distance which we never saw We are Citizens here only by the Grant of our Creator and while we flatter our selves as if the Priviledges and Immunities of this bodily State were long-liv'd he may take away our Charter We are Pilgrims wandring to and fro but with his Pass and he alone knows how long it shall bear its Date It is time for us all now to remember God for in the midst of all the Pleasures and Delights of Life we are near to the Sorrows of the Grave Our Souls must go when he calls and how shall we be able to look him in the Face if we should be cited to his Bar while we remain in a careless delatory Posture Let none then say That on the Morrow or in the next Week or the next Year I will remember God for your Thoughts may perish and you may be dead before While you linger the Cloud that is but small at present may swell into a hugh bulk and dissolve in a mighty Storm while you are idle the Glass runs and ere long the Clock that warns you to arise betimes and mind your God and your Souls will strike its last and then the door will be shut We should spend our Youthful Days in a serious delightful Contemplation of the Deity in a vigorous quick March to the Land of Glory not knowing but in one minute in one hour more Death with his large train of Terrors may beat up our Quarters and vvhile vve suspect no ill carry us captive to the dark Prison of the Grave None of us have received a Protection to secure us from the Arrest and Violence of a sudden Death As the ten Virgins were called in their slumber Mat. 25.5 6. and at Midnight so God has neither promised nor is obliged to send us a Summons by a long tedious Sickness or by sharp Pains before we make our Appearance at his Tribunal where we shall by an irrevocable Sentence be adjudged to Bliss or Woe If we then hope for a place in Glory we must now remember God The Work if we expect Eternal Happiness must once be done why should it not then commence in our best time such is the time of Youth If we delay to another season are we sure that will come or that we shall not be called out of the Vineyard when we thought to have wrought out our Salvation with fear and trembling 'T is fit our Eyes should now be fixt on our Creator for we know not how soon these Windows will be shut in and a thick Night of Darkness come upon us When we think our Mountain setled on durable Foundations that will not be removed an Earthquake may come and throw it and us both out of our place We may be on the brink of Ruine when we think it is far off So has many a Ship sail'd with a prosperous and favourable Gale the Mariners rejoycing till it immediately split upon a Rock and was dash'd in pieces While we go fearless along our earthen Vessel may by some unexpected Accident fall and crack then all our hopes of long Life will be as Water spilt upon the Ground and not be fit for service any more Secondly We ought to remember our Creator now in the days of our Youth for when the evil days the days of old Age come it will be difficult if not impossible to perform well so great a Work By delaying we twist much harder the Cords of our Iniquity which now might be suapt asunder with an easy labour If we now surrender to the Devil and once give him Possession he will scarce be forc'd out again with all our after Pains Is it now so laborious an Enterprize to conquer Sin and will it not be much more so when it shall by our Neglect and Forgetfulness of God obtain fresh Auxiliaries and Supplies even from our own Garrisons and fight against us with greater Violence If one single Sin put a serious Christian when he is young and most fit to manage the spiritual Armour to so much Pain and Trouble to so many sad Hour's Tears and Prayers to how much greater Labor will they be expos'd that shall have as many Sins to combate with as the Hours the Days and the Weeks they have lived on Earth If we find it difficult to wrestle with these Enemies in their Infancy how do we think to gain the Victory when they are grown to a full Stature and a more formidable Power Have we not long enough already slighted the just and equitable Laws of God or shall we in despite of all his Warnings the Motions of his Holy Spirit and the Checks of our own Consciences still be rebellious and do the same They that begin soonest are but hardly saved and do we think to accomplish our Journey well though we set out for Heaven but in the Evening of the Day Do we think to be Candidates for Glory at last if till the Night come we spend our Strength in the way that leads to Ruine Is it not better to quench the Fire at the first than to stay till it grow to a mighty Flame and scorn all the Methods we can use to quench it Is it not better to seek an Antidote against that Poyson which we have imbibed because it was pleasant and gilded over