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A26903 Compassionate counsel to all young men especially I. London apprentices, II. students of divinity, physick, and law, III. the sons of magistrates and rich men / by Richard Baxter. Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. 1681 (1681) Wing B1229; ESTC R170462 84,953 211

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you sure to live to maturity of Age alas how quickly will it come What haste makes Time How fast do Daies and Years roll on Methinks it is but as a few daies since I was playing with my School-fellows who now am in the 66th year of my Age Had I no service done for God that I could now look back upon I should seem as if I had not lived A thousand years and one hour are all one that is nothing when they are past And every year day and hour of your lives hath its proper work And how will you answer for it Every day offereth you more and more mercies and will you despise and lose them If you were Heirs to Land or had an Annuity which amounted but to an hundred pounds a year and you were every day to receive a proportionable part of it or lose it would you lose it through neglect and say I will begin to receive it when I am old Poor Labourers will work hard all the day that at night they may have their wages And will you contemptuously lose your every daies mercies your safety your communion with God your daily blessings and his grace which you should daily beg and may daily receive 5. Either you will Repent and live to God or not if not you are undone for ever Oh how much less miserable is a Dog or a Toad than such a sinner But if God will shew you so great mercy oh how will it grieve you to think of the precious time of Youth which you madly cast away in sin Then you will think O what Knowledge what Holiness might I then have got What a comfortable life might I have lived O what daies and years of mercy did I cast away for nothing Yea when God hath given you the pardon of your sin the tast of his love and the hopes of Heaven it will wound your hearts to think that you should so long so unthankfully so heinously offend so good a God and neglect so merciful a Saviour and trample upon Infinite Divine Love for the love of so base a freshly pleasure That ever you should be so bad as to find more pleasure in sinning than in living unto God 6. And be it known to you if God in mercy convert and save you yet the bitter fruit of your youthful folly may follow you in this World to the grave God may forgive the pains of Hell to a penitent sinner and not forgive the temporal chastisement to his flesh If you waste your Estate in Youth you may be poor at Age If you marry a wicked Wife you may feel it till death notwithstanding your Repentance If by drinking gluttony idleness or filthy lust you contract any uncurable Diseases in Youth Repentance may not cure them till death All this might easily have been prevented if you had but had fore-seeing Wisdom Beggary Prisons Shame Consumptions Dropsies Stone Gout Pox which make the lives of many miserable are usually caused by youthful sins 7. And if ever you think to be men of any great wisdom and usefulness in the World to your selves or others your preparations must be made in Youth Great Wisdom is not got in a little time Who ever was an able Lawyer Physician or Philosopher without long and hard Study If you will not learn in the Grammar-Schools in your Childhood you will be unfit for the University at riper Age and if when you should be Doctors you are to learn to Spell and Read your shame will tell you that you should have sooner begun O that you well knew how much of the safety fruitfulness and comfort of all your after-life dependeth on the preparations of your Youth on the Wisdom and the Grace which you should then obtain As mens after trading doth on their Apprentiship 8. And O what a dreadful danger is it lest your youthful sin become remediless and custom harden you and deceivers blind you and God forsake you for your wilful resistance of his Grace God may convert old hardened sinners But how ordinarily do we find that Age doth but answer the preparations of Youth and the Vessel ever after savoureth of the Liquor which first throughly tainted it And men are but such as they learned to be and do at first If you will be perfidious breakers of your Baptismal Vows it 's just with God to leave you to your selves to a deluded understanding to think evil good and good evil to a seared conscience and a hardened heart and as past feeling to work uncleanness with greediness Ephes. 3.18 and to fight against Grace and your own Salvation till Death and Hell convince you of your madness O sport not with the Justice of a sin-hating God! Play not with sin and with the unquenchable fire Forsaking God is the way to be forsaken of him And what is a forsaken soul but a miserable Slave of Satan 9. Yea did you but know of what moment it is to prevent all the heinous sins that else you will commit you would make haste to Repent though you were sure to be forgiven Forgiveness maketh not sin to be no sin or to be no evil no shame no grief to the soul that hath committed it You will cry out O that I had never known it To look back on such an ill-spent life will be no pleasant thought Repentance though a healing work is bitter yea oft-times exceeding bitter Make not work for it if you love your peace 10. And is it a small thing to you that you are all this while doing hurt to others And drawing them to sin and plunging them into that dangerous guilt which can no way be pardoned but by the blood of Christ upon true Conversion And when they have joyned with you in lust and fleshly pleasure it is not in your power to turn them that they may joyn with you in sound Repentance And if not they must lie in Hell for ever And can you make a sport of your own and other mens damnation But this leadeth me to the Second Point I have shewed you of what vast concernment it is to your selves to begin betimes a holy life I will next shew you of what concernment it is to others CHAP. III. Of what Publick Concernment the Quality of Youth is § 1. THe welfare of the World is of far greater worth than of any single person and he hath put off Humanity who doth not more earnestly desire it If this World consisted but of one Generation then to make that Generation wise and good would be enough to make it a happy World But it is not so In Heaven and in the future glorious Kingdom there is neither marrying nor giving in marriage but they are as the Angels in a fixed everlasting State and one continued Generation maketh up the New Ierusalem Being once holy and happy they are so for ever But here it is not so One Generation cometh and another goeth If the Father be as wise as Solomon
