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A60149
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Seasonable advice to youth A funeral sermon on Psal. 119. 9. Preach'd upon the death of Mr. Richard Walter, jun. In the eighteenth year of his age. January 13th, 1691/2. By John Shower.
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Shower, John, 1657-1715.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing S3685; ESTC R220294
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25,103
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44
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your Baptism yielding your Selves to the Lord as the most solemn and Important Transaction of your whole Lives And be sure * keep out of the way of Temptation as much as you can endeavouring to avoid those particular Snares by which you are most easily overcome Pretend not a Resolution against the Sin if you are willing to look upon the Temptation to walk upon the brink of the River and to come near the door of that House into which you know you must not enter It is impossible a Man should love to abide by a Temptation for a good end or without unspeakable Hazard It is vain Confidence on your own Strength to come as near Sin as you durst and the Event does commonly prove it so Especially * see that you well imploy your Time upon the Lords Day and take heed to your * Company all the Week Few of the Younger sort Miscarry but date their Sin and Ruin from the neglect of this Counsel * Begin with God every Morning by serious Prayer and Reading some part of the Holy Scriptures with some Practical Affectionate Book if but for a quarter of an Hour it would leave a serious Tincture on the Mind and a good Savour on the Heart and be of use to antidote you against Temptation and to preserve a Holy frame all the Day But * never desist your diligent Endeavours till you come to walk with God in his Love and Fear and as under his Eye all the Day long That the pleasing of God may become the Business and Pleasure of your Lives Lastly Do not delay Compliance with these Counsels but presently set about it can you begin too soon to cleanse your Hearts and Ways Is it too soon to be reconciled to God and delivered from the danger of Damnation Can you attain Peace of Conscience and Joy in the Holy Ghost and a well grounded Hope of Eternal Life too soon If you languish'd under a noisom Distemper that threatned your Life would you imagin you could be healed too soon And how much Sin and Mischief Shame and Sorrow and bitter Repentance may you prevent by taking heed unto the Word of God betimes How much larger Opportunities for the glorifying of God have Young Converts than late Penitents though they be Sincere What Advantages never to be retrieved have they lost who have out-sinned their Youth because their Time is gone and can never be recalled What Honour may you bring to God who remember your Creator in the days of your Youth What Ornaments to your Profession may you prove Of what usefulness unto others in this World being filled with the Spirit of God What attainments in Grace and the knowledge of Christ See Mr. Charnock Vol. 2. p. 57 58. and what additional degrees of Glory may you reach You may grow to a greater Stature being new born in Youth and bring forth more and better Fruit in Old Age You will have a longer time of Peace of Conscience and of the Comforts of the Spirit much sweeter fore-tastes of Heaven and improved meetness for it You may lay up Treasures of Experience to confute the Devil if he assault you on a Death-Bed c. And is it nothing to despise all these advantages of an Early Piety to secure the comfort and usefulness for the future part of your Lives Is it nothing to be prepared for a sudden Death and to provide against the Pangs and Sorrowful Reflections of a Death-bed Is it nothing when you come to Die to review your former Life with Joy saying Lord remember how I have served thee the God of my Fathers from my Childhood and Youth Is it nothing to bring God greater Glory in this World and receive a more weighty and sparkling Crown of Glory in the next Have you not been often told how much more difficult your Repentance and Conversion to God will hereafter be than now if you should be spared some Years longer Are your Hearts like to be better by longer continuance in Sin Will the Justice of God be less provoked will it not be more Will the Devil have less advantage against you when he hath had so much longer Possession To Day while it is called to Day if you will hear his Voice harden not your Hearts It is some hardning of your Hearts not to hearken to his Voice this day It is one step more towards final Impenitence and Unbelief against which there is no Remedy provided in the Gospel How hardly was that Man Cured Mark 9.29 who was possessed with a Devil