than to stay till it seize our vital Parts and our Case will admit of no Remedy Is it prudent or safe not to endeavour to act our part well till we are just going off the Stage not to think of walking in the ways of God till we are taking our last Step and which will set us within the next World Do we expect to take our Voiage well in Winter when we have by our Carelessness let the Summer Season pass away Do we think when our Eyes are blind with Age that we cannot find our way from home without a Guide that we shall be able in the midst of Darkness to find our way to Glory Or that when our Hands will be seized with a trembling Palsy that we can lay hold on Eternal Life 1 Tim. 6.12 What Benefit shall we have by the Manna that comes down from Heaven if we cannot go out and gather it though it be scattered at the door of our Tent Do we think to call upon God well when we shall hardly have Strength enough left to tell our Friends that we are ill Eccles 12.2 or to fetch a Groan when the Clouds return after the Rain and when one Trouble is hardly gone till a worse come Can we draw Water out of the Wells of Salvation when the Silver Cord will be loosed Vers 6. and the Pitcher broken at the Fountain Do we think we shall be pleasing to God when we shall be tedious to others and weary of our selves and have no pleasure in the Years of our Life Or can we believe that when we have been all our days crippled with Sin he will for our Cure work
unhappy an Education I cannot but have charitable thoughts of him believing that if ever Death-bed Repentance be sincere it is in those that being Young are not so hardned in Sin nor have resisted so many motions of Gods Spirit nor rejected so many offers of Grace as Older Sinners have done However let not Young ones presame upon the account of this or any like Instance but Remember their Creator in the Days of their Youth and health considering their Lives are in Gods Hand who is a soveraign and may as well not give them Hearts to repent when Old as not give them Time to grow Old How many are Nipt in the Bud or Cut off in the Flower of their age when their Hearts are filled with Wordly lusts and their Minds lifted up with worldly Hopes And they Dream of nothing less than the End of their Days and an Eternal State Were there the Reason and Judgment of Elder Men in the Heads of the Younger it might be an easiertask to deal with them but Youth is a slippery Age full of Passion Rashness wilfulness and so apt to despise the Counsel of those that are more Grave and experienced and to think it proceeds not so much from the Love they have to Young Souls as the Envy they bear to their Youthful pleasures But what folly is this and how much to be lamented in them if we cannot reclaim them from it Can you Sirs Clip the Wings of Time that it may not fly from you or put off the approach of Eternity that it may not hasten upon you Can your Lusts and pleasures prevent your Death or prepare you for it think seriously of it and you will be of my Mind Why then are ye not up and doing as soon as you can Why do you not Work out your Salvation as Hard as you can all your Time and strength are little enough for such a Work Let every Example of Mortality in others and this in particular mind you of your own Live like those that know you must die and so as you will certainly wish you had lived when you come to die You are growing up to be the Successors of us that are Elder and to fill up our places in the World when we are gone out of it May you out-do us in all that is good and praise-worthy may your Zeal for God and Holiness shame the degeneracy and Coldness of present professors Religion loses ground in this age if you keep it not up in your selves it will be quite lost in the next And therefore I must again inculcate what is the scope of this discourse begin betimes and give God your strength and the Morning of your Day never think it too soon to turn to him nor too long to serve him you will not count an whole Eternity too much for your own Happiness do not count your whole Life too much for his service The Lord himself give you Counsell who is able by the Power of his Grace to make you willing to take it which is the unfeigned desire of him who is Your Souls Friend and Servant for Jesus Sake E. Veal A Funeral Sermon ECCLES 12.1 Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy Youth while the evil days come not nor the Years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them VVHEN we seriously consider the miserable and uncertain State of Men since the Fall of Adam how many wide Breaches the Transgression of our first Parents has made both for spiritual and eternal Dangers to enter in upon us and yet how secure and careless Men are of their Danger it ought to affect our Hearts with a great