very near Sure Reason would be Reason if you would but use it sure Light would come in if you would not shut the Windows and draw the Curtains on you and rather choose to sleep in darkness Is there nothing within you that grudgeth at your folly and threateneth you for being wilfully besides your selves If you would but spend one half hour in a day or a week in sober thinking whither you are going and what you have done and what you are and what you must shortly see and be how could you chuse but be deeply offended with your selves for living like men quite void of Understanding against your God against your selves against all the ends and obligations of life and this for nothing But it may be the distinctness of your consideration may make it the more effectual And if I put my Motives by way of Questions will you consider them till you have well answered them all § 2. Qu. 1. Are you not fully convinced that there is a God of Infinite Power Knowledge and Goodness who is the perfect Governour of all the World God forbid that any of you should be so bad so mad as seriously to doubt of this which the Devils believe while they would draw you to Unbelief To doubt of a perfect governing God is to wink and doubt whether there be a Sun to stop your ears against the notorious testimony of Heaven and Earth and every Creature You may next doubt whether there be any thing if you doubt of God For Atomes and Shadows are hardlier perceived with certainty than the Earth the Heavens and Sun Qu. 2. And if you believe that there is a Governing God do you not believe that he hath Governing Laws or notifications of his Will and that we owe this God more full more absolute exact Obedience than can be due to any Prince on Earth And greater love than to our dearest friend he being infinitely good and Love it self Can you owe more to your Flesh or to any than to your God that made you men by whom you have Life and Health and time and all the good that ever you received And can you give him too much Love and Obedience Or can you think that you need to fear being losers by him and that your faithful Duty should be in vain Qu. 3. Is it God that needeth you or you that need him Can you give him any thing that he wants or do you want what he hath to give Can you live an hour without him Or be kept without him from pain misery or death Is it not for your own need and your own good that he requireth your service Do you know what his service is It is thankfully to receive his greatest Gifts To take his Medicines to save your Souls To feast on his prepared comforts He calls you to far better and needfuller Obedience for your selves than when you command your Child to take his meat or wear his cloaths or when he is sick to take a necessary remedy And is such Obedience to be refused Qu. 4. Hath not Nature taught you to love your selves Surely you cannot be willing to be damned Nor be indifferent whether you go to Heaven or Hell And can you believe that God would set you on that which would do you hurt and that the Devil is your Friend and would save you from him Can you believe that to please your Throat and Lust till death snatch away your Souls to judgment is more for your own good than to live here in holiness and the love of God and hereafter to live for ever in Glory Do you think you have lived as if you truly loved your selves or as self destroyers All the Devils in Hell or Enemies on Earth could never have done so much against you as by your sensuality ungodliness and sloth you have done against your selves O poor sinner as ever thou wouldst have mercy from God in thy extremity be intreated to shew some mercy on thy self Qu. 5. Hath not Nature deeply taught all the World to make a great difference between Virtue and Vice between Moral good and evil If the good and bad do not greatly differ what makes all mankind even the sons of pride to be so impatient of being called or accounted bad and love to be accounted wise and good How tenderly do most men bear a reproof or to hear that they do amiss To be called a wicked man a lyar a perjured man a knave how ill is it taken by all mankind This certainly proveth that the Conscience of the great difference between the good and bad is a common natural notice And will not God make a greater difference who better knoweth it than man Qu. 6. If God had only commanded you Duty even a holy righteous and sober life and forbidden you the contrary and had only bid you seek everlasting happiness and made you no promise of it should you not in reason seek it chearfully in hope Our folly leadeth us to do much in vain but God setteth no man on any vain employment If he do but bid you resist Temptation mortifie Lust learn his Word pray to him and praise him you may be sure it is not to your loss A reward you may be sure of if you knew not what it will be Yea if he set you upon the hardest work or to pass the greatest danger or serve him at the dearest rate or lose your Estate for him and life itself what reason can fear being losers by obeying God Yea the dearest service hath the greatest reward But when he hath moreover ascertained your reward by a Promise a Covenant sworn and sealed by his Miracles by Christs Blood by his Sacraments by his Spirit if yet you will be ungodly because you cannot trust him you have no excuse Qu. 7 Do you know the difference between a man and a Bruit Bruits have no capacity to think of a God and a Saviour and a Life to come and to know Gods Law and study Obedience and fear Hell and sin nor reason to rule their Appetites and Lusts nor any hope or joy in foreseen Glory But man is made capable of all this And can you think God maketh such noble faculties in vain Or should we live like Bruits that have none such Qu. 8. Do you not certainly know that you must die All the World cannot hinder it You must die And is it not near as well as sure How swift is time O how quickly shall we all be at our race and Warfares end And where then is the pleasure of Pride and Appetite and Lust Neither the dismal Carkass nor the dust or bones retain or taste it And alas the unconverted Soul must pay for it for ever And can you think that so short a bruitish pleasure that hath so sure and sad an end is worthy the grieving of your Friends the offending God the hazard of your Souls the loss of Heaven and the suffering of Gods justice in