Hatred stirreth up strifes, but love covereth all sins, Prov. x. 12, 1 Pet. iv. 8. Love's mantle is very large ; love will find a hand, a plaster to clap upon every sore. Flavius Vespasianus, the emperor, was very ready to conceal his friends' vices, and as ready to reveal their virtues. So is divine love in the hearts of the saints : ' If thy brother offend thee, go and tell him his fault between him and thee alone : if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother,' Mat. xviii. 15. As the pills of reprehension are to be gilded and sugared over with much gentleness and softness, so they are to be given in secret; tell him between him and thee alone. Tale-bearers and tale-hearers are alike abominable, 1 Isa. ix. 6 ; Heb. ii. 11, 12 ; Ephes. i. 21, 22 ; Rev. xix. 7 ; John xv. 1 ; Johu ii. 1, 2.
224 APPLES OF GOLD. [1 KlNGS XIV. 13.
heaven is too hot and too holy a place for them, Ps. xv. 3. Now will Jesus Christ have us carry it thus towards offending Christians, and will he himself act otherwise? Nay, is it an evil in us to lay open the weaknesses and infirmities of the saints to the world? and will it be an excellency, a glory, a virtue in Christ to do it in the great day ? &c.
A fifth argument is this : It is the glory of a man to pass over a transgression : ' The discretion of a man deferreth his anger: and it is his glory to pass over a transgression,' Prov. xix. 11, or to pass by it, as we do bv persons or things we know not, or would take no notice of. Now 'is it the glory of a man to pass over a transgression,' and will it not much more be the glory of Christ, silently to pass over the trans- gressions of his people in that great day I1 The greater the treasons and rebellions are that a prince passes over and takes no notice of, the more is it his honour and glory ; and so, doubtless, it will be Christ's in that great day, to pass over all the treasons and rebellions of his people, to take no notice of them, to forget them, as well as to forgive them.
The heathens have long since observed, that in nothing man came nearer to the gloiy and perfection of God himself, than in goodness and clemency. Surely if it be such an honour to man, ' to pass over a trans- gression,' it cannot be a dishonour to Christ to pass over the transgres- sions of his people, he having already buried them in the sea of his blood. Again, saith Solomon, ' It is the glory of God to conceal a thing,' Prov. xxv. 2. And why it should not make for the glory of divine love to conceal the sins of the saints in that great day, I know not ; and whether the concealing the sins of the saints in that great day will not make most for their joy, and wicked men's sorrow, for their comfort and wicked men's terror and torment, I will leave you to judge, and time and experience to decide. And thus much for the resolution of that great question. Having done with the motives that may encourage and provoke young men to be good betimes, to know, love, seek, and serve the Lord, in the spring and morning of their days.
I shall now come to those directions and helps that must, by assist- ance from heaven, be put in practice, if ever you would be good be- times, and serve the Lord in the primrose of your days. Now all that I shall say will fall under these two heads.
First, Some things you must carefully and warily decline, and arm yourselves against ; and
Secondly. There are other things that you must prosecute and fol- low, let, There are some tilings that you must warily decline, and they are these.
Direction (1). First, If ever you would be good betimes, if you would be gracious in the spring and morning of your youth, oh! then, take heed of putting the day of death far from you, Amos vi. 3.
Young men are very prone to look upon death afar off, to put it at a greal distance from them. They are apt to say to death as Pharaoh Baid to Moses, ' Get thee from me, and let me see thy face no more,'
1 A'on amo quemquam nisi offendam, said a heathen.
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Exod. x. 28. If old men discourse to them of death, they are ready to answer, as the high priest did Judas in a different case, Mat. xxvii. 4, ' What is that to us 1 look you unto it.' We know sickness will come, and death is a debt that we must all pay, but surely these guests are a great way from us ; for dotb not David say, ' The days of a man are threescore years and ten"? Ps. xc. 10. We have calculated our nativi- ties, and we cannot abate a day, a minute, a moment, of ' threescore and ten;' and therefore it is even a death to think of death; there being so great a distance between our birth-day and our dying day, as we have cast up the account.
Ah ! young men, it is sad, it is very sad, when you are so wittily wicked as to say with those in Ezekiel, ' Behold they of the house of Israel say, the vision that he seeth is for many days to come, and he prophesieth of the times that are afar off/ Ezek. xii. 27.
Ah ! young men, young men, by putting far away this day you gratify Satan, you strengthen sin, you provoke the Lord, you make the work of faith and repentance more hard and difficult, you lay a sad foundation for the greatest fears and doubts.
Ah ! how soon may that sad word be fulfilled upon you, ' The Lord of that servant (that saith his Lord delayeth his coming) shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder (or cut him off), and appoint him his portion with hypocrites ; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth,' Mat. xxiv. 48-51. When Sodom, when Pharaoh, when Agag, when Amalek, when Haman, when Herod, when Nebuchadnezzar, when Bel- shazzar, when Dives, when the fool in the Gospel, were all in their prime, their pride, when they were all in a flourishing state, and upon the very top of their glory, how strangely, how suddenly, how sadly, how fearfully, how wonderfully, were they brought down to the grave, to hell !
Ah ! young man, who art thou ? and what is thy name or fame? what is thy power or place? what is thy dignity or glory? that thou darest promise thyself an exemption from sharing in as sad a portion as ever justice gave to those who were once very high, who were seated among the stars, but are now brought down to the sides of the pit, Isa. xiii. 10-17. I have read a story of one that gave a young prodigal a ring with a death's head, on this condition, that he should one hour daily, for seven days together, look and think upon it ; which bred a great change in his life.
Ah ! young men, the serious thoughts of death may do that for you that neither friends, counsel, examples, prayers, sermons, tears, have not done to this very day. Well ! remember this ; to labour not to die is labour in vain, and to put this day far from you, and to live without fear of death, is to die living. Death seizeth on old men, and lays wait for the youngest. Death is oftentimes as near to the young man's back as it is to the old man's face.1