Tenderness and Pity but it ought much more to affect us if we consider that of all others Young Men are generally the most careless though they are besieged with more Enemies and liable to more Dangers yet for the most part they are employed in mean Affairs that have no Relation to their Happiness and are forgetful of their God and the deplorable Condition of their own Souls Secure they are though they have in their Bodies the Seeds of innumerable Distempers one whereof when it shall be conceived and brought forth will destroy its own Parent They remember not that the Clock that is now wound up and performs its regular and daily Motions and goes well must have all its Wheels broken or when the Maker pleases run down again Happy were the Persons that might put a stop to them in their mad Career or awaken them to serious Apprehensions of their real Interest before the hour of Darkness and the day of Death It hath pleased God in whose disposal are the Lives of Men by the taking away of one young Man lately from the World in his fresh and tender Age to give me this occasion at the desire of his Acquaintance to speak to others of the things that immediately concern their eternal State and how they should by his Example be taught in their early days to repent of Sin and to prepare for a better World I hope the same God will make this a merciful Season to us that are yet among the Living that we may by the memorial of the Deceased be in a continual preparation for that time when we shall hear his Call and leave the World And that we may be so let us attend to the grave Counsel of this Preacher the wisest of Men that after a long Experience of all that had but a shew of Pleasure or was accounted worthy to be loved by the Sons of Men reap'd nothing but Vexation and Bitterness and a sharp Remembrance and therefore concluded that it was most useful and expedient to guard the Mind against those Follies and betimes to remember God In the former Chapter having explained what were the Comforts and Happiness of Life Vers 7 that the Light was sweet and that it was a pleasant thing for the Eyes to behold the Sun i.e. to enjoy a prosperous unafflicted State and all that our Hearts can well desire Yet he tells us that though we live many Years Vers 8 and rejoyce in them all yet we ought to remember the Days of Darkness for they will be many After we have satisfied our Appetites with all that is delicious and grateful we must retire into the next World and dwell for a long time in the gloomy Chambers of the Grave Then he upbraids the Follies and Neglects of Young Men that are immers'd in sensual Delights not thinking of the Day of Judgment and that great Account that must be made hereafter at the Bar of God And the Preacher concludes his Sermon of the Unsatisfactoriness and Vanity of all sensual transitory Things with this serious Application Remember thy Creator now in the days of thy Youth c. In which Words we may observe 1. The Duty it self To remember God 2. The time when it is to be practised Now in the days of Youth 3. The reason of this
they are also forgetful of their God who it may be spend more time in reading of Plays and Romantick Histories and the Adventures of feigned Heroes than in reading of the Bible that would teach them to remember God and inspire them with none but lawful Passions such as have reigned in the Breasts of those worthies who have endured all imaginable Dangers with a valour more than human for the Love they bore to their Creator and who well deserve our Imitation Nor are they less unmindful of God who are much addicted to sinful Games and Sports where the Devil often is the greatest Gainer and at which they for a Trifle throw their Souls away and such also deserve no better Character that spend more time at their Glass than on their knees in Prayer That are more concerned if a Wig or a Crevat sit wrong than for all the interior Blemishes and Disorders of the Mind that are more observant of the Rules of Civility than of the Laws of God though both these might consit well enough together Such also cannot be supposed to be mindful of their Creator that use a greater Care to be affable and courteous in their Behaviour than to be holy in their Lives tho when duly limited an agreeable chearful Conversation and an upright Heart before God are things greatly necessary for the Comfort of Life and the Honour of Religion I delight not to insist upon the Miscarriages of Youth God knows they are too many nor will I enlarge upon the Crime of such that in their Health consult their Taylor more than their Divine and while they strive to cloath their less valuable part in a genteel splendid Habit have their poor unregarded Souls full of Ulcers and Putrefaction and void of Grace This too great Affection to the Body