Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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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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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