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
hath its force and ought to make a deep impression upon us For 1. Know thou Thine is not then the same case with Creatures that have no understanding they are not capable of any Check from themselves having no Law of Reason or Conscience within them to controul or govern their Sensual Desires but God hath given thee not meerly a Brutal Appetite but a Rational Soul capable of understanding the differences of Good and Evil and the Reasons why some things which appear Pleasant are very disagreeing to the Principles of Humane Nature i. e. to that Order Decency Modesty and Regularity which the more elevated frame and capacity of Mankind do require 2. For all these things as light and vain as you esteem them as soon as they are over and forgotten by you as secretly and closely as they are committed as much as you endeavour to palliate and excuse them yet but for all these things God will certainly bring thee into Iudgment Therefore you have all the reason in the world to consider what you doe since every thing will be brought to judgment whether it be good or evil as Solomon concludes this Book Which shews the great Regard God hath to the Good or Evil of our Actions and if the great Judge of the World hath so certainly we ought to have it and never think our selves at liberty to doe what we please in gratifying our Lusts and pursuing our Natural Inclinations to Evil. 3. God will doe it If there were no God to call thee to an account yet there are some Actions of Vertue so agreeable to Mankind and some Vices so loathsome and deformed that there would be sufficient cause for them to love the one and to abhor the other If we could suppose such a frame of things and such sorts of Beings as we now see and no God to make them which is most Absurd and Unreasonable yet we must suppose these Beings to have Natures and Properties distinct from each other so that we could not imagine Men to become Beasts and therefore they must not act like them but preserve that Decorum or Agreeableness in their Actions which is suitable to the peculiar Excellencies of Humane Nature And there are some Sins so much below the Dignity thereof that no Circumstances no Suppositions can make them fitting for Mankind to commit them which shews that the Nature of Good and Evil is no Arbitrary thing but is founded in the very frame of our Beings and in the Respects we owe to our selves and to one another And since there is an Infinite and Supreme Being which hath Absolute Power and Command over us and gives us both our Beings and the Comforts of our Lives it is most Absurd to suppose it not to be a fault to hate his Goodness or to despise his Mercy or to slight his Power and to contemn his Authority For in all these there is something repugnant to the common sense of Mankind and to all Principles of true Honour and Justice And there are such common Principles of Morality arising from our necessary Relation to God and each other which are of so clear and convincing Evidence that every one that considers them will grant that Wicked Men may as well go about to dispute their Beings as their Sins and may as easily prove that they are not but onely appear to be as that no Actions are really Evil but only by false Glasses appear so to be But however vain men may deceive themselves God will not be mocked for he not onely sees and knows all our Actions but he will bring us to an Account for them 4. God will bring thee into Iudgment It is a dreadfull consideration to a Sinner that God knows all his false steps all his secret Sins all his Falshood and Dissimulation with God and Men And there is nothing which men of Art and Design hate more than to be discover'd and found out in all their double and deceitfull dealings but to have these not onely privately discover'd but exposed and laid open to the view of the World and not onely so but to have every Circumstance examin'd and every Action scanned and that by the great Judge of all the World whom nothing can escape nothing can deceive nothing can withstand whose Justice is inflexible whose Knowledge is incomprehensible whose Power is irresistible and whose Vengeance is insupportable This we cannot but imagine must strike an awe and terrour into the Minds of Men when they are pursuing the Pleasures of Sin that for all these things God will bring them into judgment But notwithstanding these and many other Expressions to the same purpose in Scripture wherein God hath declared that he will certainly Iudge the World in Righteousness at the Great Day that the Secrets of all hearts shall then be disclosed that we must all appear before the Iudgment-seat of Christ and that God will render to every man according to his Deeds And notwithstanding it is a thing in it self very reasonable from the consideration of God's Justice and Providence and the Nature and Consequences of Good and Evil Actions yet the generality of Mankind go on as secure and careless as if there were no such thing or that they ought not to be concerned about it Therefore I shall not spend time in the Proof of that which I take for granted you all believe and I am sure have Reason so to doe but I shall enquire into these things which are most Practical and therefore proper for our Consideration at this Time 1. How a matter of so great Importance as a Iudgment to come makes so little Impression on the Minds of the generality of Mankind who profess to believe it 2. By what means the consideration of a Future Judgment may have a greater Influence on all our Minds 1. How a thing of so great Importance as God's bringing us into Iudgment comes to make so little Impression on the Minds of the generality of those who profess to believe it when we are so tender and sensible of small things with Respect to this World For Resolving this we must consider that there is a great Difference between the Not Disbelieving Doctrinal Points of Faith and the Practical Improvement of them in our Minds without which they remain there but as general and confused Notions Thus too many who abhor being thought Atheists live as if there were no God not that they deny or dispute his Being or Attributes but they have no Regard to them in the last Dictates of their Minds or in the Course of their Actions To go about to prove such things to be true they look on as lost labour for they do not question them but there is another thing then which we are to give an Account of viz. how it comes to pass that so great and so weighty Doctrines being received and allowed to be true make so little Impression on the generality of Mankind especially
