APPLES
OF GOLD
by Thomas Brooks, 1660
Chapter 3.
The
Evils of Youth
Evil 1. The first evil which mostly attends youth, is
PRIDE.
Pride of heart, pride of apparel, pride of parts, 1 Tim.
3:6. Young men are apt to be proud of health, strength, friends, relations,
wit, wealth, wisdom. Two things are very rare: the one is, to see a young
man humble and watchful; and the other is, to see an old man contented and
cheerful.
Bernard says, that pride is the rich man's
delusion, and experience every day speaks out pride to be the young
man's delusion. God, said one, had three sons—Lucifer, Adam, and
Christ; the first aspired to be like God in power, and was therefore thrown
down from heaven; the second to be like him in knowledge, and was therefore
deservedly driven out of Eden when young; the third did altogether imitate
and follow Him in his goodness, mercy, and humility, and by so doing
obtained everlasting inheritance.
Remember this, young men, and as you would get a
paradise, and keep a paradise—get humble, and keep humble. Pride is an evil
that puts men upon all manner of evil. Accius the poet, though he were a
dwarf, yet would be pictured tall of stature.
Psaphon, a proud Lybian, would needs be a god, and having
caught some parrots, he taught them to speak and prattle: 'The great god
Psaphon!'
Menecrates, a proud physician, wrote thus to king Philip:
Menecrates is a god, to Philip a king.
Proud Simon in Lucian, having got a little wealth,
changed his name from Simon to Simonides, for that there were so many
beggars of his kin; and set the house on fire wherein he was born, that
nobody should see it.
What sad evils Pharaoh's pride, and Haman's pride, and
Herod's pride, and Belshazzar's pride, put them upon, I shall not now
mention.
Ah! young men, young men, had others a window to look
into your breasts, or did your hearts stand where your faces do, you would
even be afraid of yourselves, you would loathe and abhor yourselves.
Ah! young men, young men, as you would have God to keep
house with you, as you would have his mind and secrets made known to you, as
you would have Christ to delight in you, and the Spirit to dwell in you, as
you would be honored among saints, and attended and guarded by angels—get
humble, and keep humble!
Tertullian's counsel to the young converts of those times
was excellent: "Clothe yourselves," said he, "with the silk of piety, with
the satin of sanctity, and with the purple of modesty; so shall you have God
himself to be your suitor."
Evil 2. The second evil that youth is subject to
is, sensual PLEASURES and delights.
"Be happy, young man, while you are
young, and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth. Follow the
ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see; but know that for all
these things God will bring you to judgment!" Ecclesiastes 11:9. The
wise man, by an ironical concession, bids him to be happy, etc., sin,
etc. You are willful, and resolved upon taking your pleasure—go on, take
your fill. This he speaks by way of mockage and bitter scoff, etc.
"But know that for all these things God will bring you to judgment!"
So "Samson threw a party at Timnah, as was the custom of
the day." Judges 14:10. The hearts of young men usually are much given up to
pleasure. I have read of a young man, who was very much given up to
pleasures; he standing by the godly Ambrose, and seeing his excellent death,
turned to other young men by him, and said, "Oh, that I might live with you,
and die with him."
Sensual pleasures are like to those locusts, Rev.9:7, the
crowns upon whose heads are said to be only as it were such, or such in
appearance, and like gold. Buy in verse 10, it is said there were—not
as it were—but really—stings in their tails.
Sensual pleasures are but seeming and appearing
pleasures—but the pains which attend them are true and real. He who delights
in sensual pleasures, shall find his greatest pleasures become his bitterest
pains.
The heathens looked upon the back parts of pleasure, and
saw it going away from them, and leaving a sting behind.
Pleasures pass away as soon as they have wearied out the
body, and leave it as a bunch of grapes whose juice has been pressed out;
which made one to say, I see no greater pleasure in this world than the
contempt of pleasure.
Julian, though an apostate, yet professed that the
pleasures of the body were far below a noble man; and Tully says, he is not
worthy of the name of man—who would entirely spend one whole day in
pleasures. It is better not to desire pleasures, than to enjoy them. "I
thought in my heart, "Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out
what is good." But that also proved to be meaningless. "Laughter," I said,
"is foolish. And what does pleasure accomplish?" Ecclesiastes 2:1-2. The
interrogation bids a challenge to all the masters of mirth, to produce any
one satisfactory fruit which it affords, if they could.
Xerxes, being weary of all pleasures, promised rewards to
the inventors of new pleasures, which being invented, he nevertheless
remained unsatisfied. As a bee flies from flower to flower and is not
satisfied, and as a sick man moves from one bed to another, from one seat to
another, from one chamber to another for ease, and finds none; so men given
up to sensual pleasures go from one pleasure to another—but can find no
contentment, no satisfaction in their pleasures. "Everything is so weary and
tiresome! No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how
much we hear, we are not content!" Eccles. 1:8. There is a curse of
unsatisfiableness, which lies upon the creature. Honors cannot satisfy
the ambitious man, nor riches the covetous man, nor pleasures the voluptuous
man. Man cannot take off the weariness of one pleasure by another, for after
a few evaporated minutes are spent in pleasures, the body presently fails
the mind, and the mind the desire, and the desire the satisfaction, and all
the man.
Pleasures seem solid in the pursuit; but are mere
clouds in the enjoyment.
Pleasure is a beautiful harlot sitting in her chariot—The
four WHEELS are pride, gluttony, lust, and foolishness. The two HORSES are
prosperity and abundance. The two DRIVERS are idleness and security. Her
ATTENDANTS and followers are guilt, grief, shame, and often death and
damnation!