and the sensual Life darkens the Glory of the Mind and the intemperate luxurious Person to use the Comparison of Maximus Tyrius upon this Subject Dissert xxviii Is troubled with a Vertigo in his Head and like one that has drunk too much Wine he is not far from Madness but that now and then he recollects himself and uses a little Reason but by and by that Light is quench'd and he reels to and fro again as one left in the Dark and in a strange Place Thus he is lost as to all wise and sober Considerations and 't is no wonder if he who has forgot himself forget his God or that he who is not Master of his own Thonghts have not the sense of his Creator there When the Manhood is drowned 't is no wonder that we see not the Religion floating on the Water With these sensual Delights are Young Men too often charmed asleep And then like Persons in a Dream they cannot govern their own Spirits which will often be possest with the meanest inconsiderable things The Philosophers as one observes To separate the Mind from things sensual Smith 's Select Disc p. 11. devised Mathematical Contemplations whereby the Souls of Men might shake off their Dependency on Sense and learn to go alone without the Crutch of any sensible or material thing to support them and so be a little inured being once got above the Body to converse freely with Immaterial Natures So should we learn to separate our Affections from what is present and to let them frequently take their Flight to the Heaven above the Throne of God the sight of which we lose when we bring upon our selves the Punishment of the Serpent when we creep on this Earth and lie groveling in the Dust What will all the Cares that Young Men take about this mortal ruinous Habitation avail when they must ere long exchange their fine Cloaths for a winding Sheet and when they are nailed up in their Coffins what better will they be for all their gorgeous Apparel and their dainty Food Or will it be a good Plea in Judgment if the Young Man should say thus Lord I spent so much time abroad so much in the Tavern so much on my Recreations and my worldly Business that I had none left to remember thee or to think of the true State of my own Soul Or rather will not the Soul of such an one hereafter be amaz'd when being cloathed with the Garments of Heaviness he shall be forc'd to cry out after this or the like manner Oh that the many Days I spent in Vanity I had laid out to prepare my Soul for the Hour of my Change and the Day of Judgment then I had been in a safe and quiet Harbour whereas now I am begirt with Lighthing and Thunder Storms and Tempests and must never see the Sun shine again Oh that the Discourse I made so often about my worldly Pleasures about new Modes and Fashions I had made of God and Heaven I should not then have seen those horrid Objects of Terror nor have had my Ears peirc'd with these hideous Shrikes of my fellow Prisoners I would not in the days of my Life on Earth remember God but now I must remember him whether I will or not and no more as a Friend but as an Enemy no more as a Father but as an angry Judg. Secondly If we would remember our Creator in the days of our Youth we must avoid the Company of such who as we may judg by their Practise have him not in all their Thoughts You are not willing to venture your Bodies among those that are infected with some dangerous Distemper or in a contagious Air and will you hazard the Welfare of your better part among those who are leprous all over Rom. 3.13 and whose Throat is an open Sepulchre who if you be a Picture will deface it if you be a Glass they will spoil it with their tainted Breath Do you expect to have a serious Remembrance of your Creator Psal 1.1 if you converse with such as sit in the Chair of Scorners and deride Religion tho their Scoffs against it are to be accounted as ridiculous as it would be in a blind Man that knows not the Comfort and Benefit of Light to rail against the Sun would it not be disingenious and base for a Man to quarrel at the Light by which he sees or at the Air in which he breaths and shall we not account them unworthy of our Friendship that speak against God that God that made them Acts 17.28 and in whom they live and move and have their Being 'T is in such Company that Satan waits for our halting and we should be as careful to avoid it as we would a place where we certainly knew there was a Mine sprung and a Match lighted to fire the Train and blow us up 'T is there the Devil lies in wait for Youth and because he knows that Age is much affected with Credit and Reputation he endeavours to cloath those Sins in a genteel Fashionable Dress which would be frightful did they appear in their own ugly Shape and when
