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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55343	A directory for youth Through all the difficulties attending that state of life. Or a discouse of youthful lusts. In which the nature and dinds of them are described, and remedies against them laid down. First preached to young people, and now published at their request. By Samuel Pomfret, minister of the gospel.	Pomfret, Samuel, d. 1722.	1693 (1693)	Wing P2798; ESTC R224107	117,456	254

to God by Christ every day our Life is a worthless thing without it hence in 1 Pet. 3. 7. the Apostle doth so earnestly press Husbands and Wives to exemplary walking that your Prayers saith he be not hindred Now there is nothing so much hindereth Prayer as giving way to your Lusts for by these you provoke God to stop his Ear and withdraw and stand at a distance from you and by these you irritate the Rebellion of your own Hearts against God and cause it to stand at a greater distance from God as Adam when he yielded to eat of the forbidden Fruit he grew shy of God Woful experience evinceth this when Persons have given way to Pride or Passion or Lust or sinful Pleasures in the day they can't tell how to go and pray to God at night or look him in the Face with any comfort or confidence when Conscience upbraideth dost thou pray O vile Hypocrite hast thou been kindling the Fire of his Wrath all day and dost thou think to obtain his favour all of a sudden When thou hast been grieving his Spirit and tearing open the wounds of the blessed Jesus by thy wilful sinning against Light and Convictions how canst thou expect the Comforter should come to thee If a man were to plead for his Life at the Bar would he be so mad as to distemper himself with strong Drink before hand this were the ready way to lose him his Life and so it is the ready way to lose your Conversion wherein stands the Life of your Souls if you intoxicate them with the stupefying Vapours that arise from your fulfilled Lusts It was holy Mr. Dod's saying That either Praying would make us leave off Sinning or Sinning would make us leave off Praying And then pray observe your Lusts tend to the manifest withering cripling your Souls in the performance of this duty It cuts and clips the Soul's wings in Prayer and then down you fall and sink as a dead thing in Prayer O therefore flee youthful Lust or they will render Prayer no more than a dead empty Formality and how waste and desolate a thing is that it will be like some Disease in the Body that converts all the Food that should nourish Nature to the feeding themselves and so macerate and miserably consume the Body or like some Thief or Thieves in a House the Master's Goods and Stock continually waste and consume and no wonder the Viper is in their own Bosoms Thus young men your Lusts will bring leanness into your Souls in Prayer O young man dost thou find the Lord gone in Prayer no discoveries of himself but a great estrangedness wouldst thou know the cause read that in Ezek. 14. 5. They were estranged through their Lusts Be assured of this there is a Heart-league and some youthful Lust or other which lays an embargo upon the Soul and arrests the profit of all thy Prayers Suppose a man did know and see his own Wife loving and cleaving to some other man would not this spoil the comfort of their communion as we that are reasonable Creatures don't love to be among unreasonable Brutes in the Wilderness or the Living to be among the Tombs and the Dead So a holy God regards not the Prayers will not be enquired of nor spoke with by those who regard their Lusts in their Hearts Isa 58. 1 2 3 4. Why have we fasted and thou regardest not You took pleasure saith the Lord and brake not the Bonds of Wickedness So some complain Alas we have prayed for Pardon and Peace and the Manifestations of God's Love but have received no answer find no return now whence is this Oh young man sure there is some betwitching Lust or other sucks thee As if I saw a Plant or Tree that is daily watered and has no want of outward means of flourishing and bearing Fruit yet withereth and dyeth away be sure there is some Worm in the Root corroding it I have heard of late many young People pouring out their Complaints after this manner Alas I have been seeking and knocking at the door of Ordinances Prayer Word Sacrament c. but have not find not feel not supplies come in I am like those that had been toiling all Night and catch nothing Oh never was my Heart so dead in Duty saith one so straitned and shut up saith another And hence some cry out To what purpose should we wait any longer What profit is there in Praying to the Almighty What sweetness in Ordinances What is Christ more than another Now I pray whence is this What is Christ a barren Wilderness a Land of Darkness a broken Cistern a Field without a Treasure a Well without Water a Cloud without Rain What is the Lord unwilling to hear and pitty a poor distressed Sinner that comes and makes its moan to him And is it in vain to seek him Oh no! Christ is precious God is gracious the hearer of Prayers the rewarder of such as diligently seek him But here is the true cause of all a man comes to God with his Idol in his Heart and then God will not speak with him can you ever imagin that so pure Majesty should match with your Lusts no no for then should the Father of Light have communion with the darkest Darkness sooner will he leave thee while tho● livest to be a Shrub or Heath in the Dese●● that sees not when Good cometh and to b● a magor Missabib when thou diest than eve● let thee in to acquaintance with himself ti●● the league and power of thy youthful Lus● be broke Can two walk together that an● not agreed No man can serve two Masters but either he will love the one and hate th● other c. Matth. 6. 24. O be not deceive● God is not mocked if you regard Iniqui●y in your hearts God won't hear you● Prayer Possibly thou art pinch'd throug● the power of a natural Conscience flying thy face telling thee that such Lusts will sit thee at last and this sends thee to th● Knees and then thou criest Lord Lor● there be these and these youthful Lusts of min● that wring my Conscience that I can have ●● quiet O ease me of them And thus tho● seekest out to pacifie and stop the Mouth ●● Conscience and that 's all never comest up to practise this Rule to flee these Lusts but ever likest lovest and livest them never sell all part with all and so ru● divorced from them all to Christ taking his blessed Yoke upon thee saying He an● he alone shall rule and reign in them and over them Oh that such would ponder that Text James 1. 7 8. Let not a double-minded man think to receive any thing at the hands of the Lord and that other place in 1. Isaiah 10 to 14. I am weary saith the Lord there of your New-Moons and your very Assembling is provoking to me while your Hands and Hearts are unclean and full of sin wash ye make ye clean

