or Alehouse as a Bird to the snare of the Fowler and sweetly and greedily swallowing the poisonous Cup which God forbiddeth And that false Repentance which Conscience and Experience force them to sometimes is forgotten the next day when the temptation is renewed Yea the Throat-madness and the merry and Belly-Devils are within them a continual temptation which the miserable slaves cannot resist 3. And these beastly fleshly sins do usually make them weary of their callings and of any honest labour The Devil hath by this time got possession of their thoughts by the byass of Delight and sinful Lust and they are thinking of Meat or Drink or Play or merry Company when they should be diligently at work And so Idleness becomes the nursery of Temptation and of all their other vice as well as a constant sin of Omission and loss of hasty precious time And custom increaseth the habits and maketh them good for nothing and like dead men to all that life is given them for and only alive to prepare by sin for endless misery 4. And usually Pride also takes its part to make the sin of Sodom in them compleat Ezek. 16.49 Pride Fulness and Idleness They that must be in their jovial Company must not seem despicable among them but must be in the mode and fashion what ever it cost When they make themselves odious in the sight of God and the pitty of all wise men and a terror to themselves yet they must be some body to their sottish Companions especially of the Female Sex Lest the Image of the Devil and his victory over them should not be perfect if Pride were left out how unreasonable soever 5. And by this time they have usually here amongst the rich and idle a further step towards Hell to go and yet a deep Gulf to fall into Fleshly Lust next entangleth them in immodest Converse with Women and thence into filthy Fornication The Devil will seldom lose a Soul for want of a temptation Either he will provide them one abroad among their lewd Companions or at home some Daughter or servant of the House where they can oft get opportunity first for uncivil sights and touches and then for actual Fornication And if they have done it once they are usually like the Bird that 's fast in the Lime-twigs Conscience may struggle but Lust holds them fast and the Devil saith If once may be pardoned why not twice and if twice why not thrice and so they go on as an Ox to the Slaughter and a fool to the correction of the Stocks and know not that it is for their lives Prov. 7.21 22 23. Till they mourn at last perhaps when Flesh and Body are consumed and say How have I hated Instruction and my heart despised reproof and have not obeyed the voice of my Teachers nor inclined my Ears to them that instructed me I was almost in all evil c. Pro. 5.12 13 14. And it 's well for the wretches if this Repentance be true and in time that though the Flesh be destroyed the Spirit may be saved For Solomon saith Prov. 2.18 19. Her house enclineth to death and her paths to the dead None that go unto her return again neither take they hold of the paths of Life God I doubt not recovereth some but the case is dangerous For though Age and Sickness cure Lust usually before that the Conscience is seared and debauched and they being past feeling work Vncleanness with greediness and forsaking God are so forsaken by him that all other Sin Sensuality and Enmity against a holy life prevaileth against them and the unclean Devil lets in many more Most debauched Drunkards Gluttons and Fornicators are so enslaved to Satan that they think say and do what he would have them and become the Enemies and Persecutors of those that are against their sin and the blinded Sodomites go on to grope for the door of Lot as one that reproveth them till the Flames of Justice stop the rage 6. And when all these sins have enslaved sensual Youths they must have Money to maintain them and if they have it not of their own and be not the Sons of great men that will maintain them in the service of the Flesh they must steal to get it which usually is either by thievish borrowing when they cannot pay or by robbing their Parents or Masters If all the Masters in London knew what Thieves their Apprentices vices are for their own sakes they would take greater care to watch over them and keep them from ill company Drunkenness and Plays and would teach them to seek pleasure in good Books good Company and serving God I had not known it my self if the Confessions and Restitution of many penitent Converts had not made me know it I thank God that he recovereth any yea so many but I must tell foolish Youth that Repentance itself especially when it must have Restitution is so bitter that they would prevent that need of it if they had but the use of reason and foresight O what heart-tearing Confessions and sad Letters have I had from many young Apprentices in this City Much adoe to escape utter despair they had