unquestionable undoubted truth that for all these things God will bring thee to Judgment 2. Consider that this Judgment is near at hand and will shortly take place 3. Consider your summons may be suddain before you are aware 4. Consider that Youth and health is the fittest time to prepare for this Judgment of God 5. That if through the temptations of carnal mirth and youthful lusts you neglect your preparation it is more then probable your passage by death to this Judgment of God will be very uncomfortable and full of horrour 6. That this Judgment it self and its immediate consequences will be intollerably dreadful to unprepared Sinners whether Young or Old 1. Consider that notwithstanding your present mirth and jollity yet this final judgment is infallibly certain What is here affirmed concerning persons is asserted likewise concerning things in the next Chapter Eccl. 12.14 that God will bring every work into Judgment with every secret thing whither it be good or whither it be evil Methinks I need not tell you that the Doctrine of this final Judgment is declar'd in Scripture with the greatest plainess confirm'd by the strongest Evidence and prest upon the Conscience with the most cogent and inforcing and Arguments espicially since the pretended Objections on the behalf of the Sadducee and the sensual Epicure are so weak and trifling that if their lusts were not stronger than their arguments they themselves would be ashamed to offer them For whoever disbelieves a future Judgment must either conclude that the Almighty God cannot or that the Righteous God will not call us to an account for what we have received and done tho' his absolute Omnipotence doth assure us that he can and his invariable truth having declared his purpose that undoubtedly he will And do we think that all the assurance of this Judgment of God which the Scripture gives us that all those plain assertions concerning the Judge himself and the persons to be Judged and the consequence of the Judgment and the certainty of it that they are only terms of art to affright the world and not real intended truths which will take effect according to their natural meaning that the whole account is perfect fiction and meer Romance contriv'd on purpose to keep the World in due Decorum and so to prevent some bad effects only in reference to the present State of things which would probably follow if this belief did not obtain Whereas is it not necessary that there should be a Judgment day for the conviction and condemnation of great Sinners that scorn the Legislative authority of God and trample on his Government and are above the check and conroul of humane laws to manifest the Righteousness of God as Ruler of the world in rendering to every man according to his works and to uphold the honour of his wise Government whereof Judgment is as necessary and essential a part as Legislation the latter without the former being little else than shew and mockery is it not necessary for the vindication of Religion from that contempt and scorn that is powr'd upon it Is it not necessary to unriddle the mysteries of Divine Providence and disclose the secret wickedness of Hypocrites and put a difference between those that serve him and those that refuse to do so As likewise to rectify the mistakes and false opinions that are abroad in the world concerning God and Christ and Holiness and Sin to put an end to controversies and determine the difference concerning what is Truth and what is Error These and such like things considered besides the Authority of Divine writ do morally assure us that there will be an after-reckoning and a final Judgment And methinks one thought of the certainty thereof should give a check to your câ—rnal mirth and cast a damp upon your Sensual joy and abate your heat and vigour in a course of Sin For did we but believe that for all these things God will bring us to Judgment how could we so readily entertain the temptations of the Devil and fall such an Easy prey to his devices How could so many unhappy Youths invade their own Damnation and snatch it as it were out of the hands of Justice thrust away their present and future happiness and fly into the Devils arms in the persult of their youthful lusts tho' they have been told so plainly and warn'd so frequently of a Future Judgment How could these things be if they did but believe the certainty of this final judgment and how dreadful will be their case who are not awaken'd till they find it to be so who will not acknowledg this Judgment of God till they know the dreadfulness and terrour of it by being brought to their Trial who will not believe that God will ever call them to an account till a final Impenitence joyn'd with their Infidelity bring them under his condemning Sentence 2. Consider that this Judgment is near at hand and will shortly take place As Death will consign us over to God's Tribunal so childhood and youth manhood and old age are but several stages that hasten us to Death Yet a little while and we must go the way of all living Job 16.22 How concern'd and thoughtful soever now we are about this World we must shortly bid adieu and take our leave Even the Man of business must find a time to dye and give an account of his Stewardship tho' he allow himself little or none to prepare for Death and Judgment Our Youth and Strength is quickly gone we soon decline and languish into Dust Assoon as we begin to live we are hastening to the end of our Life As a Candle assoon as it begins to burn or an hour glass assoon as it is turned doth hasten to its end our life withering like a Flower 1 Pet. 1.24 Psal 90.4 and passing like a watch in the night We must dye shortly and much sooner than they who lived in the first ages of the World As Death is the certain consequence of old age so those Evil days as the wise Man calls them do still draw near and will quickly overtake us Whether we eat or drink or sleep whether we be sad or merry whether we talk or are silent whether we work or are idle whether we are studious or careless whether we prepare for Death and Judgment or whether we despise and avoid such Thoughts And yet how many spend ther youthful days in vanity and sin with a careless neglect of God and their Salvation in gluttony and Drunkenness in Chambering and wantonness Rom. 12.13.14 not putting on the Lord Jesus nor walking in his Spirit but making provisions for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof As if this day of the Lord were a great way off at a mighty distance Whereas our Judge is at the door and the end of all things doth approach and it can't be long ere all the World must receive their Doom A beleiving thought of this