this infernal Serpent has by his insinuating Methods proselited one Young Man he instructs him in his hellish Arts and sends him abroad as his Emissary to gain many more to seek Advantage from such Society is as if we thought we could no where find a Cure but in a Lazaretto no where Health but in the Chambers of the Sick How many poor Young Men have in such Company lost their Innocence and have had their Souls diseased and benumed not sensible of their ill State till a Dart struck through their Liver which none could pull out again Prov. 7.23 How many have by this means been nipt in the Bud and spoiled that gave fair hopes to their poor Parents of their After-fruitfulness by their early Blossoms they that were once serious and well-disposed by associating with careless profane Livers have lost their former Tenderness their fear of Sin their sense of God How many ingenious Tempers have been depraved by this one great Stratagem so that they have employed the Talents that were given them by God to arm his Enemies to raise War against him in his own Dominions and with the Tools he put into their Hands they built the Kingdom of the Devil and as it would be but a poor Commendation of a Man to say He very ingeniously made himself away or He neatly cut his own Throat so these deserve no good Character who are only witty to promote their own Misery thinking to be wiser than God they make their own Hell while they are alive and poor Creatures are hasting to lie down in a Bed of eternal Sorrows and which aggravates the Terror of it with Laughter and a Joke How many by the ill Example of their Companions have cast off the Respect they once paid to their great Master Mat. 24.49 and have learn'd to eat and drink with the Drunken and to smite him and his Servants too with their violent and bitter Tongues They have been perswaded to look upon their once dear and sweet Religion as a tedious melancholy thing And have parted with the Favour of God the Hopes of Glory and the real Pleasures of another World for the poor Joys of this they have become as much the sworn Opposers of all that is good as if they had been baptiz'd in the Name of the Devil and not in the Name of Jesus How many sober Parents have to the Grief of their Hearts seen by this means the Children of their Hopes the Children of their Prayers tainted with Vice and Wickedness they have seen the Children they once instructed led away with Error and those to whom they taught the Language of Heaven speaking the Dialect of Hell and running with such Violence in the broad way as if they were afraid they should not come to their everlasting Sufferings soon enough Thus they forget their Creator and make a Rod for their own Backs which will hereafter like the Rod of Moses Exod. 4.3 be turn'd into a Serpent and devour all their Hopes and what Comfort will they that now scoff at all that is grave and serious have hereafter Jam. 3.6 when those Tongues that are set on Fire of Hell shall be cursing in those Flames and not be able to ject any more With what pale Faces and dejected Eyes will they that are now jovial and brisk together look upon the dismal Conclusion of their ill Choice when the Scene will be changed and instead of Mirth Mat. 8.12 there will be Lamentation weeping and gnashing of Teeth their Eyes that now run after Vanity will then be fixed in the solitary Contemplation of their great Loss And their Thoughts that are now roving and disorder'd will then be their own Torture with what hideous Cries will they then lament their early Follies and upbraid one another Had it not been for thee cruel Creature will one say to his miserable Companion I had not fallen into this helpless irrecoverable State had it not been for thee I that am now pale with Hunger and faint with Thirst might have drank of that River Psal 46.4 the Streams whereof make glad the City of God and have been feasting with Abraham Isaac and Jacob and all holy Souls at the Supper of the Lamb. Had it not been for thee instead of being confin'd to these Chains and this doleful Prison I might have been walking in the Streets of the New Jerusalem but now the Gulf is fix'd my Hopes are gone and my Sun is set And all that such a distressed Creature shall receive from such a miserable Complaint will only be to hear the like sad Language from his Neighbour and so that deep and ugly Cave will ring with the noise of their Stripes and the lamentable Cries wherewith they will for ever salute one another saying Wo unto us for we have sinned Lam. 5.16 wo unto us for we have sinn'd our selves into this burning Lake Thirdly Another Rule to be observ'd by those that would now remember their Creator in the days of their Youth is to accustom themselves to frequent Retirement and Solitude Most of that Irreligion and Contempt of God that is in the Minds of Young People arises from the Neglect of the many convenient