when Conscience was awakened to remember all their sin and danger And when they knew that they must restore if possible all that ever they deceived or robbed their Masters or any others of O what difficulties hath it put them to both as to the shame of Confession and the actual Restitution Some have not Money and to go and confess the sin and debt and promise to pay it if ever they are able seemeth hard but must be done Some have rough Masters that will disgrace them when they confess it Some have Parents that paid dear to set them Apprentices and would go near to cast them off if they knew their case Some marry after and it will grieve their Wives to know what they have been and how much they must restore Wisdom might have prevented this but if the Thorn be got into the Conscience it must come out and if the poison be swallowed it must come up what gripes soever the Vomit cost There is no playing with Hell fire nor jeasting with the Justice of the most Holy God One penitent review of fleshly Lust and sinful pleasure and falshood and deceit though wholsom if true and rimely will turn it all into Gall and Wormwood For the end of sinful mirth is sorrow 7. And too many there be that escape the gross and disgraceful part of the foresaid sensuality and unrighteousness that yet do but choose another Idol and set themselves wholly to rise in the World and Riches Preferment and Honour have almost all their hearts and care That have no delight in God and holiness nor doth the state of their Souls or the thought of their everlasting state affect them in any measure according to its unspeakable weight nor so much as these shadows which they pursue And when great
Compassionate COUNSEL TO ALL Young-Men Especially I. LONDON-Apprentices II. Students of Divinity Physick and Law III. The Sons of Magistrates and Rich Men. By RICHARD BAXTER LONDON Printed by T. S. and are to be Sold by B. Simmons and Ionath Greenwood at the Three Golden Cocks at the West End of St. Pauls and at the Crown in the Poultry 1681. The CONTENTS Chap. 1. Prefatory Ch. 2. Of what grand Importance the Case of Youth is to themselves that betimes they live to God Ch. 3. Of what publick Concernment the quality of Youth is Ch. 4. How the Case standeth with our Youth in matter of Fact Ch. 5. How sad the Case of many of them is Ch. 6. The joyful State and Blessing of good Children to themselves and others Ch. 7. Vndeniable Reasons for the speedy Repentance of those that have miscarried By way of Exhortation Ch. 8. Directions to them that are willing to amend Ch. 9. Special Counsel to the Candidates for the Ministry Ch. 10. Short Counsel to young Students in Physick Ch. 11. Short Counsel to young Men in the Inns of Court that study the Law Ch. 12. Short Counsel to the Sons of Nobles and Magistrates Ch. 13. Some Memorials to Parents Ch. 14. A short Word to Church Ministers for Youth To the YOUTH of London and the rest of England Richard Baxter's Last and Compassionate Warning and Advice CHAP. I. THere is no man that ever understood the Interest of Mankind of Families Cities Kingdoms Churches and of Jesus Christ the King and Saviour but he must needs know that the right Instruction Education and Sanctification of Youth is of unspeakable consequence to them all In the place where God most blest my labours at Kidderminster in Worcester-shire my first and greatest success was upon the Youth And which was a marvellous way of Divine Mercy when God had toucht the hearts of young Men and Girles with a love of goodness and delightful obedience to the truth the Parents and Grandfathers who had grown old in an ignorant worldly State did many of them fall into liking and love of Piety induced by the love of their Children whom they perceived to be made by it much wiser and better and more dutiful to them And God by his unexpected disposing Providence having now twenty years placed me in and near London where in variety of places and conditions sometimes under restraint by men and sometimes at more liberty I have Preached but as to Strangers in other mens Pulpits as I could and not to any special flock of mine I have been less Capable of judging of my success But by much experience have been made more sensible of the Necessity of warning and instructing youth than I was before The sad reports of fame have taught it me The sad Complaints of mournful Parents have taught it me The sad observation of the wilful impenitence of some of my acquaintances tells it me The many score if not hundred bills that have been publickly put up to me to pray for wicked and obstinate Children have told it me And by the grace of God the penitent Confessions Lamentations and restitutions of many Converts have more particularly acquainted me with their Case Which moved me on my Thursdays Lecture a while to design the first of every month to speak to youth and those that educate them