oh take heed of this if these evil daies have overtaken thee before thou hast put away thy sins before thou hast sought the Lord with all thy heart repent now in the anguish and bitterness of thy soul. SERMON V. Eccles. 12. 1. before the evil days come c. CHAP. I. THus ye have heard how Old Age is said to consist of evil daies now here we see how the Holy Ghost doth call away the thoughts of young men from the pleasures and vanities of Youth wherein they are usually drowned and over-whelmed and giveth them a foresight of a change letteth them know that it will not alwayes be thus with them they must look for other times hereafter to pass over them now they have their good daies their daies of Youth but they must perswade themselves there be other daies coming these good daies will not last alwayes Hence I observe Observ. That it is Christian wisdom to foresee and provide for changes ere they come it is a brutish and sensual folly to have the Heart so possessed and taken up with present prosperity and earthly contentments of any kind as not to have any serious and effectual regard of such changes as may be brought upon us Therefore the Spirit of God having to do with young men in this place who did please themselves in themselves and in their present youthful wayes delights and contentments he setteth before their eyes a lively image of Old Age with the many evils grievances and blemishes of it yea he leadeth them along to the death-bed and hangeth out their winding-sheet before their eyes and by the way presenteth them with many objects unpleasing
an old man If sin grow to an habit and custom custom being another nature makes it as ordinary to men as to eat and drink But if any of us have spent the flower of our youth in vice and vanity Let the fruit of our age only savour of vertue Indeed an old man of youthful behaviour is more ridiculous than a wanton toying young man Let every man then especially old men put their houses in order and prepare for Death when Death is between their teeth it is too late to provide remedies for the Terrours thereof A MEMENTO To Young and Old Sermon I. Ecclesiastes 12. verse 1. Remember now thy Creatour in the daies of thy youth while the evil daies come not nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them CHAP. I. THe wise man having first run through the vanities of Life by his own bitter experience now also hath taken a review of them as it seemeth with a penitent heart and an amazed spirit and drawing towards a Conclusion of this work as a principle Master of the assemblies desireth to leave on naile driven to the head and well fixed in the hard heart of the younger sort who are so possessed with those vanities of mind which he had all this while laboured to purge that they think themselves priviledged in youthful wantonness and conceive that all restraints of their unbridled Lust are but the froward or envious cavills of discontented old Age or sullen Melancholy Therefore it was expedient that this 〈◊〉 prejudice whereby they hurt none so 〈◊〉 as themselves should be removed by a coâ—trary Exhortation strongly enforced 〈◊〉 Pen-man beyond exception a man of grâ—â—test sufficiency every way among the Son of Adam excepting that only Immanuel But let them not think that the force of this exhortation is dead with the writer or worn out of date with age but let them know for a certainty that a greater than Solomon is here that the Spirit of Truth who liveth for ever breatheth most Manifestly in this holy Text who must be heard and obeyed by all that would not be found to fight against God Let every one then whose ears God hath opened hear what the Spirit speaketh unto the Church in this place and especially to the younger sort within the Church Remember now thy Creatour in the daies of thy youth c. In which words we have first an Exhortation and then an enforcement of it pressed and amplified at large in many verses following In the Exhortation there is 1. The Duty what 2. The Object whom 3. The Time when all laid down in words of special weight 1. The word Remember 1. implyeth much danger of and inclination to forgetfulness 2. It includeth Heart as well as Head Affection as well as Memory 2. The second thing The Object Thy Creatour a Word that addeth much force to the Exhortation Taken either absolutely as implying the Creatour of all things whom all Creatures at all times must glorify in their kinds or with special relation to those to who the Exhortation is more particularly directed Thy Creatour Remember him whom Created Thee and hath right to thy whole Self thy whole Life and especially to the best of thy Life and Strength 3. The Third thus In the daies of thy youth In the daies rather than years for they are but a few May-daies soon gone and vanished of thy youth The word in the Original is derived from a word which signifies to chuse and thence issueth a word signifying a young man and thence again this in the Text signifying Youth both shewing that younger men are the choycest of men or should be so and that youth is the principal and choicest part of our Life So some render these words In the daies of thy youth in the daies of thy choyce The sence therefore ye may take in these few words O ye young men who are of all others exceeding apt to forget him of whom you ought to be most mindful Let me perswade you to know to love to delight in to fear to remember to cleaue unto and obey even in the best of your time and strength your young vigourous and flourishing daies Him who is the great Creatour of all things Him who gave you in particular that breath which is in your nostrills Him who gave you this heat this strength these Spirits this lively temper of youth Him in whom you live move and have your being CHAP. II. THese things being briefly and plainly opened the observations which I shall make I shall refer to two heads Observ. 