from his Childhood The more you are alienated from the Life of God the harder will be your Recovery And how much greater is the provocation against God by every such Delay How aggravated and displeasing is your base ingratitude against the Blessed God and a Merciful Redeemer You reject his present Call slight his Kindness and refuse his Love and in effect tell him that though you have no mind to perish but that one time or other before you die you will accept it that yet you have other Business for the present to mind it will be time enough for that when you are more at leisure Your Youthful Lusts now call you your Secular Affairs and Settlement in the World now call you to other Thoughts and these shal l be first minded and served Your Compassionate Physician offers his Help and promises a Cure if you will but hearken and submit to him You tell him in effect that you like your Leprosie and are in love with your Disease You care not to be recovered to Health you will not as yet be Purged and Healed though one time or other you intend to call for his Assistance May he not most justly say unto you Let him that is filthy be filthy still You would not be purged from your filthiness therefore you shall not till you die How bitter will be the Thoughts of these repeated Calls neglected What cold Horror and Shivering Dread shall seize thee on a Bed of Languishing which some may take for true Repentance But Oh how little of that which by a large Charity we hope is so may the Righteous God accept and who can tell whether he does or no For such Men see themselves upon the brink of the Grave and stepping into Hell and know it is as much as their Souls are worth presently to make Peace with God by unfeigned Repentance No wonder then if they let fall some little Drops of a beginning Sorrow if they have some extorted Resolutions of Living better some sudden Remorse and Regret for those Sins that they are now like to be Damned for some quick and rash Vows of an Awaken'd Conscience with some Confusion of Face under the Fears of Death and Judgment But at such a time it is hard to distinguish between Religious Sighs and Natural Groans or separate their Repenting Cries for Mercy from their Howlings on their Beds through Bodily Pain 'T is true God
may work Miracles of Mercy on such Convinced Sinners who did not seek to him till the Eleventh Hour but whether he will no there is no Certainty or Probability but that he can if he please which to Persons in that condition who fear an Everlasting Hell the next Hour is a sad uncomfortable Thought No Man in his Wits that reads the Bible would run the Hazard If they have the use of Reason and are not harden'd in Atheism and Infidelity they cannot but fear and tremble Peace and Prosperity may transport Men the Mouth of Conscience may be stop'd in Health by false Principles and the Voice of Flattering Company its secret Whispers may be drown'd by the noise and hurry of Business or diverted brib'd and abus'd by the entertainments of Sense and the deceitfulness of Riches But in Sickness and Affliction when dis-intangled from its Fetters Conscience will speak its own Sense and it ever speaks loudest in a time of Calamity Then it will witness and accuse condemn and terrifie All their Arts of Oblivion cannot make it silent it will disquiet them with Fears and Torments which encrease at the approach of Death and after Death are the beginning of Hell For though as one says That may not be fully opened till the last Judgment yet the Anguish of Conscience is a part of Hell-Fire preparatory to the Horrible Sentence of Dooms-day Now Is he his own Murderer who would not endeavour to make Peace with God when in danger of approaching Death The like is he who will defer this for one Day because every Day of such delay is a Day of Danger and so is he obliged by the same care for himself and concern for his Soul if he Sinned Yesterday to Repent to Day lest he be Dead to Morrow For how many Persons die Suddenly many have done so of late and more may and who knows that he shall not Thy Sick Neighbour may recover and live many Years and he that is now in Health may expire the next Hour You are also uncertain of a tedious Sickness to afford you the lingering forerunners of Death or of such a one as shall not disturb the Brain and unfit for serious Thoughts The first Symptom of your last Sickness may conclude your Life you may not have time to complain or cry Job 36.13 14. They cry not when he bindeth them they die in their Youth and their Life is among the Vnclean How groundless are the Expectations of arriving to Old-Age The Almond Tree does not every where flourish Hardly one or Two of a great Multitude lay down a Hoary Head in the Bed of the Grave Very little Ripe Fruit is gathered into the Basket in comparison of the many Blossoms that fall to the Ground Is not