Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	destroy_v	young_a	youth_n	12	3	8.2527	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29676	Apples of gold for young men and vvomen, and a crown of glory for old men and women. Or, The happiness of being good betimes, and the honour of being an old disciple Clearly and fully discovered, and closely, and faithfully applyed. Also the young mans objections answered, and the old mans doubts resolved. By Thomas Brooks preacher of the gospel at Margarets new Fishstreet-hill.	Brooks, Thomas, 1608-1680.	1657 (1657)	Wing B4922A; ESTC R214145	141,163	402

but a shaddow of that pleasure I finde in this book having a good book in her hand Augustin before his conversion could not tell how to live without those pleasures which he delighted much in but when his nature was changed and his heart graciously turned to the Lord O how sweet saith hee is it to bee without those former sweet delights Ah! Young men when once you come to experience the goodnesse and sweetness that is in the Lord and in his word and wayes you will then sit down and grieve that you have spent more Wine in the Cup than Oil in the Lamp There are no pleasures so delighting so satisfying so ravishing so engaging and s● abiding as those that springs from union and communion with God as those that flows from a sense of interest in God and from an humble and a holy walking with God The third sin of youth is rashnesse they many times know little and fear lesse and so are apt rashly to run on and run out often to their hurt Aristot Polit. but more often to their hazzard Tit. 2.6 Exhort young men to be sober-minded or discreet They are apt to bee rash to bee hot spurs As you may see in Rehoboams young Counsellers who counselled him to tell the people that groaned under their burthens that his little finger should bee thicker than his Fathers loins 1 King 12.8 9 10 11. and that hee would adde to their yoak and that whereas his Father had chastized them with whips hee would chastize them with Scorpions this rash counsel proved Rehoboams ruine yea David himself though a good man yet being in his warm blood and young how sadly was hee overtaken with rashness As the Lord God of Israel liveth 1 Sam. 25.34 35. Diis proximus ille est quem ratio non ira movet Sen. Hee is next to God whom reason not anger moveth saith hee except thou hadst hastened and come to meet mee surely there had not been left unto Nabal by to morrow light any that pisseth against the wall And this hee bindes with an oath because the Master was foolishly wilful the innocent servants must all bee woful And because Nabal had been niggardly of his bread David would bee prodigal of his blood Ah how unlike a Christian yea how below a man doth David carry it when his blood is up and hee a captive to rashness and passion Rashnesse will admit of naught for reason but what unreasonable self shall dictate for reason as sloath seldome bringeth actions to good birth so rashnesse makes them alwayes abortive ere well formed A rash spirit is an ungodlike spirit a rash spirit is a weak spirit it is an effeminate spirit A man of understanding is of an excellent spirit Prov. 17.27 or as the Hebrew will bear is of a cool spirit not rash and hot ready at every turn to put out his soul in wrath Rashnesse unmans a man it will put a man upon things below man-hood Herostratus a hot spur an obscure base fellow did in one night by fire destroy the Temple of Diana at Ephesus which was two hundred and twenty years in building of all Asia at the cost of so many Princes and beautified with the labours and cunning of so many excellent workmen the truth is there would bee no end should I discover the many sad and great evils that are ushered into the world by that one evil Rashnesse which usually attends youth c. and therefore young men decline it and arm your selves against it c. The fourth sin that ordinarily attends on youth is mocking and scoffing at Religious men and Religious things they were young ones that scoffingly and scornfully said to the Prophet Go up thou bald-head 2 King 2.23 24. Job 30.1.12 13 14 15. go up thou bald-head And the young men derided and mocked Job But now they that are younger than I have mee in derision whose Fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock Upon my right hand rise the youth they push away my feet and they raise up against mee the wayes of their destruction c. And Oh that this age did not afford many such Monsters who are notable who are infamous in this black Art of scoffing and deriding the people of God and the wayes of God The Athenians once scoffed at Sylla's wife and it had well nigh cost the razing of their City hee was so provoked with the indigninitie and will you think it safe to scoff at the people of God who are the Spouse of Christ Rev. 21. Zach. 2.5 Deut. 32.9 Isa 19.25 Joel 2.17 Psal 33.12 Isa 62.3 who are as the apple of his eye who are the signet on his right hand his portion his pleasant portion his inheritance his Jewels his royal Diadem Ah young men young men will you seriously consider how sadly and sorely hee hath punished other scoffers and mockers and by his Judgements on them be warned never to scoff at the people of God or his wayes more Julian the Emperor was a great scoffer of Christians but at last hee was struck with an arrow from Heaven that made him cry out vicisti Galilee thou Galilean meaning our Saviour Christ hast overcome mee Felix for one malicious scoff did nothing day and night but vomit blood till his unhappy soul was separated from his wretched body Pherecydes was consumed by Worms alive for giving Religion but a nickname Lucian for barking against Religion like a dog was by the just Judgments of God devoured of dogs Remember these dreadful judgements of God on scoffers and if you like them then mock on scoff on but know that justice will at last bee even with you nay above you The fifth and last evil that I shall mention that attends and waits on youth is lustfulnesse wantonnesse which occasioned aged Paul to caution his young Timothy 2 Tim. 2.22 to flee youthful lusts Timothy was a chaste and chastened peece hee was much sanctified and mortified his graces were high and corruptions low hee walked up and down this world with dying thoughts and with a weak distempered declining dying body his heart was in Heaven and his foot in the grave and yet youth is such a slippery age that Paul commands him to flye to post from youthful lusts though Timothy was a good man a weak sickly man a marvellous temperate man drinking Water rather than Wine yet hee was but a man yea a young man and therefore Pauls counsel and command is that he flees youthful lusts And Solomon who had sadly experienced the slipperinesse of youth gives this counsel Put away the evils of thy flesh Eccles 11.10 for childhood and youth are vanity He was a young man that followed the Harlot to her house Prov. 7.7 8 9 10 11 c. hee was young in years and young in knowledge Salazer upon the words saith that was a happy age that afforded but one