And though I have already loaded the world with books finding that God seems to be about ending my life and labours I am urged in my mind by the greatness of the case to add yet this Epistle to the younger sort Which shall contain I. The great importance of the Case of youth II. How it stands with them in matter of fact III. What are the Causes of their sin and dangerous degeneracy IV. How great a blessing wise and godly youth are to themselves and others V. How great a plague and calamity the ungodly are VI. What great reason ungodly sensual youth have presently to Repent and Turn to God VII Directions to them how to do it VIII And some Directions to Parents about their Education And all must be with the Brevity of an Epistle CHAP. II. To begin betimes to live to God is of unspeakable importance to your selves FOR 1. You were betimes solemnly Dedicated to God as your God your Father your Saviour and your Sanctifier by your Baptismal Vow And as that was a great Mercy it obliged you to great Duty You were capable in Infancy of that holy Dedication and Relation and your Parents were presently obliged as to Dedicate you to God so to Educate you for God And as soon as you are capable of performance the Vow is upon your selves to do it If your Childhood is not presently obliged to Holiness according to your natural capacity no doubt your Vow and Baptism should have been also delayed Little think many that talk against Anabaptists how they condemn themselves by the Sacred Name of Christians while they by perfidious Sacriledge deny God that which they Vowed to him 2. All your time and life is given you by God for one End and Use and all is little enough and will you alienate the very beginning and be Rebels so soon 3. The youngest have not assurance of Life for a day or an hour Thousands go out of the World in youth Alas the Flesh of young men is corruptible liable to hundreds of Diseases as well as the old How quickly may a vein break and cold seize on your head and lungs and turn to an uncurable Consumption How quickly may a Fever a Pleurisie an Impostume or one of a thousand Accidents turn your Bodies to corruption And O that I knew how to make you sensible how dreadful a thing it is to die in an unholy state and in the guilt of any unpardoned sin An unsanctified Soul that hath lived here but to the flesh and the world will be but fewel for the fire of Hell and the wrathful Justice of the most holy God And though in the course of undisturb'd Nature young men may live longer than the old yet Nature hath so many disturbances and crosses that our lives are still like a Candle in a broken Lanthorn which a blast of wind may soon blow out To tell you that you are not certain in an unsanctified state to be one day or hour more out of Hell I expect will not move you so much as the weight of the Case deserveth because meer possibility of the greatest hurt doth not affect men when they think there is no probability of it You have long been well and long you hope to be so But did you think how many hundred Veins Arteries Nerves must be kept constantly in order and all the blood and humours in due temper and how the stopping of one vein or distemper of the blood may quickly end you it would rather teach you to admire the merciful providence of God that such a body should be kept alive one year 4. But were
Travellers that have seen much of the world and old men and dying men that have had all that it can do are forced by experience to call all Vanity and Vexation unexperienced Youth that are taken up with the hopes of long prosperity and provision for all that the Flesh desireth have other thoughts of it and will not know that it is deceitful Vanity till it hath deceived them of their chiefest Hope and Treasure And when they have overtaken the Shadow which they pursue so greedily they find it what others have done before them the sweeter the more dangerous and the parting will be the more bitter Whereas had they sought first Gods Kingdom and its Righteousness and six days laboured in obedience to God and referred all corporal Blessings to spiritual uses and everlasting ends taking them as from God to serve him by them they might have had enough as an overplus to their satisfying Treasure CHAP. V. How sad a Case it is that I have described I Have told you the very lamentable case of too many young men especially rich mens Sons and Apprentices in this City I told you before of what concern the state of Youth is to themselves and others From thence and alas from sad experience it 's easy to gather the dolefulness of the case of those that are drowned in fleshly Lust and have sinned themselves into the guilt and danger which I have described But I will name some parts of the misery more particularly again § 1. Review the second Chapter and think what a doleful case this is to your selves 1. Do you not know that you