Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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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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and powerful sharper than a Two-Edged Sword to pierce and wound by Conviction It is the Word of God's Grace to heal those Wounds Act. 20.32 1 Tim. 2.3 able to build us up and give us an Inheritance among them that are Sanctified What Sins are to be avoided how Temptations are to be resisted how Bosom Lusts are to be Mortified and a Pure Acceptable Worship to be performed and what otherwise is necessary to the pleasing of God and Communion with him is taught us in this Word Hereby we are acquainted with our Sin and Misery and told the only way of our Recovery and Happiness The Malicious Arts and Stratagems of the Devil are here unfolded hence we are instructed how to conceive of God how to approach to him converse with him and resemble him Our Steps are hereby directed by unerring Light our Purposes setled and our Course stated and Directions given us how to use our Selves and all we have for the Service of our Maker Redeemer and Sanctifier By taking heed to this Light we are safely led out of those Labyrinths where others have lost their way and may prevent stumbling into the Pit of Destruction into which others fall All the Doctrins and Precepts of this Word tend to our Healing and Recovery to promote the perfection and felicity of our Nature to bring us to the best kind of Life for the present in respect of duty to God comfort to our Selves and usefulness unto others And this in the expectation of the Heavenly Reward enabling us in some measure to partake of the Earnest and enjoy the Fore-tastes of it In short It is by this Word that we believe in Christ and have hope towards God and are enabled to love him and so to dwell in Love Our Faith our Hope our Love to God and Christ are all begun cherished and maintained by the influence of this Word To this we owe that Faith whereby we are vitally united to the Son of God that Hope whereby all our Grace flourisheth and that Love whereby we are Fruitful For as by Faith we have a Spiritual Life by Hope we gather Strength and by Love we become active in all the Fruits of Holy Obedience 2. This will justifie the extraordinary Esteem and Affection that Good Men have for the Word of God Who after such experience of its cleansing Virtue but must profess that the Sayings of this Book are Faithful and True and Worthy of all Acceptation more to be desired than Gold than much Fine Gold sweeter than the Hony and the Hony-Comb Psal 119.93 97. O how love I thy Law saith David It is my Meditation all the Day I will never forget thy Precepts for by them thou hast quickened me O that this Law might be continually within my Heart to enlighten counsel and refresh me that it may dwell richly in me be always an Ornament of Grace to my Head and a Chain of Gold about my Neck Health to my Navel and Marrow to my Bones I heard its Voice I felt its Power and beheld its glorious Beauty and so have been changed into the same Image and shall I not love it If any should seem to wonder and think such Estimations and Affections strange you may answer with the Man born Blind John 9.30 This is a marvellous thing that you know not what it is or why I so much prize and love it when it hath opened my Eyes I was Spiritually Dead and Defiled and by this Word I received quickning and cleansing No wonder therefore if I account all things but Dross and Dung in comparison of this Knowledge Phil. 3.7 8. 3. What Thankfulness should they express whose Hearts have been seasoned with Holy Principles and Affections betimes and their Way cleansed by the Word of God If through the Knowledge of Christ you have escaped the Pollutions that are in the World through Youthful Lusts when so many others are thereby Drowned in the Gulph of Perdition should you not be very Thankful When you behold Multitudes who wallow in the Mire and take Pleasure in the ways of Sin are regardless of God and Christ and the Eternal World you may say I was as Mad as they or should certainly have been so if Free Grace had not prevented What Gratitude do I owe to my Redeemer and his Mighty Spirit who makes me thus to differ Many of you can look back with Joy and Praise upon the Early Experience you have had of this kind You can reflect how early God began with your Souls so early that your Baptism seemed to have had its effects and influence presently so early with some that you cannot tell the very time when God first began Others can remember the special Instruments whom God imployed from time to time to do them good by what careful and prudent Education Prov. 4.4 by what useful Examples of Holy and Affectionate Relations by what convincing Sermons Ch. 5.3 4. by what awak'ning Providences by what repeated Motions and Strivings of the Spirit of the Grace you were brought to the knowledg of your Sin and Duty and enabled to own and avow your Baptismal Covenant and seriously out of choice come under the Bond of it To which Purpose David acknowledgeth God Psal 16.2 7. O my Soul thou hast said to the Lord thou art my Lord therefore I will bless thee who hast given me Counsel and enabled me to receive it who hast enlightened my Darkness removed my Prejudices cleansed me from my Pollutions softned my hard Heart subdued my Enmity and Disaffection to thee and made me willing in the Day of thy Power to come to Christ that I might have Life and Healing by him Lord how is it that thou dost manifest thy Self to me and not unto the World That I should be quickned and cleansed while others are left under Spiritual Defilement and Death 4. What need have Superiors to be careful and diligent to bring Young Persons under their Charge acquainted with the Word of God It is mentioned not only to the Praise of Young Timothy but of those who were concerned in his Education that he knew the Holy Scriptures from his Childhood 2 Tim. 3.15 i.e. those of the Old Testament for scarce any other were then written when he was a Child He was also acquainted with what was necessary to be known concerning Christ as is mentioned in the same Verse under the Expression of the Faith which is in Christ Jesus Women and Children had then the Scriptures in a Language they understood for his Grandmother Lois and his Mother Eunice instructed him very early in the knowledge of God and Christ The Debauchery of Youth is very much owing to the want of good Principles instilled into their Minds in their Tender Years By that means they are a more easie Prey to the Devil having little or nothing to oppose to the Snares he lays for them or to their own corrupt Inclinations You therefore that