gives is a Kingdome that shakes not the treasures that he gives are treasures that corrupt not and the glory that hee gives is glory that fadeth not away but the rewards that men give are like themselves fickle and unconstant they are withering and fading Xerxes crowned his steers-man in the morning and beheaded him in the evening of the same day And Andronicus the Greek Emperor crowned his admiral in the morning and then took off his head in the afternoon Rofensis had a Cardinals hat sent him but his head was cut off before it came to him most may say of their Crowns as that King said of his O Crown more noble than happy It was a just complaint which long ago was made against the Heathen gods O faciles dare summa deos eademque tueri difficiles they could give their favourits great gifts but they could not maintain them in the possession of them the World may give you great things but the World cannot maintain you in the possession of them but the great things the great rewards that Christ gives his hee will for ever maintain them in the possession of them otherwise heaven would not bee heaven Glory would not bee glory Now by all these things you see that it is a very great honour to bee an Old Disciple an old Christian and this honour you will never attain to except you beginne to bee really good betimes except in the morning of your youth you return to the Lord and get an interest in him I shall now come to make some Use and Application of this weighty truth to our selves You see beloved that it is the great Duty and concernment of Young men To be really good betimes if this be so Then The Vanity of Youth Vse 1. First This truth looks sowerly and sadly upon such Young men that are only seemingly good that makes some shews of goodnesse but are not right towards God at the root As Joash when hee was young 2 Chron. 24.1 2 3 4 5 6 13 14 15 16. hee seemed to have good things in him towards the Lord whilst good Jehoiada liv'd but when Jehoiada was dead Neroes first five years are famous but afterwards who more cruel Joash his goodness was buried with him Ah how many in these dayes that have been seemingly good have turned to bee naught very naught yea stark naught It is said of Tiberius that whilst Augustus ruled hee was no wayes tainted in his reputation and that whilst Drusus and Germanicus were alive hee feigned those vertues which hee had not to maintain a good opinion of himself in the hearts of the people but after hee had got himself out of the reach of contradiction and controulment There are some that write that after Demas had forsaken Paul hee became a Priest in an Idol Temple there was no fact in which hee was not faulty no crime to which hee was not accessary Oh that this were not applicable to many young persons in these dayes who have made great shews and taken upon them a great name who have begun to outshine the stars but are now gone out like so many snuffs to the dishonour of God the reproach of the Gospel the grief of others and the hazzard of their own souls It was a custome of old when any was baptized the Minister delivered a white garment to bee put on saying take thou this white vestment and see thou bring it forth without spot at the Judgement seat of Jesus Christ whereupon one Maritta baptizing one Elpidophorus who when hee was grown up proved a prophane wretch hee brings forth the white garment and holding it up Crabs that go backward are reakoned among the unclean creatures Levit. 11.10 shakes it against him saying this linnen garment Elpidophorus shall accuse thee at the comming of Christ which I have kept by mee as a witnesse of thy Apostacy Ah young men and women your former professions will bee a sad witnesse against you in the great day of our Lord Jesus except you repent and return in good earnest to the Lord. Pro. 14.14 Oh it had been better that you had never made profession that you had never set your faces towards Heaven that you had never pretended to God and Christ that you had never known the way of Righteousnesse 2 Pet. 2.21 than after you have known it to turn from the holy commandement Cyprian in his Sermon de lapsis reporteth of divers who forsaking the Faith were given over to evil spirits and dyed fearfully Oh the delusions and the Christ-dethroning conscience-wasting and soul-undoing opinions and principles that many young ones who once were hopeful ones are given up to That dreadful Scripture seems to bee made good in power upon them Jer. 17.13 All you that forsake the Lord shall come to bee ashamed and they that depart from him shall bee written upon the dust to begin well and not to proceed is but to aspire to a higher pitch that the fall may bee the more desperate Hos 14.4 Backsliding is a wounding sin Eph. 6.11 18 You read of no arms for the back though you do for the breast Hee that is but seemingly good will prove at last exceeding bad 2 Tim. 3.13 they wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived The Wolf though hee often dissembles and closely hides his nature yet hee will one time or other shew himself to bee a Wolf Commers make a greater blaze than fixed stars In the dayes of Hadrian the Emperour there was one Bencosby who gathering a multitude of Jews together called himself Ben-cocuba the son of a star applying that prophesie to himself Num. 23.17 but his mask was taken off his Hypocrisy discovered and he found to bee Burchosaba the son of a lye this age hath afforded many such monsters but their folly is discovered and their practises ahborred This was the young mans commendation in the text That there was found in him some real good towards the Lord. Vse 2. 2 This truth looks sowerly and sadly upon such young men who are so far from having good things in them towards the Lord that they give themselves up to those youthful lusts and vanities that are ●●monouring provoking and displeasing to the Lord who roar and revel and gad and game and dice and drink and drab and what 〈◊〉 these make work with a witness for repentance or Hell or the Physitian of souls I shall but touch upon the evils of youth and then come to that which is mostly intended 1 The first evil that most properly attends youth 〈◊〉 3.6 is pride pride of heart pride of apparrel pride of parts young men are apt to ●e proud of health strength friends relations wit wealth wisdome two things are very rare the one is to see a young man humble and watchful and the other is to see an old man contented and chearful Bernard saith that pride is the rich mans couzen and