are not Beasts but Men that have reason given them to know and love and serve their Maker And how sad is it to see a man forget all this and wilfully brutify himself Were the Poets fictions true of men turned into Trees and Birds and Beasts how small were the misery in comparison of yours It is no sin in Bruits to lust or to eat and drink too much They have not reason to restrain and rule them but lest they should kill themselves by excess God hath made reasonable man their Governor and moderateth their Appetite in the temper of their natures But for a reasonable Creature to subject himself to fleshly Appetite and wilfully degrade his Soul to the rank of Bruits is worse than if he had been made with the Body and the unreasonableness of Bruits Are you capable of no better things than these § 2. And what an odious thing is it when God hath chosen you out of the World to be members of his visible Church and given you the great priviledge of early Entrance into his holy Covenant and washt you in the laver of visible Regeneration and you are vowed to Christ renouncing the Lusts of the Flesh the World and the Devil that you might follow a Crucified Christ in the way of holiness to everlasting Life that you should so soon prove false perfidious Traitors and Rebels against him that is your only hope and by wickedness and Covenant breaking make your sin greater than that of Infidels Turks and Heathens that never were taken into the Church and Covenant of Christ nor ever broke the Vows which you have broken nor so cast away the mercys which you had received § 3. And what a doleful case is it that so much of your Minds and Love and Delight which were all made for God should be so misimployed even in your strength when they should be most vigorous and all worse than cast away on filth and folly If your Souls be more worth than your Money it is more folly and loss to misimploy and abuse your Souls your Reason Love and your Delight than to abuse or cast away your Money And what a Traitor or Murderer deserveth that would give his Money to hire one to kill the King or his Neighbour I suppose you know and what deserveth he that will use not only his mony but himself his soul his thoughts his love his desire and pleasure against the most glorious God that made him That you cannot hurt him is no thanks to you while you break his Laws and deny him your Love and Duty and love more that one thing which only he hateth and will never be reconciled to § 4. And how doleful a case is it that all the Care and Love and Labour of your Parents Masters and Teachers should be lost upon you God hath made all this their great Duty for your good and will you despise God and them and wilfully for nothing reject it all Shall all the pain of a Child-bearing Mother and all her trouble and labour to breed you up and all your Parents care to provide for you be but to breed up a slave for the Flesh the World and the Devil and a firebrand for Hell Shall godly Parents Prayers for you and Teaching and Counsel of you and all their desire and care for your Salvation be despised by you and all forgotten and cast away for a swinish Lust § 5. And how doleful a case is it that so much of so short a Life should be lost and a thousand times worse than lost even turned into sin to prepare for misery when alas the longest Life is little enough for our important work and quickly gone and the Reckoning and Judge are hard at hand All the Wealth Wit or Power in the World cannot bring or buy you back one hour of all that precious time which you now so basely cast away O how glad would you be of a little of it ere long on the tearms that now you have it when you lie dying and perceive that your souls are unready to appear before a righteous God! Then O for one year more of precious time O that you knew how to call again the time which you cast away on sin You will then perceive with a terrified Conscience that time was not so little worth as you once thought it nor given you for so base a work yea if God in mercy bring you hereafter to true Conversion O how it will wound your hearts to think how much of your Youth was so madly cast away while your God your Souls and everlasting hopes were all neglected and despised § 6. And alas if you should be cut off in that unholy miserable Estate no heart on earth can sufficiently bewail your case How many thousand die young that promised themselves longer pleasure in sin and Repentance after it O foolish sinners Cannot you so long borrow the use of your reason as to think seriously whither you must go next Do you never think when the small Pox or a Feaver hath taken away one of your Companions whither it is that his Soul is gone Have you your Wit for nothing but to taste the sweetness of Drink or Lust which is as pleasant to a Dog or Swine as to you O little you know what it is to die what it is for a Soul to leave