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
encourage them yea to make them rejoyce Do they sometimes Mourn with a godly sorrow yet may they still rejoyce since to consider the end and effect of that sorrow will give it a mixture of Joy And even their penetential tears do but clear their eyes to look up to Heaven with delight and comfort and enable them the better to read a pardon And here it were easy to shew how their Faith and hope and love how their humility meekness and patience their contentedness with God's allotment their resignation to his Will their satisfaction in his Choyce their well pleasedness with his Order their preparedness for every Condition their diligence in their callings their moderation in the use of lawful things and their innocency and harmlesness in their carriage and behaviour towards others do all contribute to a chearful and a joyful life Therefore well might the Psalmist tell us that the Righteous shall be glad in the Lord Psal 64.10 and all the upright in Heart shall Glory And well might our Lord advise his Disciples not to be lifted up with the gift of Miracles but rejoyce rather that their names were written in Heaven Luke 10.20 And well might the Apostle command Christians to rejoyce not by an Ironie as Solomon here speaks to the Young Man but in the most real and proper sense Rejoyce in the Lord always yea and again I say rejoyce Thus much for the first General 2. Let us consider in that the Wise-man directs his discourse to the Young Man in perticular we have thence a plain intimation that of all others young persons are most apt to neglect the fear of God and be unmindful of their Maker through the temptation of sensual pleasures and youthful lusts Tho' God demand his right as soon as we are capable of understanding it and to serve the Lord from our youth is but just and reasonable considering that so great a part of our life is already cut off by our Infancy and Childhood tho' the longer we delay the greater difficulty shall we meet with when ever we set about it tho' our whole life at longest as soon as we are capable and as long as we did live should be devoted to God and 't is all little enough if we consider its relation to our Eternal State tho' the sooner we begin the more welcome we shall be and the more acceptable our Obedience yea tho' an Early piety be the only hopeful method to prevent the hazard of a sudden death and the terrible reflections of old age and the intolerable pangs a death bed remorse yet such is the power of Original Sin in young persons such and so many are the snares of youth and those so agreeable to their vicious inclinations such the force of prejudice Such the artifices of the Devil and so prevalent the perswasions of evil Company they are usually so proud ignorant and unexperienced so rash hasty and unadvised and so easily infected with Sadducism and the principles of Infidelity so loth to assent to any such premises whose conâ—lâ—sion will infer the nessessity of changing their present course that they of all others do most need a serious admonition to remember their latter end and final Judgment least through the temptations of Sensual mirth and pleasure they put the evil day far from them For alas how seldome do we consider in Youth what we are and why we were made or what is our business in the World and what will be the end of our present course Whereas one thought of God and our last Judgment methinks should be enough to drown all other thoughts as the noise of a Canon doth that of a Whisper Sense is so prevalent and Reason so weak we are so much inclined to the one and so unwilling to be led by the other that roys and trifles sports and recreations and the vanities of fools and Children possess our hearts and employ our time not looking behind us to what we have either done or been nor before us whither we are going and what in all likelyhood will be the period of our present mirth and the sad Catastrophe of our Youthful lusts Young persons will hardly be convinced but that Now is their season to be brisk and Jovial having time as they count to command and the World before them that it is time enough to think of Death when they are arrested by sickness or wither'd by old Age let them be concerned about another World who are leaving this their bloed now is warm and their Spirits nimble their senses are quick and their passions strong they will walk in the way of their own hearts and in the sight of their eyes and ordinarily split upon that Rock of Evil company where so many thousand Vessells at their first launching out have dasht in pieces Besides their Age is most inviting to the Devil to bend his chiefest forces against them rather than against Children or Aged persons the former not being capable of making a choice and the latter being fix'd and resolv'd in their way his principal endeavours therefore are levell'd against Youth to draw off their hearts from God and Holy things and to divert their thoughts from the consideration of Death and Judgment which would otherwise restrain and check them in pursuit of their lusts And this brings me to the Third General to consider 3. That for all these things God will bring us to Judgment And therein what Arguments the thoughts of a future Judgment may rationally suggest to damp the carnal mirth of young persons and persuade them to remember their Creatour in the days of their youth And to inforce this Argument I might here mind you of the mischief you will do to others by an ill example and of the aggravation of your sin by employing the best of your time in the service of the Devil which must needs make judgment more terrible in that your final doom the consequences of it will be more severe I might tell you the sooner you repent the more hopeful is your case in reference to a pardon I might largely describe the happy influence of an early Piety with respect to the future part of our lives to direct our choice and govern our actions and prevent a great deal of Sin and shame sorrow and repentance I might mention the comfortable reflections in Old Age upon a well-spent life our capacity of greater Service to God now and our assurance of a weightier crown of Glory hereafter with all the other considerable benefits that have respect either to a safe and happy life a comfortable Old Age and a peacable Death or a joyful Resurrection and a blessed Eternity all which will come under the Argument in the Text and what I shall say of it may be compriz'd under the following particulars 1. Let young persons consider that notwithstanding their present mirth and jollity yet the Judgement of God is infallibly certain It is an
