Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A60132
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An exhortation to youth to prepare for judgment A sermon occasion'd by the late repentance and funeral of a young man. Deceased September 29. 1681.
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Shower, John, 1657-1715.
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1681
(1681)
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Wing S3664; ESTC R214018
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26,182
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49
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what frequent vexations do you meet with from the disappointment of your hopes finding sorrow where you look'd for joy an offensive stench instead of a perfume and a noisom weed in the room of a flower Still something more and further is thought necessary to your contentment and satisfaction and joy than what you possess already either the presence of somewhat which you cannot obtain or the absence of somewhat which you cannot get rid of or the continuance of somewhat which is not in your power to keep or such a change and variety as you cannot accomplish And must this be concluded the only merry and joyful life Moreover Let a man but ask you on the morrow what is become of the pleasure of the last nights debauch when there remains nothing but a sting in the Conscience Where then I pray is your mirth and joy For when once the heat of your Wine and Lust is over and you dare take the liberty of sober thoughts a guilty Conscience will then tell you your own and you shall hardly be able to stop its mouth And tho' in part you may have wash'd away the sense of former drunkenness by more Wine or think to drown the voice of your bosome enemy the accuser within by running into jovial Company and an excess of riot yet some smart affliction or some sharp reproof or some serious Sermon may set your sins in order again and make your wounds to bleed afresh And then Conscience notwithstanding your endeavours to stop its mouth and smother its accusations will not fail to lash the Drunkard and stone the Adulterer and make the Lips of an Harlot bite like a Cocatrice You shall hear its voice and understand its errand and feel a mortal qualm upon your spirits from such convictions as you cannot easily stifle But if this be not the case of all because some are given up to a Reprobate sense yet how often on asick-bed doth the agitation of their own disturbed thoughts set all in a flame within When the remembrance of their drunken excesses gives them Vinegar and Gall to drink and makes them once more sick from that terrible thought that for ought they know the next draught may be of the Cup of God's Eternal Wrath in the Lake of Hell When the remembrance of their lustful heats gives them the sad prospect and preludtum of unquenchable Fire into which they are sinking When the eccho of their Oaths and blasphemies which stuck thro' the Name of God shall peirce their Souls with an intolerable remorse When a sad reflection on their past prophaness in scoffing at what is Serious and Holy in ridiculing Religion and making a mock of Sin shall put them into a fit of trembling from the unavoidable fears of a Judgment to come Now if this be the ordinary state of their case as most certain it is well might the wise man expose their mirth to scorn and by an Ironie give them leave to rejoyce 2. That the Joy of a Righteous Holy Person in the fear of God and the keeping his Commandments is the only true and proper Joy And the Life of an upright Christian the only chearful and merry Life Whereas some men have inferr'd that because there is a Woe pronounc'd in Scripture to those that laugh Luk. 6.25 Matt. 4.5 and a blessedness to those that mourn and weep that it is therefore necessary if we will be serious Christians that we must be sad and unsociable melancholy and dejected and lead a life of continual complaints and sorrows They might as well conclude a necessity of turning Monks or Beggars because the Scripture saith that it is easier for a Camel to pass through the eye of a needle Matt. 16.24 than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven For as to that part of a Christians Life which consists in the contemplation of spiritual things the infinite excellency and novelty of the objects must render it pleasant And as to that which consists in practice it must needs be more so from the encouraging Testimony of a good Conscience and the Joy of the Holy Ghost unspeakably more delightful and satisfactory than the most ravishing pleasures the Epicure can boast of The best of his being short and transient and mixt with some uneasiness and trouble But the delights of an Holy Soul are pure and substantial durable and lasting rising higher and increasing more by the very injoyment not easily interrupted by a change of outward Circumstances and Conditions in the World nor broken on a sudden by little accidents that befal us unawares which is not to be deny'd in reference to sensual Joy Sirs who is it that either is or can be Joyful that actually is so or hath reason to be so If not the upright obedient Christian Is not the continual presence of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and the constant Ministry and Attendance of his blessed Angels a ground of Joy He may then rejoyce Is not peace with God and peace with Conscience and peace with the whole Creation Is not Redemption from the bondage of Sin from the slavery of the Devil from the sting of Death and the curse of the Law and Gods Eternal Wrath enough to make him chearful He may then rejoyce If the favour of God and the acceptance of their persons and services with him be sufficient reason to disswade from sadness Ecol 9.7 they may then eat their Breadwith Joy and drink their Wine with a merry heart for God accepteth both them and their work If freedom of access to the Throne of Grace if a promise of being granted in what so e're they ask if the highest assurance from a God that cannot lye that all things shall work for good If to dwell in his house and sit at his Table and be related to him as a Father if to hear his Word and sing his Praise and receive the Communications of his Grace the pledges of his Covenant Love and the comfortable foretasts of Everlasting Joy be enough to make them Chearful They and they only right have to be so And that in Every Condition Are they reproacht and slander'd they may yet be chearful because God will bring forth their Righteousness as the Light Psal 27.6 and clear their Integrity as the noon-day Are they afflicted by poverty or sickness or disapointments in their designs and hopes they may yet be chearful and thank God for all the advantage and benefit of his wise dispensations of providence Are they Tempted by the Devil they may yet be Chearful Rom. 16.20 1 Cor. 10.13 because God will shortly tread Satan under their feet and not permit them to be tempted above what their able Do they suffer for Righteousness sake they may yet be Chearful yea rejoyce and be exceeding glad Jam. 1.2 and count it all Joy to receive such an honour For there are promises perticularly referring to such a state sufficient to
