But this answer is not sufficient for those places of Jerem. 31. and Ezek. 18. speak not of a civil but of a divine punishment III Others again answer it thus that God punisheth the sins of Fathers on their Children if they do such like sins as their Father He will punish the Children for their Fathers Idolatry if their Children are Idolaters also and punish them that hate God as their Fathers did before them If this were true then those places in Jeremiah and Ezekiel were answered with this exception The Son shall not bear the iniquity of his Father unless the Son be wicked too the Childrens teeth shall not be set on edge unless they eat sowre grapes as their Fathers did before them But this answer is not to the purpose neither 1. Because Children have been punished for their Fathers sins which they never imitated as the Children of the Sodomites were destroyed with the same destruction their Fathers were 2. Sometimes the Children who have repented have been outwardly miserable because their Fathers were exceeding sinful 3. Because then God did not punish the sins of their Fathers on them so much as their own personal sins not punish their Fathers Idolatry but their own Idolatry nor their Fathers Adultery but their own 4. The force of the threatning is taken away for God brings that threatning of visiting their Idolatry upon their Children to make Fathers to take heed of Idolatry Then this would be the sense of it according to their interpretation Take heed ye Fathers of Idolatry for I will punish your third and fourth generation if they be Idolaters By these reasons it is evident that this answer that God punisheth Children for their Fathers sins because Children follow their Fathers in their sins is not sufficient IV. This answer may give full satisfaction There is a three-fold evil of punishment with which God visits sinners 1. There is eternal damnation so no Child is punished for his Fathers sins but the Soul that sinneth that shall die Every man is damned for his own proper sins only such as eat the sowre grapes of sin they shall gnash their teeth in Hell 2. There is malum morale a moral evil God his giving up the Children to follow their Fathers steps is a punishment for their Fathers sins But this God doth not inflict upon them as they are sins but by denying grace to the Children of wicked Parents upon which denial they fall into the like sins their Fathers did before them God denying grace to the posterity of Idolaters they commit Idolatry also 3. There is malum naurae evils of nature as Losses Crosses Afflictions Famine Sword Plague temporal death God oftentimes punisheth the Children for their Fathers sins with these temporal punishments For Gehazi's Covetousness his posterity shall be leprous and for the mutiny of Dathan and Abiram their Children perished with them For David's Adultery the Sword shall never depart from his house to all successions So oftentimes it falls out that for the riot adulteries or oppressions of Progenitors Children are brought to a morsel of bread The reason is because God in punishing the Children punisheth the Fathers also Qui◠Filii quaedam pars parentum because Children are part of their Fathers as branches are part of the tree therefore the good that is bestowed on the Child or the evil inflicted on him is the good and evil of the Father Quest. But how can the evils which Children suffer when their Fathers are dead be a punishment to him that is deid how can the evil which the fourth generation suffereth be the evil of the Father dead it may be many years before Resp. 1. I answer yes they are evils to them because God threatens them as punishments to them Shall we think that God would threaten this as an evil if it were not look as other evils threatned which follow the wicked after they are dead are a punishment as the name of the wicked shall rot shall stink when they are dead They that pass by their graves shall say Here lieth a beastly drunkard here lieth a profane swearer a cruel oppressour These are curses though they are not sensible of them So when God shall ruine the posterity of wicked men it is a sore punishment to them As now it is a mercy to just men that their memory when they are dead shall be blessed and that the seed of the Righteous shall be blessed on earth Then on the contrary if the seed of a man be cursed it is a punishment to the Fathers 2. We are not to judge of punishment only by our sense and feeling as if it were no punishment because dead men are not sensible of the miseries of their Children but we are also to judge of punishment by the evil which is in it Now it is a sore evil when God shall for the sins of our Fathers bring ruine upon our estates miseries upon our bodies Plagues Sword or Famine upon us 3. It is a punishment to the Fathers though dead because it is directly contrary to their wills and intentions Fathers would have their Children rich and happy after their death and would have their Houses and Names to contiue for ever but God in justice ruinates their Families and cloatheth their Children or Childrens Children with misery as with a garment Object But put the case the posterity of wicked men are converted and become godly doth God punish such for the sins of 〈◊〉 Fathers Sol. I answer yes God sometimes may and doth deprive such of their honours and estates and takes them away with temporal death for the sins of their Fathers But then the evils which such Children endure are only parentum poenae their Fathers punishment and are filiorum probationes medicinae exercitia the Childrens tryals medicines exercises God in mercy turneth their afflictions into their spiritual advantage God makes their death a passage to glory and life eternal And these afflictions