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
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. ECCLES I. 12. 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 LONDON Printed by J. G. for Benjamen Alsop at the Angel and Bible in the Poultry MDCLXXXI TO John Bawdon Esq SIR IF either the Preaching or publishing of the following Sermon may be any way useful to promote the great design of doing good if the seriousness of the Subject or the weight of the Instance that gave occasion to it may awaken any one Soul to prepare for his final judgment I know you will heartily rejoyce and bless God with me and as readily pardon my defects in the management of so important a Theme and the rather since I indeavoured only to convince and perswade an attentive Auditory consisting mostly of young persons without the least intention of appearing in Print as knowing very well that what may be acceptable to a Christian ear when pronounc'd from the Pulpit doth often fail of being so when perus'd afterwards by a critical eye However the Impression once consented to I ought to address it to no other name but yours being Conceiv'd and Born in your House as well as Preacht in your hearing especially when 't was proper for me to prefix an example of the Connexion between seriousness and chearfulness For having discours'd somewhat concerning the Mirth and Joy of a Christian Life as well as of the unreasonableness and vanity of sensual pleasures it seem'd necessary to confirm that Truth by a lively Instance And were there nothing else to recommend the practice of Godliness but that tranquillity and peace of mind that calmness and serenity of spirit which follows a good Conscience and is the only true ground of a chearful conversation the argument were very pressing But I need not mention this save to let you see the excellency of your choice and thereby incourage others to make the same And none Sir that understand my obligations to you and to your excellent Lady will judge me guilty of the usual flattery incident to such Dedications if I take this first opportunity to avow my Debt of Gratitude and Honour to you both And such I must profess it as is exceeded only by the Duty owing from Children to their natural Parents my loss of whom your respects and kindness have in great measure undeservedly supplied I have only to add that as the mention of your Name will doubtless invite many to read the Sermon who would otherwise be apt to throw it by so I am told I shall lose other Readers by concealing that of the person on whose account it was Preacht To which I have this to say that his name and quality his life and Conversation the circumstances of his sickness and his temper and expressions on his deathbed are sufficiently known to obviate the least insinuation of a Forgery as to what I have related concerning him And as to what I have not recited the Readers benefit would be as unconcern'd in the publication as his curiosity is like to be dissatisfied if he expect any other Reason of its concealment I am Honoured Sir Your most Affectionate Most obliged Humble Servant JOHN SHOWER TO THE READER WE reckon it a piece of justice to the Author of this Sermon to believe and according to that belief to testify that the occasion it self did against his own inclination extort from him the publication of it For when the conflict was only between the Modesty due indeed to his years on the one hand and sence of Duty on the other upon the concurrence of a general Obligation and a present discerned opportunity to promote the eternal good of Souls the determination of the matter this way could not seem difficult to an impartial unbribed Conscience Whither the Discourse it self the occasion and all circumstances taken together have any aptness to serve that end must be left to the Judgment of such as shall read and consider with whom the Discourse must speak for it self And what it had reference to will we cannot doubt appear not very considerable only but be highly grateful also to all Pious and Good men For tho' the Sermon import a relation to a Funeral the Death of the Person had nothing in it so mournful as his Repentance to Life will have with it of Satisfaction and thanksgiving to God with all that are of a Serious and Religious inclination Nor can it enter into our thoughts that any to whom that Character belongs will behold the instance of a Soul as Christian Charity will believe rescued out of the Snare of the Devil and translated to Eternal Bliss with a slight or much less with an evil eye only because it was not by their means or not by one in all things of their mind and way Or that what is the Joy of Angels can be the Offence and Grief of good men It is surely not possible they can be so fatally divided between Paul and Apollo and Cephas as utterly to forget our higher common Relation to Christ For do we not all know we were Baptized into his Name and not of this or that imagined head or Master of a Sect But though that transcendent Relation be not quite forgotten there is too much cause to apprehend and lament that it is not remembred and considered enough And to reflect on it as one provoking cause of God's with-holding his Spirit in so great part from the Ministry of his word and of the consequent paucity of Conversions and abounding wickedness of the time that there is so great a proneness in many to subject the sacred Ministry to the serving of some private mean design more than that of the common Christian Cause and Interest to proselite men to themselves rather than Christ and make them more exact Formalists of their own Mould and Fashion rather than good Christians To teach them rather to deny or embrace this or that frame and set of Rites and Ceremonies than to deny ungodliness and worldly Lusts and to live Soberly Righteously and Godly in this present World And more earnestly to inculcate and press upon them the things wherein we differ than the unspeakably greater and more momentous things wherein we are agreed and whereof the Dead Carnal dissaffected heart of man far more needs the most earnest inculcation It may well be apprehended the Holy God will be jealous in this case And while we heartily joyn not and do not accept and rejoyce in each others help and concurrence though in somewhat different methods which for the present we cannot give remedy to in the pursuit of his ends we have no reason to think it strange if he leave us to labour in the Fire and weary our selves to no purpose in the pursuit of our own