1. That young men are especially apt to forget their Creatour 2. That young men ought especially to remember their Creatour The first of these is certainly implyed the second plainly expressed in the words of the Text. Of the first the wise man seemeth of purpose to have deferred this Memento until the latter end of his discourse as knowing how apt the younger sort are to fail in this art of memory concerning the best things and hoping that of all others a speech of farewell would make some notable impression In this point I will shew 1. Wherein this forgetfulnes consisteth 2. I will prove it to be especially incident to youth 3. I will shew the reasons or causes of it I. Now for the first that I may shew wherein forgetfulness consisteth both reason and our own experience in the working of the powers of our Souls shew us That memory is properly seated in the brain and therefore that forgetfulness is a kind of emptiness in the same place But we must attend to those Idiomes of the Holy Ghost who by reason of that near knitting of all the faculties of the Soul in one single root of a Spiritual and Intellectual Being doth promiscuously translate the name of the one to the other and oftentimes include all in one Thou shalt love the Lord thy God saith our Saviour with all thine Heart and with all thy Soul c. Math. 22. 37. Why All the powers of the Soul are not love There is knowledge memory imagination will fear joy sorrow hatred courage c. which are all distinguished both in their Beings and Effects from Love But He in whom all the Treasures of Wisdom were hid knew well that when the heart by love did truly close with God and cleave unto him it could not leave any of its effections behind it but all must be given up unto him The Lord complaineth Isa. 1. 3. Israel doth not know my people do not consider Ignorance was not the only sin whereof the Lord held them guilty but in this was included as well want of love of fear of delight in God as of knowledge of him Not to go too far about This forgetfulness which now we have in hand you shall find to have the same force in the Scripture Psal. 137. If I forget thee O Jerusalem let my right-hand forget her cunning ver 6. If I do not
remember thee let my Tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth c. The course of the words shew manifestly that it was not simply to remember this City and Temple which he undertook but to be deeply affected with its calamity for he preferred Jerusalem above his chiefest joy But most plainly doth Moses expound this word unto us Deut. 8. ver 11. Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God in not keeping his Commandements and his Judgments and his Statutes which I command thee this day Where to forget is as well not to embrace in affection and not to observe in practice as not to keep in memory Many other examples we have of like nature in Psal. 119. besides many other Texts of Scripture So that in a word Forgetfulness of God is a withdrawing declining and turning aside of the Heart and Soul from God upon Earthly things manifested in a course of neglecting God's Service and his Commandements and running after the vanities of this life CHAP. III. II. NOw that this is especially incident to the younger sort I wish the lamentable experience of all times and of this especially did not too much ease me of the labour in proving yet something must be said for it according to promise The wise man in setting forth the impudency of a graceless Strumphet sheweth that young men are especially apt to forget God and to be ensnared by her Prov. 7. 6 7. At the window of my house I looked through my casement and behold among the simple ones I discerned among the youths a young man void of understanding passing through the street near her corner and he went the way to her house c. These are the men who in the pride of their youth and heath of their Blood value their own witts at an high rate and think themselves the wisest in the Countrey despise the dulness of elder years and more setled spirits as if wisdom were born and should dye with them Yet here ye may see how the wisest of men doth censure them for fools simple ones void of understanding men especially forgetful of God of his Word and Will such a one was seen going toward the house of a strange Woman toward a Whore-house and such are some Ale-houses frequented so much by young men for I know none so fit to keep a Stews as those who professedly without regard of Magistracy Ministry Credit c. do keep common shops for Drunkenness But mark the Wisdom of our young man 21. 