But let us make it our business to recover as many Souls as we can to God and when any are regain'd and born anew according to that ancient Idea of having all Children taken for the Children of the Common-wealth let us whoever was the happy instrument account they are neither mine nor yours but the Children of the Christian Church of the Common-wealth of Israel the Sons of God and a part of the Redeemers Seed How great will the common Joy be upon all such occasions And God will rejoyce over us all to do us good with all his heart and with all his Soul and to use us for the doing of much His Co-operation and Blessing may then be cheerfully expected when our united strength and endeavour is aimed all one way and directed to ends great and noble worthy of God and which he will not disdain or count it dishonourable and unfit to concur unto It will surely one day come to this Nor is it to be despaired of but that the late work of God's Grace upon this young man though since prematurely taken away may be the earnest and pledge of more of the same blessed kind and this Birth part of the first Fruits of a Pious Generation to succeed wherein Religion shall live and be transmitted in greater rigour to them that shall come after Our hope lies mostly among such And we earnestly desire you that are young and in the prime of your age and strength seriously to consider how much the stress of a Religious Interest for future time in England depends upon you Which that you may to better purpose consider also how much you more peculiarly have of present hope in your own case God hath a kindness for your Age makes his first applications to you at your entrance upon the common affairs and business of humane Life that you would then bethink your selves of him as your Creatour and consider how you came into the World whence it would not be difficult to collect for what He covets the beginning of strength his Soul desires the first ripe fruits And you have reason to be consident that what he seeks he will accept if you consecrate them to him as the first fruits were the sacred devoted part Some of you may perhaps already discern in your selves vicious inclinations but your vices are not yet so deeply rooted nor are so fixedly habitual as theirs who are grown old in Sin and estrangement from God You have not so oft grieved his good Spirit You have not resisted so many checks of Conscience nor stifled so many convictions as many others have You have a merciful God to deal with Those are his own words Prov. 1.23 and spoken more especially to such as you as you will see looking back to v. 4. Turn ye at my reproof behold I will pour out my Spirit to you Vnto that great God the Maker and Lord of Heaven and Earth you have been solemnly devoted Consider how great and awful names the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost were in your Baptism named upon you You are as truly obliged hereby as you are to your natural Prince though perhaps you have not as yet taken in your own Persons the Oath of Allegiance You would think it a reproach and it would probably prove a ruin to you to begin your course of commerce in the world with Treachery and Falshood Is it more Just or Prudent and Safe to deal deceitfully with your God than with men Do not think he is to be less the object of your Love Fear and Obedience for that you see him not How many Subjects in England have never seen the face of their King and are they the less bound to be Loyal and Obedient And how are you bound but for the sake of this invisible Lord and in him You have not seen your own Soul or whatever you will call the vital Principle in you which yet you are sure you have for can you not distinguish your living body from a dead are you not sure you live and do you not love your own life tho' you have not seen the very Principle it self which you live by the God you have not seen is as near you In him you live move and have your being You have great encouragement and obligation to seek the Lord that you may even feel Acts 17. and find him out who is so little far from any of you You are his Ofspring as the Holy Apostle tells you in the words of an Heathen that you might understand it to be no new or strange notion but even then ancient and common He is the Author and Parent of your Life and Being It is unnatural to affect distance and strangeness to your own Father It is through the high excellency of his nature that you see him not And he is the object therefore of your more excellent faculties You have a mind capable of knowing him and a will of choosing him for your God if they were made pure and holy and aright directed towards him which his Grace and Spirit can soon effect in you when you seriously seek and rely upon them 'T is of greatest concernment to you to have his Favour in whose Power you are and in whose Hand your Breath is And can you be exempt from his Power who made you and all things if you doubt whether he can dispose of you reward or punish you was not the making of this World a greater thing you cannot be so imposed upon if you use your understandings as to be made believe that it made it self For could you if you were not make your selves and were it easier for all things than for you And you may sensibly perceive if you will but reflect and use your thoughts that you are Subject to a Superiour Over-ruling Power that there is a Lord over you and that you live not according to your own wills For are you never sick against your wills or in pain against your wills and do you not know you must one day dye tho' you be never so unwilling is it not better to have that mighty Lord your Friend than your Enemy in his Favour is life And he is in a Redeemer reconcileable to you Read seriously 2 Cor. 5.17 18 19 20 21. Kingdoms and Nations are thrown into confusion if he be displeased and no course be taken for seasonable reconciliation * Jer. 18.7.8.9 10. And can you stand before his anger he hath long been England's God your God and your Forefathers Do not you in your own minds esteem that wise and sage counsel thy Friend and thy Fathers Friend forsake thou not * Pro. 27.10 How much more thy God and thy Fathers God! It lies upon you whether he shall continue the God of England The parental right derived unto young ones continues the visible relation while their nonage lasts and incapacity to treat and capitulate for themselves But