Peace Now though this Grace is not yet certainly Saving yet it tends to that which is so and none have cause to despair but that being duly improv'd and comply'd with it may end in it It is expresly said to such as live under the Gospel they are to work out their Salvation with Fear and Trembling for this reason that God works or is working in them i.e. statedly and continually is at work or is alway ready to work in them to will and to do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of his own good Pleasure 2 Phil. 12.13 The matter fails not on his part He will work on in order to Salvation if they work in that way of Subordinate Co-operation which his Command and the necessity of their own case oblige them unto The Impotence therefore of the Will lies in its * D. Bates's Harmony of the D. Attributes in Octavo p. 63. Obstinacy This is the meaning of St. Peter speaking of Unclean Persons That their Eyes are full of Adultery and they cannot cease from Sin 'T is from their own Fault alone that they are without Power Therefore the Scripture represents Man to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 weak but wicked His disability to Supernatural Good arises from an inordinate Affection to that which is sensual Let me add if this Holy Word animated by the Divine Spirit be not effectual to our Sanctification those means which are more Extraordinary are not like to be so Psal 78.22 23 24. They Rebelled against God and would not believe his Word or Trust in his Salvation though he commanded the Clouds from above and opened the Doors of Heaven and rained Manna for them to Eat and gave them the Corn of Heaven Their Victuals came out of the Clouds and their Water cut of a Rock and yet these Miracles did not Convert them Neither the Miracles of Moses or those of our Blessed Lord were sufficient in their time In some Places our Lord wrought Miracles and yet they desired him to be gone out of their Coasts And when he was on the Cross they jeared him with his Miracles though they could not but acknowledg them he saved others himself he cannot let him now come down from the Cross and we will believe After the Miraculous Feeding of Two Thousand with Five Loves and Two Little Fishes John 6.14 22 26 30. the People were astonished and said one to another This is he that should come this doubtless is the expected and long looked for Messias and would have taken him by force and made him King And yet I think the very next Day at least within a Day or Two when he told them they followed him only for the Loaves they say unto him What Sign shewest thou that we should believe What work dost thou As if he had never wrought a Miracle before Luk. 16.31 Yea our Lord hath told us If we will not hear Moses and the Prophets neither would we believe though one should rise from the Dead Though one of your Acquaintance who Perished in his Sins should appear at Midnight in a Frightful Shape and warn thee in particular by his Example to take heed of Youthful Lusts and not continue one Hour longer so near to endless and intolerable Misery as is every Impenitent Sinner Should he tell thee that he once made a Mock of Sin and a Jest of Hell and a Scorn of Godliness as thou dost That he did not believe there was such a Holy Terrible God as now he finds or that it would be so fearful a thing to fall into his Hands but now he feels the Word of God to be true and that for a Foolish Lust he hath the Recompence of a Miserable Eternity If such Warnings were given they would not awaken Men to Repentance unto whom the Preaching of the Word is not effectual We read that after the Resurrection of Lazarus from the Dead they that knew him before and knew he was raised again John 11.53 and Conversed with him afterwards were not Converted to believe on Christ for from that very Day of his Raising Lazarus the High-Priests and Scribes and Rulers and People took Council how they might put him to Death The like may be said concerning the Resurrection of Jesus Christ himself And how many do we see brought to the very brink of the Grave within a step of Death and Hell both in their own apprehension and in the judgment of others who upon an unexpected Recovery not unlike a Resurrection have been far from being reclaimed and bettered afterwards Their forc'd Repentance vanisheth when the fear of dying ceaseth It is the Ministry of the Word which is the ordinary Method that God hath appointed for our Sanctification and if that be not effectual these extraordinary Methods would not Fourthly It remains to be considered That if this Word become the effectual means of our Sanctification we must carefully attend and take heed unto it The Original imports to observe narrowly Psal 130.3 with great exactness we must still have it in our Eye that we may form our Designs regulate our Affections and order our Ways accordingly Josh 1.8 We must carefully preserve it as a Treasure and watchfully observe it as a Rule we must hide it in our Hearts verse 11. A competent knowledge of this Word and diligent endeavour to encrease it is manifestly supposed Heb. 2.1 and that we give earnest heed to the things we Read or Hear lest at any time we let them slip We must study the Mind of God in the Holy Scriptures wait on the Publick Preaching of it consider its Tendency and Use as able to make us Wise unto Salvation Col. 3.16 We should ponder it in our Hearts and endeavour to preserve it there that it may cohabit and dwell with us Jer. 15.16 and in us and be unto us the Joy and Rejoycing of our Hearts Yielding up our selves unto the Power of Truth that we may experience its Holy Efficacy to all the Ends for which God hath appointed it 1. What is first and most obviously to be Collected from what hath been said is the Vsefulness and Necessity of the Holy Scriptures What excellent Knowledge may be found there for the cure of our Ignorance What Sanctifying Influence for the purifying of our Hearts and Ways What Establishment and Strength to fix our Wavering Minds and heal our Unsetledness How certain and Divine are its Instructions How Pure and Spiritual and yet Plain and Express are its Precepts What pungent and smart Reproofs what inviting Promises what terrifying Threatnings are imployed in this Word to lead us into the way of Life and save us from the Paths of the Destroyer How fitly do the effects of it answer its Name 1 Cor. 1.18 Rom. 1.16 Psal 110.2 Heb. 4.12 of the Power of God and the Rod of his Strength the Power of God to the Salvation of the Soul It is quick