22 23. With much fair speech she caused him to yield with the flattering of her lips she forced him he goeth after her straight way as an Oxe goeth to the slaughter or as a fool to the correction of the stocks till a dart strike through his liver as a bird hasteth to the snare and knoweth not that it is for his life She filled his head with her prateing and enticeing speeches and put better things out of his mind She caused him to forget God and cast his fear behind his back so she carried him captive in the bonds of lust and driveth him as an Oxe to the slaughter and as a fool to the correction of the stocks c. So the wise man in Eccles. 11. 9. Sheweth the solly and forgetfulness of young men where by way of Irony and in an holy scorn he bideth them do that which they will do though never so much forbidden and threatned Rejoyce O young man in thy youth and let thy heart cheer thee in the daies of thy youth put God the Judge of all the World out of thy thoughts lay aside all sad remembrance of the last Judgment let none of these Melancholick passions any whit interrupt thy youthful delights walk in the waies of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes Follow thy lusts and senses like the bruit beasts and forget all that will follow even as if thy Soul should vanish away in the ayr at the hour of thy Death like the breath of a Beast without hope of Joy or fear of Vengence in another World By this irronical concession he giveth us an excellent description of the brutish and sensual forgetfulness of the younger sort minding present things with the full bent of their Souls and never seriously looking towards the things that are above But what is the issue but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee to Judgment Even these things which thou makest nothing off as pardonable Errours of youth shall be scanned in the impartial judgement of God and he will bring thee to Judgment for them all CHAP. IV. III. IN the next place I am to shew the causes of this forgetfulness in the younger sort and here it were but an idle piece of Philosophy to ascribe it to the natural moisture and fluid temper of their brains whereby the impressions of things are presently dissolved like letters written in the water No this forgetfulness is as well in the heart as in the brain and requireth a further search into it's causes 1. In the first place then one special cause is a fleshly confidence in the natural strength of body and hope of long life They look at Death as a thing afar off even out of sight and therefore suffer not the apprehension of it to make any such impression upon them as in any degree to lessen that carnal sensual content which they take in the glut of earthly Vanities The blind Worldling when his barnes were full blessed himself in his own conceited happiness Soul take thine ease thou hast goods laid up for many years But these persons think they have the advantage of him for whereas his Soul that night was to be taken from his goods they think they have life in store for many years an so with the unfaithful servant conclude that their Master will defer his coming and they may safely delay their Repentance and put him out of their remembrance As Gaal and the men of Shechem could eat and drink and curse Abimilech because they thought he was not near them though he was nearer than they were aware so the younger sort can satisfy their lusts and please themselves and do what they will scorning all admonitions or threatnings of Death because they think it not neer unto them Whereas perhaps Death as the punishment of Sin lyeth at their door and will be found to have way-laid them in the midst of their vanities and to cut them off in the midst of their strength and sins Strength Health abundance of Spirits freedom from aches pains and bodily distempers do put Death out of their thoughts and they will leave crooked and way-ward old age to vex it self with pensive remembrances of the Grave 2. The lively vigour of youth filleth them with a kind of carnal self-content and maketh them please themselves in themselves and so to feel no need they have of happiness and of delighting themselves in the Lord and therefore to neglect and
assured that the end will be everlasting life then shall the daies of thy Youth be good and blessed daies un o thee SECT III. II. More especially these good daies of Youth are made evil daies when they are spent in any or divers of those sins to which on the one side You his commonly accustomed and which on the oâ—her side in a right consideration of things are most unseemly and unfit for Youth I. One sin is whoredom if any thing can make the daies of Youth of good to become evil daies this will do it when the body which is as a Temple of the Holy Ghost and should be consecrated and dedicated to him from the first building or framing of it as it were shall be made a cage of unclean lusts how great is this prophanation If the Temple at Jerusalem when it was new built should have been made a Stews as one of the Popes is said to have made his Palace and then have been left to be employed as a Temple for God when it grew old and ruinous would not the earth have opened her mouth to swallow up those who should have thus prophaned it O young men how dangerous is it then whilst your bodies are young and should be esteemed and used as new-built Temples wholly dedicated unto God his glory and service to defile them with those sins intending when they are old decayed and ruinous buildings and not till then to use them as Temples of the Holy Ghost St. Paul saith If any man defile the Temple of God him shall God destroy 1 Cor. 3. 