Seasons which they might improve to self-examination They will not give themselves leave to think or reflect upon their own Actions for if they did but separate some little Portions of their time tho but one quarter of an hour in a day seriously to think what it is to dy and when that is over to go to Judgment and what pains are necessary to prepare their Souls for things so solemn and so great it were morally impossible they should forget their Creator and disobey his Call 'T is not long might the Young-man say till this Body of mine that was made of Earth and Dust shall be resolved into common Dust again 't is not long till it will be clothed in its last Robes and be insensible of what is grateful or delicious it will be worn out like a moth-eaten Garment after all the sweet Odours and Perfumes after all the Cost and Charge I have laid out upon it Now then begin O my Soul to take thy leave of thy dearest Companion that will shortly bid thee farewel and warn thee by its irreparable Delays to seek for thy self a more lasting Habitation Tho I have now might he go on in his Meditation the Company of my Relations and my Friends yet ere long they will stand weeping at my Bed's side when they see me going from them by my self into the silent melancholy Vale. Tho I now have my numerous Enjoyments and my full Tables yet when I have sat a little longer I must rise for Death will come and take me away Such Reflections as these would help Young Men very much in the Remembrance of their Creator now and engage them not to put off such useful Thoughts till their dying Day But alas the most instead of
this serious Employment slight the Consideration of God and their Souls from day to day they run upon the score and so long spend their Substance till like ill Tradesmen they are unwilling to cast up their Books to make up their Accounts and to look into their own Souls they so long defer to speak with their own Consciences till at last they have no Message to them but of Wo and Terror So it must not be with us we must retire from the multitude of Temptations that we meet with in the World and reckon those happy Seasons wherein we may converse with God The Memory of a Person is disturb'd with a great Noise and so will our Thoughts be among the busy Cares and Clamours of the World Have we time to spend among our Acquaintance and our Friends and have we none for God that is our best Friend Can we take delight in the Company of others and yet take none in his in whom all the Myriads of the blessed Angels and the glorious Saints and the whole Society of sincere Worshippers in the Church on Earth daily rejoyce Mat. 6.31 Can we be solicitous what to eat and drink and what to put on and not be as much careful about the more violent and pressing Necessities of our Souls Or have we any Business that is more weighty than this how we may please our Creator grow in Grace and avoid the Wrath to come We should when we awake take the Wings of the Morning and fly up to Heaven and every one of us say This day will I remember God and in the Evening if we have been stedfast in our purpose we must praise him for his Assistance and do the same again No Business can excuse any for the neglect of so great a Duty Even the Apprentice must remember that he has a great Master in Heaven to serve and if the Affairs of his Trade require a more than ordinary Care he may rise a little sooner in the Morning and go to bed a little later as knowing that no Service for others can dispense with the Allegiance he has sworn to God and that he will never have cause to repent of the time he spends in serious fervent Prayer and when the Young Man is in his Retirement we may suppose him to address himself to his Creator in this or the like manner O my merciful Creator view from thy sacred Throne a poor Sinner that am covered with Shame and Blushing when I think I have long too long been forgetful of thee and of my true Self be thou my Physician for I am diseased be thou my Satisfaction for all the Time I have wandred to and fro in a strange Land I have been seeking Rest but have found none Luke 15.19 I am not worthy to be called thy Son any more but let thy Bowels yearn over a poor Prodigal that now sees his Error and is resolv'd by thy Assistance not to run away from his Duty nor to sin again O God my God early will I seek thee Psal 63.1 my Soul thirsteth for thee my Flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty Land where no Water is 'T is true Lord I had once set mine Eyes on that which was not Prov. 23.5 but henceforth I will humbly make mention of thy Name and contemplate thy Glories and not gaze with Delight on this cheating vain World again Behold according to my Baptismal Engagement and vow I give up what is thy own to thee I surrender all that