They were young ones that scoffingly and scornfully said to the prophet, ' Go up, thou bald-head ; go up, thou bald-head,' 2 Kings ii. 23, 24. And the young men derided and mocked Job : ' But now they that are younger than I have me 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 me the ways of their destruction,' &c, Job. xxx. 1, 12-15. 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 ways of God !
The Athenians once scoffed at Sylla's [Sulla] wife, and it had well nigh cost the razing of their city, he was so provoked with the indig- nity ;' and will you think it safe to scoff at the people of God, who are the spouse of Christ, 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 ?2 Ah ! young men, young men ! will you seriously consider how sadly and sorely he hath punished other scoffers and mockers, and by his judgments on them, be warned never to scoff at the people of God or his ways more ? Julian the emperor was a great scoffer of Christians ; but at last he was struck with an arrow from heaven, that made him cry out, Vicisti, Galilcee, thou Galilean — meaning our Saviour Christ — hast overcome me.3 Felix, for one mali- cious 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 bark- ing against religion like a dog, was, by the just judgment of God, de- voured of dogs.4 Remember these dreadful judgments of God on scoffers, and if you like them, then mock on, scoff on ; but know, that justice will at last be even with you, nay, above you.
Evil 5. The fifth and last evil that I shall mention that attends and waits on youth is, lustfulness and wantonness.
Which occasioned aged Paul to caution his young Timothy to ' flee youthful lusts/ 2 Tim. ii. 22. Timothy was a chaste and chastened piece ; he was much sanctified and mortified ; his graces were high, and corruptions low ; he 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
1 Plutarch, Sulla.— G.
s Cant. v. 1 ; Zech. ii. 8 ; Deut. xxxii. 9 ; Isa. xix. 25 ; Joel ii. 17 ; Ps. xxxiii. 12; Isa. lxii. 3. 3 A commonplace of quotation ascribed to Julian. — G. 4 Very doubtful. — G.
204 APPLES OF GOLD. [1 Kings XIV. 13.
;i slippery age, that Paul commands him to flee, to post from, youthful lusts. Though Timothy was a good man, a weak, sickly man, a mar- vellous temperate man, drinking water rather than wine, yet he was but a man, yea, a young man ; and therefore Paul's counsel and com- mand is, that he 'flee youthful lusts.' And Solomon, who had sadly experienced the slipperiness of youth, gives this counsel: ' Put away the evils of thy flesh : for childhood and youth are vanity/ Eccles. xi. 10. He was a young man that followed the harlot to her house ; he was young in years, and young in knowledge, Prov. vii. 7-11, &c. Salazer upon the words saith : That was a happy age that afforded but one simple young man among many, whereas late times afford greater store Ah ! too many of the youths of this age, instead of flying from youthful lusts, they post and pursue after youthful lusts.
Chrysostom, speaking of youth, saith, it is difficilem, jactctMlem, f<tll!bll,m, vehementissinnsqne egentem frosnis,1 hard to be ruled, easy to be drawn away, apt to be deceived, and standing in need of very violent reins.
The ancients did picture youth like a young man naked, with a veil over his face ; his right hand bound behind him, his left hand loose, and Time behind him pulling- one thread out of his veil every day ; intimating that young men are void of knowledge, and blind, unfit to do good, ready to do evil ; till time, by little and little, make them wiser.2 Well ! young man, remember this, that the least sparklings and kindlings of lusts will, first or last, cost thee groans and griefs, tears and terrors enough.
These five are the sins that usually are waiting and attending on youth ; but from these the young man in the text was by grace pre- served and secured, which is more than I dare affirm of all into wboSfl hand this treatise shall fall. But though these five are the sins of youth, yet they are not all the sins of youth ; for youth is capable of and subject to all other sins whatsoever ; but these are the special sins that most usually wait and attend on young men when they are in the spring and morning of their youth.
I shall now hasten to the main use that I intend to stand upon, and that is an use of exhortation to all young 'persons.
Ah, sirs ! as you tender3 the glory of God, the good of your bodies, the joy of your Christian friends, and the salvation of your own souls, be exhorted and persuaded to be really good betimes. It was the praise and honour of Abijah, that 'there was found in him some good thing towards the Lord' in the primrose of his childhood.4
Oh ! that it might be your honour and happiness to be really good be- times, that it might be to you a praise and a name, that in the morn- ing of your youth you have begun to seek the Lord, and to know and
1 Chrysost. Homil. i. Ad pojmlum. 2 A Lapide. :: ' Regard.' — G.
4 Other sins attend youth, as (1.) Ignorance, l Cor. xiv. 20; (2.) Falsehood, Ps. lviii. 8; (:'..) Excessive love of liberty; (4.) Impatience of counsels ami reproofs, Jer. xxxi. 18, i'.i; (5.) Impudence [insolence], lea. iii. 6; (<;.) A trilling spirit, Eccles. xi. 10; (7.) Pro- digality.
1 Kings XIV. 13.] apples of gold. 205
love the Lord, and to get an interest and propriety1 in the Lord. Now that this exhortation may stick and take, I beseech you seriously to weigh and ponder these following motives or considerations :
Motive (1). First consider, It is an honour to be good betimes. A young saint is like the morning star ; he is like a pearl in a gold rino-. It is mentioned as a singular honour to the believing Jews, that they first trusted in Christ ; ' that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ,' Eph. i. 12. This was their praise, their crown, that they were first converted and turned to Christ and Chris- tianity. So Paul, mentioning Andronicus and Junia, doth not omit this circumstance of praise and honour, that they were in Christ 'before him,' Rom. xvi. 7. ' Salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and my fellow-prisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me.'