can you think when you are capable your interest by your Parents can avail you any thing against your own personal rejection of God No not tho' Abraham were your Father if you should finally shew your selves rather a generation of Vipers Which we have great hope God will mercifully forbid But if Englands Youth should generally tho' not all at once as they come not to be such all at once against their Baptismal Vow cast off God here is an intercision of the line and an end of the relation between God and us If therefore you love your Country you will love God and study to please and serve him with your whole heart If you love your Prince you will do so for would you have him to be yea would you make him the Head of a destitute People forsaken of God And how would you propose to your selves to live your days and spend your time in the World without God What in eating and drinking and pleasing your Flesh till you dye would you not take it for a scorn and ignominy to you if one should tell you you were born for no higher purposes and are capable of no higher But how dare you think without knowing and becoming specially related to the God of your lives of dying and passing into an unknown World Peruse seriously the ensuing discourse that we longer detain you from it 〈◊〉 if it signifies any thing to your better preparation for Death and Judgment and in Order thereto to your holy and more useful comfortable life on Earth It will answer the Authors Design and with his the desires and prayers of Your Affectionate Friends and Servants in our Lord. JOHN HOW V. ALSOP ERRATA PAge 6. l. 2. r. grateful p. 11. l. 9. r. have right p. 12. l. 29. dele did l. last r. of a p. 17. l. 15. l. differences p. 19. l. 23. ad ye p. 21. l. 16. r. younger years p. 24. l. 29. add to p. 31. l. 2. dele and p. 3. l. 7. r. exquisite p. 32. l. 5. r. montentany A Funeral-Sermon Ecelesiastes XI 9. Rejoyce o young man in thy youth and let thy heart chear thee in the days of thy youth and walk in the ways of thy heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment NOtwithstanding our manifold advantages for serious Religion in our younger years and the contrary inconvensences of deferring it to old Age or an indefinite hereafter our frequent warnings by the death of others to provide for our own and the unspeakable hazard of a sick-bed Repentance yet how apt are most persons in their youth and strength to forget their Creator and themselves too to indulge to carnal mirth and sensual delights as supposing by a fatal prejudice and mistake That obedience to God would introduce melancholly destroy the chearfulness of conversation and spoil the sweetness of human life and thereupon refuse to bestow a serious thought about Religion and another World till God by sickness or an hasty death summon them to appear before his Bar Upon which account it cannot be thought unnecessary or unseasonable upon all occasions to mind young persons of their sin and duty their snares and dangers their latter end and final judgment What at this time directed my thoughts to such a subject is not unknown to divers present viz. The death-bed Repentance of a young man lately deceased who for some time past attended this Lecture I hope at length with some seriousness and profit tho' at first he came only with a design to carp and sooff as with great remorse he told me in his last sickness And therefore if there be any now come hither upon the same errand and with the same thoughts I pray God command their attention for otherwise it would be in vain for me to beg it and accompany his own Word with a powerful efficacy to their hearts to convince their judgments and perswade their wills and awaken their Souls that they may go away with other apprehensions and resolutions than they came hither as this deceased Penitent once did whose Repentance and Funeral calls loudly to us all to consider this Apostrophe of the Wise man in the Text Rejoyce o young man in thy youth and let thy heant chear thee in the days of thy youth and walk in the ways of thy heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee to judgment For the coherence of these words with the preceeding Verses we need only observe that Solomon in the former Chapters having given many excellent rules for the quieting of our minds and the comfort of our lives under all that vanity which he pronounc'd upon this World he comes in this Chapter to exhort us to prepare for another For when all is done that can possibly be effected in order to a contented and a happy life yet he tells us that our life it self is vain and transient our death inevitable and that the days of darkness will be many vers 8. and then confutes that unreasonable inference which the young Epicure is too prone to make from such premises deriding his foolish pretence and plea by an Ironie and yet endeavouring to awaken his Conscience by declaring the certainty of an after-reckoning and by a solemn citation of him before Gods Tribunal For to this purpose we may suppose the young sensualist to retort the Argument Are all things vain Is life uncertain and death and darkness near let me then enjoy the light as long as I can let me indulge my appetite and please my sences and gratify my lusts and make the best improvement of this vain this short uncertain life Have I but a a little time in which to enjoy this world Let me not make it shorter by a Stoical reservedness lot me not lose this day least I never have another but eat and drink for to morrow I may dye To which suppos'd Objection the Wise man answers in the Words I have read Rejoyce o young man in thy youth and let thy heart chear thee in the days of thy youth q. d. Let it do thee good and bring thee joy be as merry as thou canst and take all the satisfaction thy lusts can procure if thou think it best and most adviseable to do so Walk in the ways of thy heart and in the sight of thine eyes q.d. Being resolved upon a short life and a merry baulk nothing which thy lust doth flictate deny thy self no thing thy foolish heart can wish or thy senfual appetite may crave But know for certain a day of reckoning is at hand when God will call thee to an account for thy sensual lusts and youthful follies However now thou maist stifle the convictions of thy Conscience by repeated debauches and lewd company however now thou maist make a shift to drown the sentiments of a reasonable Soul by the noise of riot