I have or am all the Faculties and Powers of my Soul to be thine for ever And here I now promise as in thy Presence and as I ever hope to hear a welcome Sentence in the day of Christ that I will not any more be led away with ill Examples nor conspire with Sinners to rebel against Thee be thou therefore O my gracious Creator the Directer of my Steps the Guide of my Life my Strength in Weakness my Friend in Trouble and inspire me with Courage and Wisdom to manage my self well in the hour of my Combate when by my old Enemies the Flesh the Devil and the World against whom I now declare a perpetual War I shall be set upon Fourthly Another Rule that is to be observ'd of those that would remember their Creator now in the days of their Youth is to improve the secâ—â—â—d Passages of Providence either to the Church of God or themselves to this end We have all great reason to think of him Ps 111.4 and to celebrate his Praise who as the Royal Prophet speaks has caus'd his wonderful Works to be remembred And we of this Nation are more peculiarly engaged thankfully to commemorate the Miracles of his Mercy which appeared in the great Deliverance that he gave to our Fore-Fathers as on this day Norem 5. tho we are young we all share in the blessed Essects of such a wonderful Deliverance The Papists indeed that long envied the Wellfare of our Sion thought to have made England once more a Slave to the Prince of Darkness and like to Rome Even We have Reason to be thankful for had their Train been fired and the Blow given there had been long ere this nothing to be seen in our Hemisphere but swarms of Locusts from the bottomless Pit nothing but Flies and Serpents and all the Plagues of Egypt And is not the God of England the God of our Fore-Fathers and our God worthy to be remembred that has hitherto kept these Frogs from croaking in our Houses and our Bed-Chambers Far be it from us either to forget such a God or to mock him as we shall if we thank him for our Escape out of the House of Bondage and yet as too many in our days be willing to return again thither If like foolish Children we cry for the Leeks and Garlick of others when we have at home better Food 'T is fit we should remember the God of this great Deliverance that so we may never leave our own pure and holy Faith for an Idolatrous and a false Religion the Religion of Rome that is indeed a scandal to the Name and that instead of Meekness and Love the true Lineaments of all the Followers of Jesus has by its cruel Designs no other than tho Features of the Devil the Great Murderer from the beginning Jâ—hn 8.14 And when the Plotters delighted in those Works of Darkness they acted as true Children of him their Father who flies the Light When they digg'd as deep as Hell they were but in their own Element for all they that are born from Heaven carry upon them Forbearance Peace and Innocence which is to resemble indeed a patient holy God I am the more willing to enlarge upon this both because of the Respect I bear to that Authority that enacted the Observation of this as a Day of general Thanks-giving over all the Nation and because young Men to some of which the Providence
slide into the dark Pit from which there will be no Redemption We may be surprized with the loud Thunder and the roaring Cannon when we think there is no Danger and when we flatter our selves with the vain Hopes of Peace and Safety sudden Destruction may come upon us 1. Thes v. 3. as Travel upon a Woman with Child To what shall I compare the Miseries of that young Man that is taken away in the midst of all his Pleasures and before he hath well thought of Death 'T is as dreadful as if you should see a Person in the midst of all his Mirth and Laughter immediately fall down Dead so that he cannot by all the Tears of his Friends nor by all the Chafing and Applications that are made be fetch'd to Life again A Surprizal that carries with it as great Horror and Amazement as does the sudden falling of a cruel Enemy into the Tents of a luxurious wanton Army that spares neither Young nor Old that mingles their Blood with the Sacrifices they made to their lustful Appetites and gives them no time either to Arm or to cry for Quarter 'T is as Dreadful as if a Massacre should happen among a company of little Children playing in the Street that while they suspected nothing are cut in a thousand pieces and carried away to the other World in a Sea of their own Blood The sudden untimely Death of careless young Men is as dreadful as a general Inundation that while Men are asleep breaks over all Bounds and carries them their Houses and their Goods away together Have we then no Pity for our selves or do we resolve not to prepare for our Tryal till the Assize come and the Judge is seated on the Bench Is it a small or a tolerable