though they are the punishments of their Fathers yer shall work out for them a greater weight of glory Here let me add these things 1. We must hold this as an undeniable truth that God is alwayes righteous in all his administrations of Judgements whether in punishing Parents or Children for Parents sake Though the Judgements of God are sometime hidden yet they are never unjust There is no iniquity in the wayes of God though we cannot see the equity of them 2. There is a matter of condemnation in all Children though God sometimes in punishing doth not punish them with an immediate relation to their own sins 3. When God visits Nations and Kingdoms then usually he doth it for the sins of the present generation as for the sins of our Fathers Our sins and the iniquities of our Fathers do joyn forces to bring down Plagues and devastations upon the Kingdom The Jews were led into Captivity for their own sins and their Fathers also So Daniel in his Confession of sins
unseemly for those of the younger sort it layeth open the shame of their folly and when they think highly of their own witts and perhaps scorn the advice of their Auncients they make it known to the World that through the greatness of their folly they know not themselves nor their places aright nor what becometh them Idleness and Vanity are most unseemly for them the loss of these precious daies of youth to sleep away these best daies or to triffle them away whiles the Sun shineth upon them it is most unseemly Finally to live in impenitency and security not to seek the love and favour of God in Christ to put off Repentance till old Age is most unseemly and uncomely To sleep all the day and put off a man's main business until night is most foolish and uncomely Conversion to God it is thy main work and the beginning of all the work and service which thou doest for him that made thee and gave thee thy life and continueth it to thee every hour Thou dost never truly put thy self into his Service until thou art truly converted and turned unto him All that thou dost in the Worship of God before is no true Service no work of a faithful Servant acceptable unto God therefore to give him that gave thee all thy daies no part of these best daies of youth to give him that gave thee all thy strength no part of thy strength to give him that gave thee all thy witt and understanding nothing but the ruines and decays of witt memory and understanding in old age or sickness is most unseemly and such as cannot any way become any one that would be called a Christian especially if thou considerest that when thou deniest thy best time to God he may justly deny thee the rest of thy time which thou hopest to enjoy and cut thee off in thy sins CHAP. IV. Vse 2. THis should teach Parents and Masters that have any of the younger sort under their charge to be very careful and diligent to teach them what doth most of all become them even the fear of God and Faith unfeigned Instead of teaching them vain fashions which they are too apt to learn of them to teach them that it will best become them not to fashion themselves according to this evil world but to be transformed in the renewing of their mind to teach them that the words of heavenly wisdome the word of God laid up in the heart and shewed forth in the life will be their richest ornament Let them know how well Humility Modesty Temperance Chastity Sobriety Holiness and the knowledge of God will become them Let them not only be taught how good these things are but how seasonable how fit they are how seemly for them at those years how necessary Let them understand how ill it becometh them at this age to want these Jewels and what deformity the contrary sins do put upon them As it becometh them of younger years to be thus qualified so it becometh you that are elder by all means both in word and conversation to shew them what becometh them CHAP. IV. Use 3. IF Grace and Holiness are comely ornaments of Youth then how unseemly is it for those that have passed the daies of Youth to continue yet without it hast thou out-lived thy Youth and hast thou not yet done that which thou shouldest have done in thy Youth Not yet so remembred thy Creator as to turn unto him and to seek him with thy whole heart Oh blame thy self for this before the Lord and if thou hast lost the first season take heed thou doest not foreslow the latter Art thou now past the Spring of Youth It is more than time thou hadst sown in Tears The Harvest draweth on and then as a man hath sowen so shall he reap He that hath sowen to the Flesh following his lusts and his will shall of the flesh reap corruption but He that soweth to the Spirit being led by the Spirit in the wayes of holy obedience shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting Think then with thy self if it be a shame for young men to be without Grace it is a double shame for me that am past the daies of Youth Iâ— God hath shewed thee patience in not cutting thee off in the sins of Youth oh take heeâ— of abusing that patience any longer Wilt thou sin because thou hast escaped hithertoâ— God forbid The longer thou hast sinned the more hast thou provoked the eyes of Gods glory the more dangerous is it to continue any longer in sin The longer the Fig-tree had cumbred the ground the neareâ—â— it was to the cutting down the more it was in danger of the Axe Therefore repent heartily and speedily of the sins of Youth and yet whiles thou maist do somewhat for the Lord hast some strength and abilities for his service let him have thy heart and hand thy body thy soul sacrifice thy self to him consecrate thy whole man to his worship and service even in thy middle-age CHAP. V. Use 4. IF Grace be the ornament of Youth then doubtless Sin must