of outer darkness Beside 't is the sate of many the nearer they approach to Death that the less apt they are to believe it and so perish in their security and are totally unconcern'd about a future judgment But supposing the free use of Reason and an awaken'd apprehension likewise of what refers to their Immortal Souls and their Eternal abode I then add 5. That if through the inticements of youthful lusts you now neglect to prepare it is very probable and you may justly fear it that your passage by Death to this Judgment of God will be very uncomfortable and full of horror whether repentance on the brink of the Grave after a a wicked life may be Saving or no is not the question Thro' an extraordinary act of Grace whereof the penitent Theif was an instance it cannot be deny'd possible But when it is sincere and saving who can tell any otherwise than as in charity we must hope the best For as to the persons themselves on a sick and deathbed how can they in an Ordinary way be assured of their sincerity it is therefore probable that their last Sickness will be very uncomfortable tho' their Repentance should prove sincere and their Souls saved in the day of Christ For suppose when their sins stare them in the face and they did never till now bethink themselves of the necessity of a pardon That Satan should now tell them that their Repentance doth come too late to meet with that mercy they so long abus'd And that 't is all owing to their Fears of Death and the apprehended dreadful consequences of dying If he should tell 'em that the pleasures of Sin being lost and so the bait to intice them gone every thing about them looks sad and mournful and such a change of their condition from health to sickness and the Gates of Death must needs alter their resolutions and thoughts If he should tell 'em that the nearness of Eternity cannot but make a person who hath space to consider more apprehensive of another World and concerned about it than at other times and that if Sickness and Death were at a greater distance they wuold still be the same which is to sadly probable from the many Examples of those who have return'd to their former sins assoon as they return'd to their health and left all their repentance their holy thoughts and good resolutions in that Sickbed where at first they took 'em up If the Devil suggest such a Temptation as this to the Sick Penitent who hath hitherto walk'd in the way of his own heart and in the sight of his Eyes what can he reply or plead on his own behalf to make proof of the Sincerity of his Repentance to himself or to those about him However it may become us to consider seriously that God doth oftentimes in righteous Judgment open the Eyes of Great Sinners on a Death-bed and fill their Souls with an amazing horror from the fears and foresight of of his approaching vengeance When they cannot but apprehend that their Sinning season is now expir'd their mirth and jollity over their final Judgment at hand and their Bodies and Souls within a few hours to part and so be divided between the Grave and Hell you will then admit other thoughts of God and his terrible Judgment than at present in your careless health bitterly reflecting on your past follies in the days of your Youth and freely condemning your former choice the serious review of your vensual Joys which are fled as a shadow and vanisht like a cloud of smaok shall give you an unexpressible remorse and shame having barter'd away your Souls for such a thing of nought and ventured your Eternal Salvation for a trisling lust Was my God my Soul and my Salvation of no greater value will you then be forc'd say of no greater value than so easily to be parted with for the short satisfaction of abrutish forbidden pleasure must I leave this world I lov'd so dearly and bid adieu for ever to all its injoyments are all my good days past is all my mirth and joy concluded and nothing but Eternal sorrows to be expected must all my mirth and laughter be exchanged for tears and howling my ease and pleasure for insuportable and remediless torments must my guilty Soul be thus torn from my body and from all things in which it took delight to be drag'd and hurried to a dismal place where it will hate to live and yet cannot dye Must I sport and sing and revel it no more Must I brave it out in Pride no longer and relish the delights of sense no more no more for ever And which is worse infinitely worse must I make my appearance before my offended Judge whose threatnings I derided whose wrath I provok't whose commands I contradicted whose servants I reproch't c must I now appear before the dreadful tribunal of this Just this Holy this Inexorable Judge Is there no hope of escapeing in the crowd and so avoid a trial or is there no possibility of an excuse when arraigned before his bar or is there no method to be found to evade the Execution of his Terrible Judgment must I hear and hear to my Confusion that Epitome of Hell compriz'd into a Sentence Depart Depart from me ye cursed into Everlasting Fire Oh! what shall I be able to say for my self when my own Conscience brings the charge and reads the Indictment and I cannot disown or deny one Article of what I am accus'd All the mercies you have receiv'd from God all the instructive afflictions you have at any time met with all the awakening Sermons you have heard all the mottions of God's Spirit and the rebukes of your own which you have resisted all the calls of his Word the warnings of his Providence and the threatnings of his Wrath which you have slighted your knowledg of your danger your time and space to repent your former confessions of Sin your convictions of guilt your purposes to reform the reproofs you have had from others and the promises you have made your selves may all be muster'd up to your awakn'd thoughts to seize your Souls with horror and confusion when you are called by Death to pass to this Judgment of God And now Christians 't is probable you may suppose and hope that this will never be your case yet the present instance of this Vnhappy youth may convince you that 't is possible and more than possible For tho' I never saw him to my knowledg Save on his Death-bed yet having exprest his own desires that others might take warning by his Example I need not scruple to acquaint you with what I learn't from himself and is well known to his Surviving companions that during his health he did put the evil day far from him and yet was very apprehensive of a future Judgment and concern'd at his own unpreparedness in his last Sickness most heartily confessing and that with Tears that