a sincere and hearty Repentance David saw nothing more as to the Guilt of his Sins when he penn'd his 51st Psalm than his own Reason and Natural Conscience might inform him before but he had quite another Sense of his Sins then his Heart was broken and his Soul wounded under the Apprehension of God's Displeasure and this makes him pray so earnestly and so importunately to God for the Pardon of his Sins And if it were thus in the case of a Man otherwise after God's own heart i.e. afraid of offending him and carefull to please him what may we imagine it to be in those who in the time of Youth walk in the way of their hearts and in the sight of their eyes i. e. allowing themselves in all Sensual Inclinations and pursuing Carnal Delights so far till they have lost all Sense of God and another World and such as these nothing but the Powerfull Influences of Divine Grace can awaken and recover 3. The Third Reason is A General Presumption upon God's Mercy The first thing which Sinners in the Heat of their Youth and Pursuit of their Lusts aim at is to think as little as may be of what they are doing or what will be the Consequence of their Actions For every thought of themselves is very uneasie to them and every thought of God is much more so therefore they drive away all such thoughts by one means or other by Sleep Diversion Company and such Publick Entertainments as rather heighten and inflame their Vices than correct them If all this will not doe but there will be some Melancholy Hours wherein Conscience begins to rouse it self and to awaken the Sinner to some Sense of his Folly then he is ready to hearken with Pleasure to any Raileries against Religion and Morality and admires the Wit of any one who dares say a bold and sharp thing against the Wisdom of all Ages and of the best Men in them And one or two such Sayings without Proof are cried up as far beyond the best Rules of Morality or the Evidence of natural and revealed Religion Any Sceptical Disputes are sufficient Demonstrations to them and the most unreasonable Cavils against Religion are embraced because against the thing they hate and even a Jest against the Day of Judgment shall signifie more with them than the strongest Arguments in the World to prove it The true Reason is they love their Vices and hate every thing which makes them uneasie to them and nothing doth more so than the thoughts of a Judgment to come But suppose after all the terrible and frequent Expressions of Scripture concerning the Day of Judgment joyned with the Reasonableness of the thing do make such Impression on their Minds that they cannot wholly shake off the Fears and Apprehensions of it then their last endeavour is to mitigate and lessen them from a General Presumption of God's Mercifull Nature and therefore they are willing to suppose that however God to keep the World in awe hath threatned them with the dreadfull Severities of the Great Day yet as a tender Father who threatens his Disobedient Son in order to reclaim him with no less than Disinheriting him for ever yet when it comes to Execution he may Relent not from his Sons Deserts but his own Compassion so they hope or believe or are willing to doe so that God at the Great Day will not proceed according to the rigour which he hath threatned to use And to comfort themselves in these hopes they find out all possible Extenuations of their Sins If we say they had been created purely intellectual Beings free from this load of Flesh and the Inclinations which are natural to it then it had been more reasonable to have called us to a strict Account for every Action of our Lives for then every Inclination to Evil must have come from our Minds but now our Bodies corrupt and draw them aside and the Inclinations to Evil grow faster than our Reason which should check and restrain them And when those Inclinations are strongest Men have not that Judgment which is necessary to the Government of unruly Passions So that the very frame of humane Nature seems to plead for Sins committed in the Heat and Violence of Youth Besides such is the Strictness and Purity of the Law of God and so great the Weakness and Disability the Ignorance and Inadvertency of Mankind that if God will make no Allowance for humane Frailty who can stand before his Tribunal And if any Allowance be made for Sins of Infirmity there are so many Abatements to be made for Sins committed through sudden Passion through Mistake through the unavoidable Impotency of humane Nature in this degenerate Condition that the Severity of that Day is not much to be feared This is the utmost of the Sinners Plea against the Severity of the Day of Judgment But to shew how faulty it is I shall offer these Considerations 1. That God will certainly Iudge the World in Righteousness and therefore none shall have Cause to complain of the Harshness or Severity of his Proceedings For this Righteousness is not the Rigour of Justice but that Equity which hath a Regard to the Circumstances of Actions and the Abatement and Extenuation of Faults which arise from them 2. None shall suffer at that Day but for their wilfull Impenitency and obstinate Continuance in Sin For this is not onely agreeable to the Mercifull Nature of God to forgive Repenting Sinners but it is one of the great Designs of the Gospel to assure Mankind of it by the highest Testimonies even by the Death and Resurrection of the Son of God and all the Miracles wrought in Confirmation of it and of the Truth of his Doctrine 3. There are several Degrees of Wilfulness and Obstinacy and Mens Judgment shall be according to them Some Mens Capacities Opportunities and Helps have very much exceeded others some have broken through stronger Convictions and more powerfull Assistences of Grace than others some have had more early Instructions more frequent Warnings more obliging Favours from Heaven than others And as it is reasonable that Persons suffer for their Obstinate Continuance in Sin so that they should suffer according to the Degrees and Circumstances of it 4. It is not unjust Severity in God to deprive Men of that Happiness which they have wilfully refused and to condemn them to that Misery which their Sins have deserved Hath not God made the most condescending Offer of Mercy and Salvation that it is possible for Creatures to expect from him after so many and great Provocations Could Heaven stoop lower than it hath done to vile and ungratefull Sinners When the Son of God came down from Heaven on purpose to reconcile God and Man together When the Spirit of God warns and excites their minds to the Consideration of their Eternal Welfare When the Messengers of this Reconciliation are to woo and intreat and beseech Sinners in Christ's stead as