be the shame of Old Age. What an old man an old woman and yet a graceless sinner A gray-head found in the ways of unrighteousness the ways of folly What is this but to be a spectacle of reproach among men How many years hast thou lived an enemy to God Couldest thou find no time for reconciliation in thy Youth nor in thy middle age nor yet now thou art thus far gone in years What is an impenitent old man but a kind of monster among men What a shame is it to see a gray-head quaffing by the fire-side in an Ale-house a man of fifty or sixty years haunting the Ase-house and wanton dallyance A profane Oath in an old mans mouth how odious and shamefull is it Is it not a double shame for old men to be more and more covetous the elder they are to cleave more and more close to the world As one that is to be executed if he hath his hands at liberty when he is turned off the Ladder will catch hold again and cling fast unto it being loth to let go his hold so such a one being summoned by death to leave the world catcheth hold again fastening his very heart unto it and cleaving more strongly and more closely thereunto How much better were it to have loosened the heart from the world by unfeigned repentance that the world and it may part with ease For part ye must though thy heart should be pulled in pieces in parting How ill doth it become an old man that all this while he hath not learned to see into the vanity of the world which a wise man in a little time of experience may easily discern O thou old sinner learn greatly then to bewail the sins of thy Youth that length of time wherein thou hast gone on in sin wherein thou hast hardened thy heart and resisted the spirit of God
and now be very earnest with the Father of mercies to pass by the multitudes of thy sins whch in these many years of thy life thou hast made thy self and others guilty of CHAP. VI. Use 5. LAstly yea that are young let this enter into yovr hearts and be ye perswaded that nothing doth so well fit you nothing so well become your years as to remember your Creator as to know to love to fear to serve and obey him that made you Now is the Spring now is the time of sowing in tears even in your Youth and if ye sow so ye shall in Youth reap the first fruits of comfort Now is the day and therefore work now the night cometh darkness cometh yea the night of spiritual darkness and blindness of mind may come a dreadfull gloomy night may shade your Souls the spirit of God withdrawing his light against which you have so long sinned in the pride of Youth and Satan drawing a black vail over your Souls then there is a woful night within the night of an hardened heart that cannot repent and of a â—eared conscience and a reprobate sense may come when none can rightly work the works of God Oh then what an extreme folly is it for you now to sleep in Sin whiles it is day and whiles mercy is offered and the way of life is shewed and the works which God hath ordained for his people to walk in are laid before you Now then it becometh you to flee youthfull lusts and not to stay till they flee you Now learn to hate all sin and especially the sins to which your age enclineth you even as Death as Hell Do not think that the sins of Youth will become you because Youth is enclinable to them but rather think they are so much the more unseemly because nature corrupted enclineth Youth unto them Sin is so contray unto that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and right order of things whch God hath made that it enclineth men to those things whch are most unseemly for them And this must needs be so for Sin is most contrary unto God now God by his work enclineth every Creature to that which becometh it and so by his work upon man in the Creation he did frame in him a propension and inclination to that which did every way become him best Now Sin being quite contrary unto God and seizing upon man's nature did so corrupt it as to encline it to that which is most unseemly for it So man in general is enclined to earthly to bodily and sensible things sutable to the body and to neglect heavenly and spiritual things which are sutable to his Soul and inner man which considering the nature and creation of man is most absurd and unseemly as if a man should be more carefull of his foot than of his Head What comparison is there between the Soul and the Body Is not that of far greater excellency than this How unseemly a thing is it to seek the satisfying and contenting of the body rather than of the spiritual and better part of a man's self So Sin enclineth old men in age to become more earthly and covetous than before Now this is most unseemly So the Heathen could observe counting it as foolish and absurd for an old man to grow more covetous and eager after the world as for a Traveller to provide himself so much the more carefully for his Journey the nearer he cometh to his Inne or Journey 's end Were it not an unseemly folly when a man is even at home and seeth the smoak of his own Chimney to seek about carefully for a fresh Horse and other necessaries fit for a Journey of many hundred miles So what more foolish and unseemly than for an old man travelling to his last home to be the more carefull of earthly things the nearer he cometh to his grave which are useful to him only by the way And as sin enclineth old age to that whch is most unseemly so also it doth younger years Oh do not think these things seemly for thee to which Nature corrupted by sin enclineth thee no more than that is wholsome for a sick man to which his Stomach vitiated by a disease doth move him Esteem Grace of all things to be the richest ornament put on Christ Jesus that thou maist partake of the beauty of his Grace and Spirit who is the fairest of ten thousand that thou maist be one of those in whom God himself through Christ Jesus is delighted 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 Or O thou chosen selected one So here Remember thy Creator in the daies of thy Youth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 Tâ—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
