Ah ! young men, young men, if they be worse than infidels, that make no provision for their families, 1 Tim. v. 8 ; what monsters are they that make not provision for their own souls ! This will be bitter- ness in the end.
Csesar Borgias being sick to death, lamentably said, ' When I lived, I provided for everything but death ; now I must die, and am unprovided to die.' This was a dart at his heart, and it will at last be a dagger at yours, who feast your bodies, but starve your souls ; who make liberal provision for your ignoble part, but no provision for your more noble part.
If they deserve a hanging, who feast their slaves, and starve their wives ; that make provision for their enemies, but none for their friend ; how will you escape hanging in hell, who make provision for everything, yea, for your very lusts, but make no provision for your immortal souls? James iv. 2, 3 ; Hos. vii. 13, 14. We hate the Turks for selling Christians for slaves, and what shall we think then of those who sell themselves, their precious souls, for toys and trifles that can- not profit? who practically say, what once a profane nobleman of
1 0 anima 'Dei insignita imagine, desponsata fide, donata spiritu.-Benia.id-
1 Kings XIV. 13.] apples of gold. 217
Naples verbally said, viz., that he had two souls in his body, one for God, and another for whosoever would buy it.1
Ah ! young men, young men, do not pawn your souls, do not sell your souls, do not exchange away your souls, do not trifle and fool away your precious souls ; they are jewels, more worth than a thousand worlds, yea, than heaven and earth. If they are safe, all is safe ; but if they are lost, all is lost : God lost, and Christ lost, and the society of glorious angels and blessed saints lost, and heaven lost, and that for ever. Granetensis tells of a woman that was so affected with souls' miscarryings, that she besought God to stop up the passage into hell with her soul and body, that none might have entrance.
Ah ! that all young persons were so affected with the worth and excellency of their souls, and so alarmed with the hazard and danger of losing their souls, as that they may in the spring and morning of their days inquire after the Lord, and seek him, and serve him with all their might, that so their precious and immortal souls may be safe and happy for ever. But if all this will not do, then in the last place,
Motive (10). Tenthly, Consider, young men, That God will at last bring you to a reckoning. He will at last bring you to judgment. ' Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes ; but know thou, that for all these things, God will bring thee unto judgment/ Eccles. xi. 9. In these words you have two things: (1.) An ironical concession; he bids him rejoice, &c. ; he yields him what he would have, by an irony, by way of mock age and bitter scoff. Now thou art young and strong, lively and lusty, and thy bones are full of marrow ; thou art resolved to be proud and scornful, to indulge the flesh, and to follow thy delights and pleasures. Well ! take thy course if thou darest, or if thou hast a mind to it, if thy heart be so set upon it. ' Rejoice in thy youth,' &c. (2.) The second is a com- mination, or a sad and severe premonition :2 ' But know thou, that for all these things, God will bring thee into judgment. ' Will bring thee ;' these words import two things : first, the unwillingness of youth to come to judgment ; secondly, the unavoidableness that youth must come to judgment ; but how soon you shall be brought to judgment, is only known to God,
Augustine confesses in one of his books, that as long as his conscience was gnawed with the guilt of some youthful lust he was once ensnared with, the very hearing of a day of judgment, was even a hell to him.
Histories tell us of a young man, who being for some capital offence condemned to die, grew grey in one night's space, and was therefore pitied and spared.
Ah ! young men, young men, that the serious thoughts of this great day, may put you upon breaking off the sins of your youth ; and the dedicating of yourselves to the knowledge, love, and service of the Lord, in the spring and flower of your days. Ah ! young men, consider the errors of your lives, the wickedness of your hearts, the sinfulness of
1 Callenuceus relates this story.
a Jerome still thought that that noise was in his ears, Surgite mortui, et venile ad judicium, Arise, you dead, and come to judgment.
218 APPLES OF GOLD. [1 KlNGS XIV. 13.
your ways, and that strict account that ere long you must be brought to before the judge of all the world.
The Latin us themselves had some kind of dread and expectation of guch a day ; and therefore, when Paul spake of judgment to come, Felix trembled, though a heathen, Acts xxiv. 25.
The bringing into judgment is a thing which is known by reason, and is clear by the light of nature;' wherefore, in Austria, one of the nobles d\ in-,, who had lived fourscore and thirteen years, and had spent all his lite in pleasures ami delights, never being troubled with any infirmity, and this being told to Frederick the emperor, From hence, saith he, we may conclude the soul's immortality ; for if there be a God that ruleth this world, as divines and philosophers do teach, and that he is just no one denieth, surely there are other places to which souls after death do go, and do receive for their deeds either reward or punishment, for here we see that neither rewards are given to the good, nor punishments to the evil.2
Ah, young men ! ' knowing therefore the terror of the Lord/ 2 Cor. v. 9—11, and the terror of this day, oh ! that you would be persuaded to flee from the wrath to come, to cast away the idols of your souls, to repent and be converted in the primrose of your youth, that your sins may be blotted out when ' the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord, 'Acts iii. 19, or else woe! woe! to you that ever you uei, born ! I have read a story of one who, being risen from the dead, and being asked in what condition he was, he made answer, No man doth believe, no man doth believe, no man doth believe. And being further asked what he meant by that repetition, he answered, Mo man doth believe how exactly God examineth, how strictly God judgeth, how severely he punisheth. Oh that the ways of most young persons did not declare to all the world that they do not, and that they will not be- lieve the dread and terror of that day that will admit of no plea, nor place for apology or appeal ! The highest and last tribunal can never be appealed from, or repealed.3