A Memento to Young and Old, Treatise 1 · Sermon 4
SERMON IV.
Eccles. 12. 1.
In the daies of thy youth.
CHAP. I.
IN the next place we may observe, under what terms the daies of Old Age are opposed to the daies of Youth: it is under the notion of evil daies. They are opposed to the daies of Youth, as evil to good; therefore, hence I observe,
Obs. That the daies of Youth, are good daies. So the opposition teacheth us to inferr; for they are such daies as men enjoy, while the evil daies come nor. The Hebrews call young men by such a name as imployeth choice: and a young man in that Language, is as much as a chosen or selected man, a man picked out of the multitude for special use: and so the time of Youth is expressed as a chosen selected time. So in this very place; for as he had said before, Eccles. 11. 9. Rejoyce O young man, foreignOr O thou chosen selected one. So here; Remember thy Creator in the daies of thy Youth. foreign, or thy choicest daies. So that ye see the ordinary expression used in primitive significant Tongue, which is (as it were) the fountain of all Languages, noteth out of time of Youth unto us, as a good, yea, as a choice selected time. So much (I think) the Psalmist implyeth too. Psal. 71. 17, 18. O God thou hast taught me from my youth; and hitherto have I declared thy▪ wondrous works. Now also when I am old, and gray-headed, O God forsake me not, &c, where he seemeth to set the daies of Old Age against the daies of Youth, as evil against good. O thou hast taught me from my Youth: Thou hast vouchsafed me thy presence, thy Spirit to teach and guide me in those good and pleasant daies of Youth; those good daies, when I in confidence of thy presence and assistance encountred the Bear and Lion, and rescued my Lambs; T…ose daies when I assaulted the Philistine, & took away the reproach from Israel; Those daies, when with a lively and ravished Spirit, I leaped and daunced before the Ark: But now the evil daies of Old Age, the winter of my life is growing upon me: the times are coming when I shall see no pleasure in them; when Clothes shall scarce suffice to warm me: and therefore now, O my God! forsake me not; withdraw not thy presence: now in special I find need of thee, that thou maist make those daies good unto me through thy love and Spirit, which otherwise sin would make exceeding evil and wofull 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 …. 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 doth the Psalmist return an answer sutable to these mens conceits when the question is moved, Wherewithall shall a young man cleanse his way? but quite contrary, By taking heed thereto according to thy word. Where ye see both the Rule by which, and the manner how they are to frame their Courses, requireth a special strictness. The very Word of God, that pure and holy Rule of Righteousness, and not the customs of the time, nor the ordinary practice, nor lusts of youth must guide them, and this Rule they must heed with much attention and watchfulness, having one eye upon their ways, another upon the word: taking heed thereto according to the word, ever marking the steps they tread, and observing how it suiteth with the precious truth of God. This is the wisdom of the Antient of daies, and whatsoever is contrary to it, gray hairs cannot exempt from folly.
CHAP. IV.
SECT. I.
II. THis should perswade the younger sort, not to make those daies evil which God hath made good: Oh do not abuse your choycest daies to the basest employments. Think the spring of your age too good for Satan, too pretious for Lust, for Drunkenness, for Vanity, too good to be so spent, that in old age ye shall not be able to remember it without shame, without a sting. Ye know what the Lord spake long since to Israel, If ye walk contrary unto me, I also will walk contrary unto you. How can ye walk more contrary unto God, than to make those the worst daies which he hath made the best? To have abused any of God's good Creatures under the Law had been sin, to have profaned the first fruits a double sin, to give any of our time to the service of sin, is unworthy of a Christian; but to abase the prime of Youth, and the crown of our years, the choicest of our daies to this slavery, what is it but to set our selves to cross the Lord in the wisdom of his wayes, and to make these daies evil because he hath made them good? Regard not those who scoff in their carnal folly at the uniting of these two together, Youth and Holiness, as at an unequal match: as if a young man and an old woman were joyned together in marriage. Assure thy self, that nothng can so well become the best daies as the best affections and the best conversation: that nothing is more seemly for a vessel of honour, than to be seasoned with true grace and sanctification, even while it is now, in the daies of Youth, 1 Joh. 2. 13, 14. I write unto you young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. Again, I have written unto you young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one. Here is the excellency of young men, not that they have so much strength o… body, or daring Spirits to challenge or lay others on the ground; as that they have strength of grace, and power of the Spirit to wrestle with Satan in all his temptation… and tread them under their feet; when the… have the word of God abiding in them, an… powerfully enabling them to wrestle wit… Principalities and Powers, and so to wrestl… as to overcome, These are young men to whom the beloved Apostle of Christ vouchsafeth to write in a peculiar manner: a… indeed such are young men, whose Youth… man ought to despise.
SECT. II.
TAke heed then of making these go… daies of Youth to be evil daies, whi… God hath made good daies.
Quest. But some will say perhaps, ho… are they made evil daies?
Sol. I. I answer in general: The daies of Youth (good in themselves) are made evil, when they are spent in unregeneration, spent in a state of impenitency, without sound conversion to God, without holy communion with him. Every young man, who is not brought home to God by unfeigned repentance in his Youth, maketh the daies of his Youth to be evil daies, Rom. 6. 20, 21. When ye were the servants of Sin, ye were free from righteousness: what fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed; for the end of those things is death. Whiles a man is an unregenerate person, he is a servant of Sin, and all that while he maketh his daies evil daies, his life an evil life; for he is not able to shew any fruit that he hath reaped of all his works and wayes; no true benefit, no sound comfort ariseth out of all his courses. So it is with old men that live in the service of sin without true regeneration. In like manner it is in young men that are unregenerate, let them do what they will, or can, let them fill themselves with all manner of earthly pleasures; let them please themselves every way, and do what they can to enjoy these dayes of Youth, walking in the wayes of their own Heart, and in the sight of their Eyes, please their Senses of all sorts, &c. Nay, let them spend their daies of Youth better than so, even in Wars, in Study and Learning, in getting some useful & commendable Trade; yet so long as they are unregenerate, and do not seriously remember & turn to their Creator now in these daies of their Youth, they have no true fruit (worth the having) of all their endeavours, of all their daies of Youth. Now doth not a man make his daies evil daies, when he spendeth them so, that no true good cometh of them? when they bring forth more evil than good; so much evil, as that the good that might come of them is not good unto them: for the end of these things is death. When a man is still hastening to his destruction, running o… towards his death (as every one unconverte… is) what fruit can there come of any thing he goeth about? All ye that are young, who put off repentance and are not regenerate, nor labour to be so, ye make the daies of your Youth, which ye so rejoyce in, evil daies, cursed daies, ye walk under the wrath and curse of God, and are not freed from the sentence of condemnation. Whiles ye are merry and jocund, whiles your Hearts cheer you, ye do but sport your selves in the midst of your own misery and dangers. Canst thou enjoy one good day whiles thou hast no assurance for an hour to be free from the fire that never goeth out; whiles thou standest accursed, and hast the sentence of condemnation written upon thy conscience, and not washed off by the blood of Christ spinkled by faith: oh these are evil bitter daies, if thou couldest discern them rightly, wherein Heaven frowneth upon thee, God is angry with thee; and all thy sins remain unpardoned! Therefore repent and make thy peace with God, that so the daies of thy Youth may be good daies; daies wherein thou maist be assured that God is appeased with thee; daies wherein thou maist walk in the bright Sun-shine and light of his countenance; daies wherein thou maist have thy fruit in holiness for the present, and be 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 o…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) wi…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 Antien…: 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, I…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 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 gn…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.