acknowledgeth We our Kings our Princes our Fathers and all Israel have sinned CHAP. XI GReat are the benefits which may redound to Children sincerely confessing the iniquities of their Fathers as well as their own sins The Promise is made Levit. 26. 40 41 42. If they shall confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their Fathers with their trespass which they have trespassed against me and that also they have walked contrary to me and that I have also walked contrary to them c. Then will I remember my Covenant with Jacob and also my Covenant with Isaac and also my Covenant with Abraham will I remember and I will remember the Land 1. Sometime it procureth and obtaineth a delay and putting off the pouring forth the wrath of God upon a Family Person or Nation God oftentimes delayeth the punishments not remitting the sins As upon Ahab's humiliation he delayed the punishment but did not remit the sins of him and his house yet for his humiliation the punishment should be prorogued to his Son's daies 2 Reg. 21. 29. Upon Moses his humiliation for Israels murmuring he remitted the execution of his wrath but remitted not their sin Numb 14. 18. ad 23. We have a clear Instance for this in Josiah who humbled himself for the iniquities of his Fathers and the sins of Israel and the Lord put off the execution of his wrath till he was laid in his grave 2 Chron. 34. 21 24 ad 28. Perhaps the second generation may die in peace or it may be the third and the fourth generation shall bear the iniquities of their Fathers it is no small mercy that wrath breaks not in upon the first generation 2. If it doth not keep off and procure delay of execution but wrath from the Lord breaks in upon uâ— yet it may mitigate the wrath of God so that God though justly he might yet proceeds not to a final devastation of Persons Families and Kingdoms but a remnant may and shall escape Jerem. 39. 16 17 18. Thus God bids Jeremy tell Ebed-melech the Ethiopian that though he would bring his words upon the City of Jerusalem for evil yet say thou to him I will surely deliver thee and thou shalt not fall by the Sword but thy life shall be for a prey unto thee because thou hast put thy trust in me saith the Lord. And that God made them not as Sodom and Gomorrha but left a remnant Ezra acknowledgeth in his confession Ezra 9. 8. And now for a little space grace hath been shewed from the Lord our God to leave us a remnant to escape and to give us a nail in his holy place that our God may lighten our eyes and give us a little reviving in our bondage When people are generally stubborn and wicked God sometimes makes a full end of them when their determinate day of visitation is come upon them he overthrows Families as he overthrew Sodom and Gomorrha cutting down root and branch and casting them into the fire 3. Sometimes it procureth a shortening of the day of visitation God will not lengthen out their judgement will not as justly he might spin out their time of calamity For mine elects sake these dayes of calamity shall be shortened The day of Jerusalem's calamity should be shortened for his elâ—ct which were in it 4. If God yet visit the iniquities of our Fathers upon us he will change the nature of our punishments though they be to the destruction of our estates and bodies yet they shall be to the Salvation of our Souls in the day of the Lord Jesus he will inflict them upon us as trials and fatherly chastisements doing us good in the latter end though in relation to the iniquities of our Fathers they be sore punishments Moreover we ought to be humbled for the sins of our Fathers because God was dishonoured by them Nehemiah was ashamed and confounded for his Fathers sins as well as his own That God was dishonoured in former years grieveth a godly heart as well as in present times Besides the sins of our Fathers are reproaches to us That men should say of such a man his Father before him was a drunkard an oppressour an idolater so was his Grand-Father his Great-Grand-Father before him this is a reproach unto the Family the best way to wipe off the reproach is for the posterity to mourn for their Fathers sins the godliness of Children will be some covering to their Fathers nakedness But if our Fathers greatly provoked the Lord and we are not humbled for their sins but walk in the steps of our evil Progenitors then hear what the Lord saith to such Isai. 14. 20 21 22. The seed of evil doers shall never be renowned prepare slaughter for his Children for the iniquity of their Fathers that they do not rise nor possess the Land nor fill the face of the world with Cities for I will rise up against them saith the Lord of Hosts and cut off from Babylon the Name and Remnant and Son and Nephew saith the Lord. FINIS August Epist. ad Licent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 St. Augustin saith of this Non humanâ— operi tribuerim sed divino Epist. 130. Cassian Instit Lib. 5. ca. 32. Cyprian de â—apsis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Kings Chap. 9. Diis Parentibus nunquam satis fit Aristot. Gregor Epist lib. 1. Bâ—nis suis aliis praeparat beatitudinom sibi miseriam aliis gaudia sibi lachrymas aliis voluptatem brevem sibi ignem perpetuum Salvian Let thy little Children keep thee from sin said the Poet Juvenal Martyr in 2 Reg. cap. 2. Bolton's Direct p. 19. Woodw Child's Patrim Agust Serm. 33. ad Fratres in Eremo