your Constitution in Youth more tender and consequently more subject to external Impressions that may cause Sickness While grown Branches can stand the shock of a Cold Winter every Blast or Storm will spoil the Beauty of new blown Flowers And yet though you know this and therefore must grant your length of Days no surer than that of others and your presuming on the future equally hazardous and without ground you will not now Repent and turn to God It may be you Resolve you will if you live till hereafter that is you are content to to be Damned if you die before that time And who knows what a Day may bring forth Prov. 27.1 Jam. 4.14 Though you are now Strong and Healthful in the heat and Wantonness of Youthful Blood or in the strength and vigour of your Age and begin to have a throng of Worldly Business may not the same be said of some of those who died the last Week who it may be delayed their Repentance on the like grounds and thought their own Death as improbable as you do yours which is now so much the nearer by how many Days you have surviv'd them Is there any of you but would willingly Repent and turn to God one Day before you die And who can be sure to do that who delays till to Morrow I perswade my self you cannot think that you shall be exempted from appearing before the Bar of Christ if you die in Youth Or that those Lusts and Sins that are Damning to Men of Forty will not be reckon'd for by God or hereafter punish'd because committed by one of Sixteen Will you yet boldly put it to the venture Eccl. 9.11 and Rejoyce O Young Man in thy Youth and walk in the way of thy own Heart and neither know nor consider that for all these things God will bring thee to Judgment And how soon may you receive that Summons every whit as soon as if you had lived many Years longer To several Diseases You are more obnoxious than Elder Persons to some that are now Reigning and often prove Mortal as you are more full of warm Blood to catch the Infection particularly the Small-Pox By which Distemper it pleased God to visit this young Gentleman Mr. Richard Walter in the Eighteenth Year of his Age concerning whom as it will not be needful so it cannot be expected I should speak much being almost a Stranger to him till the last Scene of his Life When I was requested to joyn with some Friends in Prayer for him and afterwards at his own Desire visited him and prayed with him I found him in a very Penitent and Serious frame which I hope was not the bare effect of his having receiv'd the Sentence of Death in himself not only because during his whole Sickness he discovered the like Temper of Mind whenever he had the free Exercise of Reason which after some Days Delirium God was pleased very observably to restore in answer to Prayer but because he had formerly been under very serious Impressions of what concern'd his Soul and the Everlasting World Unto which purpose the practical Books of that Great and Holy Man Mr. Baxter were useful to him as they have been unto Thousands more These Impressions I hope did remain and were now and then awaken'd and reviv'd upon him notwithstanding the dangerous Snares and Temptations of Youth His fervent and penitent Supplications to Heaven as the fruit of these I hopâ— found Acceptance with the Father of Mercies thro the Mediation of Christ For at the very last he was 〈◊〉 afraid or unwilling to Dye Notwithstanding that 〈◊〉 exprest a very great Sense of his Sin he could yet say I hope my Dear Redeemer hath enabled me to Repent and hath forgiven me There is Pity in his Bosom and Mercy in his Breast And so he went on mentioning some Scriptures to that purpose There is one thing I would add which may be Iâ—â—…table and Exemplary if God allow you the use of Reason on a Sick Bed that before he died he was willing to do something to promote the Salvation of his Acquaintance and Companions as the best Expression oâ— his Friendship to 'em by exciting them to consider theiâ— Latter End and prepare for the other World wherâ— we must have our unchangable Eternal Abode Thiâ— appear'd when I spake to him on that Head by the instructive Messages he desir'd me to convey to some oâ— 'em and by his most affectionate Wish and Prayeâ— for his * In the Island of Barbadoes Parents when I parted from him viz. Thaâ— he might meet them in Heaven where he said will bâ— more and better Pleasure in one Moment than is to bâ— found in all the Enjoynments of this World for a Thousand Years God grant that they and all his Relations and Acquaintance such especially who have desir'd this Sermon may wisely improve his Decease which administred the occasion And may it be of some use to all the Younger sort who heard it or may now read it to help 'em to consider and remember the Divine Counsel oâ— this Text how Young Men may cleanse their Ways by taking heed unto the Word of God THE END