to it 2. As they directly oppose the means of it 1. As they wofully indispose the Soul to it this will appear beyond the least doubt if you seriously consider what a polluting a pernicious influence youthful Lusts have upon all the faculties of the Soul These Lusts they diffuse a blindness upon the Mind they benum the Conscience increase the natural rebellion of the Will exceedingly harden the Heart and miserably enthral and deprave the Affections and so they wofully indispose the Soul to conversion 1st They diffuse a blindness on the Mind that noble faculty the thinking discerning and reasoning Power of the Soul which some call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the leading and directing Faculty which is to the Soul what Eyes are to the Body therefore called 1. Ephes 18. the Eyes of the Vnderstanding these Eyes youthful Lusts blind so that they cannot see afar off to the end of a sinful Life how bitter and evil a thing Sin will prove at last when God will bring the young man to Judgment for all his youthful Lusts hence they fearlesly chose a course of Vanity and Sensuality in serving divers Lusts and Pleasures Being blinded through their Lusts they discern not the absolute necessity of a Saviour they see no beauty in him that he should be desired and what more effectual bar can there be to their Conversion Alas while the mind is blinded tho' a poor Sinner hangs over Hell every moment under a just sentence of Condemnation at the very door of Eternity yet all 's at peace the Soul lieth in a deep and deadly Sleep though a Minister come and weep over him use the most rouzing Arguments with him all 's one no● a whit moved or stirred though you spea● never so much Reason or Scripture ●● Soul thou hast an unholy Nature to be renewed an offended God to be reconciled to thou hast innumerable Sins and not one o● them pardoned thou hast Death and Judgment to make ready for thou hast but a fe● more days on Earth yet while the mind ●● blinded they make light of all a merry ta●● will more affect them Romances Play● and Comedies such Bubbles and emp●● Vanity are much more pleasing than th● most powerful Heavenly Sermon No● whence is this but from the blindness young mens Minds and whence is th●● blindness but from their youthful Lust a● you may read in that apposite Scriptur● Ezek. 14. and 5. They are all estranged fro● me through their Lusts Lust in David blo●ted out the impression and remembrance of the Evil and danger of sinning against God hence when he was recovered by effectual Grace see how he rates himself in Psal 73. 22. So foolish and ignorant was I even as a Beast before thee Lust in toxicates the Mind and then like a Drunkard that through the vapours that fume up into his Head sleepeth and forgetteth all his dangers his debts So it is here and O how impossible is thy Conversion while thy Mind is thus darkened the Mind that is the Watch-man of thy Soul to keep off Sin and danger and if the watch-man be blind how small hope of Conversion By this you see how youthful Lusts indispose the Soul to Conversion as they blind the mind 2dly They indispose the Soul for conversion as they stupifie Conscience that Spy in our Bosom that Vice-gerent of the supream Judge whose office is various 1. to record and register all we do 2. To bear witness and give in evidence 3. As a Judge to pass sentence Conscience sits on the Throne as God's Deputy in the Soul to award out Life or Death 4. To be a Tormentor a never-dying Worm it is to the damned ●n Hell and an insupportable burden to ●ome on Earth creating such internal Anxi●ties and Tortures that all the Arts Wits Pleasure and Diversions in the world can●ot root out as in Belshazzar Cain Judas Tiberius Nero Caligula c. of these divers offices and acts of Conscience you read in Rom. 2. 15. 1 John 3. 20 21. Prov. 18. 14. And that in order to Conversion it is necessary that this busie Faculty in man be awakened will appear if you consider that 8 of Jer. 6. God hearkened and heard and no man repented him saying What have I done but every one turned to his course as the Horse rusheth into the Battel There you have God's inquisition and search to find ou● whether that People repented or no ● hearkened and heard saith God Then yo● have God's evidence brought in no ma● repented or converted and then you hav● the Cause laid down of their not repenting No man said What have I done q. d. Ha● Conscience been awakened to have don● its office to have div'd into all their Villanies had that domestick Spie in the Bosom brought in a true account concerning wha● they had done they would certainly hav● repented e'er this Alas the subtile Hea● of a Sinner will endure and bear all th● historical notions of the evil of Sin of th●●erribleness of Hell as one in Health can be●● the names and notions of Plague Ston● Colick and the most tormenting disease and all but as Powder shot and scare-Crow● untill Conscience like Peter 2. Acts 36 3● closeth particularly with Sinners thus Ye a● they that with wicked Hands crucified 〈◊〉 Lord of Glory and then they were pricked to the Heart and as Nathan closed with David 2. Sam. 12. 7. He draws his Parable out of the Clouds and enters him with this arrest Thou art the man then he presently cries out I have sinned O believe it Sirs when once Conscience meets with a desperate Sinner that hath been ruffling it in all manner of Riot for a time drenching himself in sensual pleasures and Conscience in the name of the great God arrests him with an O wretch what hast thou done thus and thus to provoke the Great the Holy the Righteous sin-revenging God I have been privy to all thy secret as well as open Wickedness and I have sad News to tell thee that the Wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against thee c. Thus when Conscience finds out a Sinner and spits as it were Hell-Fire in his Face believe me it will eftsoon put the Soul upon the Rack and cause it to break forth with an O Wo is me the Sins which I now see are bitter as Death the Wrath that I begin to feel at present and that to come that I fear makes a kind of Tophet within me O if I should dye in this case what would become of me Lord is there no mercy What shall I do to be saved Thus Conscience in its efficacious working is necessary to Humiliation which is one great part of Conversion and then for hope of mercy and pardon and a fixed resolution to forsake all known Sin and teturning home to God which makes up and compleats a Sinners conversion you may easily discern from what I have said as to the first part of Conversion the