17. Therefore if any one hath not kept his Garments clean in this regard let him without delay wash and be clean wash away his guilt by the blood of Christ wash away these lusts and sinfull inclinations by the Spirit of Christ by unfeigned repentance and amendment of Heart and Life and for the time to come according to Davids counsel Psal. 119. 9. Let them make clean their wayes from this foul sin by taking heed unto them according to such parts of the word as these Flee youthful lusts but follow after righteousness faith charity peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart 2 Tim. 2. 22. And that Whore-mongers and Adulterers God will judge Heb. 13. 4. And that of St. Paul 1 Thess. 4. 3 4 5. This is the will of God even your sanctification that ye should abstain from fornication that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour not in the lust of concupiscence even as the Gentiles which knew not God 2. Drunkenness which as it is enough to make any part of a man's life evil so it is a great blemish to a young man and maketh the daies of his Youth evil and wretched daies The wise man sheweth that the ruines of Old Age do make the Keepers of the House tremble and the strong ones to bow themselves the Hands and Leggs to shake But how shamefull is it for young men of firm and strong bodies to bring a drunken Palsey upon themselves whereby they are staggering in the streets their Leggs even failing them or a brutish Lethargy whereby they are not able to arise from the place where they sit or lie ye that are Parents look to it that your Children come not into such infectious company as many entice them Take heed ye that are young of besotting your Brains and Understandings which now are naturally fresh and quick if ever wiâ—h this swinish sin Consider that weighty Charge of our Saviour Luke 21. 34. Take heed lest at any time your Hearts be over-charged with Surfeiting and Drunkenness 3. Pride is another sin that is enough to make the daies of Youth to be evil daies That which made good Angels wicked Devils is enough to make the best daies of a man's life evil and miserable What is more seemly for the younger sort than true modesty and humility which God accepteth blesseth and crowneth with graces here and glory hereafter What worse than Pride and a disdainful Carriage want of farther experience should make them in many things to suspend their Judgements unless it be in such as are cleer and evident Contempt and scornfull behaviour towards the Antienâ— Self-conceit as if Wisdom should die with them Self-will and stubbornness an unmoveable Stiffness in their own groundless opinions and unwarrantable purposes with other fruits of Pride they do even deface the good daies of Youth and make them evil 4. Idleness is another sin which marreth these good daies which bringeth not only a rust upon them but letteth loose the lusts of Youth and maketh it exceeding sinful If any should flee this sin as all should then especially the younger sort ought to observe it above others It is not a misery of miseries that those golden daies should be worn out in sluggishness that those abilities of body and mind which are at their best should want employment and want they cannot work they must they are made of such a temper that they cannot be without motion If the Heavens cannot stand still nor the Air fix it self in one place and abide without stirring no more can the minds of young men nor the thoughts of their hearts abide without inward workings of spirit O young man thou canst not keep thine eye-lids from stirring thy Lungs from moving thy Heart and Pulse from beating and canst thou keep thy Soul and the affections of thy Heart from stirring which are more active than any part of thy body No they will have their course and if in any idle sluggish carelessness thou lettest them go as a Ship without a Rudder or Pilot the event is like to be wofull and thou art running upon the Rocks Satan filling the Sails of thy affections with contrary winds and hellish suggestions which drive thee from the Haven of Peace to the gulph of everlasting destruction What a world of snares hath the Devil ready for thee whiles he finds thee idle How many enticing objects and dangerous temptations When shouldest thou provide against the winter of thy life but now in the spring of thy daies Old Age is almost unteachable and if thou learnest not in thy Youth but spendest it in lazy ignorance it will be very hard if not impossible to learn in thine old age when thou art more ready to forget than to learn It is a most miserable spectacle to see an ignorant old man or woman which hath lost the best time of Youth in idleness and not treasured up the principles of heavenly truths Oh how uncapable are they of the things of God! how likely to perish for want of knowledge how uncapable of Knowledge it self Rest and ease is fitter for Old Age than for Youth Labour Diligence Watchfulness Iâ—dustry are things which become those good daies In a word when any sin aboundeth and any lust prevaileth it is enough to make the dayes of Youth evil daies Therefore ye