thing to be snatchâ—d away in one Moment from Life and Hope to have our Souls violently torn from our Bodies and to be sent from under the Dews of Heaven and a chearful pleasant Habitation to be scorched with flaâ—â—ing Wrath and to Live in a Land of Darkness where is all that can afflict or grieve the separated Spirit If we were assured by certain Intelligence from the unseen World that this were the last Sermon we were to hear this the last time that we should have a Call to Remember God and to Repent and that before we Enjoy another of the Days of the Son of Man we should hear our final Doom and be either in Heaven above or Hell beneath Oh with what Cries should we rend the Heavens with what Earnestness should we pour out our Souls in Prayer and as a Criminal that is condemned to dye and is not ready for so great a Change make use of all our Friends to begg of God that he would Reprieve us and spare us a little longer that we may acquaint our selves with him and make our Peace before we go hence and be no more Psal 39.13 With how many Tears should we then bewail our early Follies and not listen to the Charms of sensual worldly Pleasures or the Temptations of the Devil And why should we not do the same now seeing we know not but that may be our Case Mat. 24.42 We know neither the Hour or the Day when our Lord will come nor when Death that is by his Commission going its Circuit and has already past its Sentence upon many others will Arrive at our Place and call us also to the Barr. I might here have shew'd you how many and how great would be the Advantages of an early Remembrance of your Creator how by this you would be a great comfort to your Ministers and Parâ—â—ts and a Blessing both to this Age and to the next As also that hereby you would meet with prosperous Success in your affairs and after many years Labour sweet Repose and the Possession of an inward unspeakable Peace in your way to Glory And besides that you might in a great measure prevent those Calamities that have at a distance long threatned a secure careless People but now are at our very Doors and likely to seize on your Native Country which cries to you that are young to have pity upon her I might here entreat you as you would not see a Famine of the Word nor your Teachers driven to more solitary Corners nor after it has long stood upon the Threshold see the final departure of the Glory that you would now remember your Creator but I shall leave these to your more serious Consideration And now I shall endeavour to move you to this great Duty by setting before you the Example of that young man whose death presented me with the sad occasion of this Sermon though he be dead yet his Death speaks this to us all that we should in health remember our Creator and not defer so great a Work till we are just upon the Borders of the Grave We may think we are yet many paces off but when we have breathed a little longer we shall be there we shall go and dwell with him and with many others that were gathered from such Assemblies as this to the greater Congregation of the dead we shall go from the noise of populous Towns and Cities into that silent forlorn Desert and from Spirits that move in Bodies to those that are unclothed in that vast World which we the Pilgrims on Earth never saw and when we have well performed the Duties of our present state we shall go from moving in this Lower Firmament to move in that which is above all that we see and which is the proper Region and Sphere of the Soul the Seat and Habitation of the bless'd of all those that while they were on Earth remembred their Creator and believed in Christ I shall not draw the Picture of the Young Gentleman of whom I am now to speak in any other Colours then those which were reckoned to make up his true Complexion when he was alive and which were taken from him by such as had opportunity by Converse and Acquaintance to observe the several parts of his Behaviour I. In his more early days he was sent to the University of Dublin in Ireland that there he might obtain the useful knowledge of the Liberal Arts which when duely studyed are a great Ornament and Glory to the mind and render a man more capable of Noble Thoughts and Actions and greatly conduce to the making his Life not only more comfortable to himself but more useful to others but as is the deplorable condition of too many young men in such publick places of Education where the Boar out of the Forest the Devil waits to spoil the tender Vines that are newly planted there he was by the perswasion of ill Associates led away to some things not worthy of Commendation And when God that designed Mercy for his Soul not only checked him in his course by some cross Providences of which he still retained the sense but put it into the heart of his