Many great men, and many strong men, and many rich men,
and many hopeful men, and many young men, have come to their damnation by
her; but never any enjoyed full satisfaction and contentment in her. Ah!
young men, young men, avoid this harlot, 'pleasure'—and come not near
the door of her house!
And as for LAWFUL pleasures, let me only say this--it is
your wisdom only to touch them, to taste them, and to use them
as you use medicines--to occasionally fortify yourselves against
maladies.
When Roger Ascham asked Lady Jane Grey how she could
forego such pleasurable pastimes, she smilingly answered, All the sport
in the park is but a shadow of that pleasure I find in this book—having
a good book in her hand.
Augustine, before his conversion, could not live without
those pleasures which he delighted much in. But after his nature was
changed, and his heart graciously turned to the Lord, he said, "Oh! how
sweet is it to be without those sweet delights!"
Ah! young men, when once you come to experience the
goodness and sweetness that is in the Lord, and in his word and ways, you
will then sit down and grieve that you have put more wine in the cup of
pleasure, than oil in the lamp of holiness.
There are no pleasures so delighting, so satisfying, so
ravishing, so engaging, and so abiding--as those which spring from union and
communion with God--as those which flow from a from a humble and holy
walking with God!
Evil 3. The third sin of youth is RASHNESS.
They many times know little and fear less, and so are apt
rashly to run on, and run out often to their hurt—but more often to their
hazard. "Exhort young men to be sober-minded or discreet," Titus 2:6. They
are apt to be rash, to be Hotspurs. As you may see in Rehoboam's young
counselors, who counseled him to tell the people, 1 Kings 12:8-11, who
groaned under their burdens, that "his little finger was thicker than his
father's loins, and that he would add to their yoke; and that whereas his
father had chastised them with whips, he would chastise them with
scorpions." This rash counsel proved Rehoboam's ruin; yes, David himself,
though a godly man, yet being in his warm blood and young, how sadly was he
overtaken with rashness! "For I swear by the Lord, the God of Israel, who
has kept me from hurting you, that if you had not hurried out to meet me,
not one of Nabal's men would be alive tomorrow morning." 1 Samuel 25:34. And
this he binds with an oath. Because the master was foolishly wilful, the
innocent servants must all be harmed; and because Nabal had been niggardly
of his bread, David would be prodigal of his blood.
Ah! how unlike a Christian, yes, how below a man does
David carry it when his blood is boiling, and he is a captive to rashness
and passion! Rashness will admit of nothing for reason—but what unreasonable
SELF shall dictate for reason. As sloth seldom brings actions to good birth,
so rashness makes them always abortive before well formed. A rash spirit is
an ungodlike spirit; a rash spirit is a weak spirit, it is a harmful spirit.
"A man of understanding is of an excellent spirit," or as the Hebrew will
bear, is of a cool spirit, not rash and hot, ready at every turn to put out
his soul in wrath, Proverbs 17:27. Rashness unmans a man, it will put a man
upon things below manhood. Erostratus, an obscure base fellow, did in one
night by fire destroy the temple of Diana at Ephesus, which was two hundred
and twenty years in building, by all Asia, at the cost of so many princes,
and beautified with the labors and cunning of so many excellent workmen. The
truth is, there would be no end were I to discover the many sad and great
evils that are ushered into the world by that one evil, rashness,
which usually attends youth, etc.; and therefore, young men, decline it, and
arm yourselves against it, etc.
Evil 4. The fourth sin that ordinarily attends on
youth is, Mocking and scoffing at pious men and pious things.
They were young ones that scoffingly and scornfully said
to the prophet, "Go up, you bald-head; go up, you bald-head," 2 Kings
2:23-24. And the young men derided and mocked Job: "But now those who 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," etc., Job. 30:1, 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 wife, and it had
well near cost the destruction of their city, he was so provoked with the
indignity; 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? Ah! young men, young men! will
you seriously consider how sadly and sorely he has punished other scoffers
and mockers, and by his judgments on them, be warned never more to scoff at
the people of God or his ways?
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—O
Galilean, meaning our Savior Christ, you have overcome me.
Felix, for one malicious scoff, did nothing day and night but vomit blood,
until his unhappy soul was separated from his wretched body. Pherecydes was
consumed by worms alive, for giving religion but a nickname. Lucian, for
barking against religion like a dog, was, by the just judgment of God,
devoured by dogs. 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 sexual immorality.
Which occasioned aged Paul to caution his young Timothy
to "flee youthful lusts," 2 Tim. 2:22. 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 a slippery age, that Paul
commands him to flee, to run from, youthful lusts. Though Timothy was a
godly man, a weak, sickly man, a marvelous temperate man, drinking water
rather than wine, yet he was but a man, yes, a young man; and therefore
Paul's counsel and command is, that he "flee youthful lusts."
And Solomon, who had sadly experienced the slipperiness
of youth, gives this counsel: "Put away the evils of your flesh: for
childhood and youth are vanity, "Eccles. 11:10. He was a young man that
followed the harlot to her house; he was young in years, and young in
knowledge, Proverbs 7:7-11, etc. Salazer says upon the words: That was a
happy age which 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 eagerly pursue after youthful lusts.
Chrysostom, speaking of youth, says, it is hard to be
ruled, easy to be drawn away, apt to be deceived, and standing in need of
very strict 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; until time, by little and little, makes them wiser.
Well! young man, remember this, that the least sparklings and kindlings of
lusts will, first or last, cost you 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
preserved and secured, which is more than I dare affirm of all into whose
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 whatever; 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.
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