delayes you run your souls upon great hazards and uncertainties There are many dangers and great peradventures in a little delay Your lives are perfectly uncertain since no age is fenced or secured against the killing Shaft of Death Some Flowers are nipped in the bud some springs fall into the sea as soon as they rise out of the earth The thred of life in some is soon cut off and the candle blown out almost as soon as lighted When you walk through a Church-yard you may see little Graves and small skulls as well as great ones And you hear of many snatched away in the full strength and prime of their years So that you may dye while you are young and without piety and grace be damned while you are young Therefore 't is most safe to become Religious and secure your salvation in the first place having no assurance of your life for a day and being subject to Death every moment Nor have you any security of the means of Grace though with Hezekiah you had a Lease of your Life and for as many years as the longest lived Antedeluvian arrived to yet you have no assurance that God will hold the light of his Gospel to you to the period of that long day Now you have means and opportunities lights and helps Sabbath upon Sabbath line upon line one motion and call upon another to remember your Creator to make Religion your business and to mind Heaven in good earnest and if you will not do this now if you will be idle and unfruitfull and run the hazard of what God can do he can and may quickly take away his Gospel from you and turn your light into darkness that like the blinded Sodomites for Lots door you shall grope for the strait gate to Heaven and not find it He that can sweep away thousands by a Plague and by devouring burnings lay stately Towns and Cities in the dust can find out a way to bring a famine not of Amos 8. 11. bread but of hearing the Word of the Lord so that you shall run from one end of the Land to the other to seek the Word and shall not find it I know you cannot be ignorant that at this very day there are many in England that pull hard for it to take away the Means of Grace and knowledge from you To take away the written Word and to give you a Legend to read instead of a Bible The Gospel of the Virgin Mary or of St. Francis in lieu of the Gospel of Christ and dumb Idols to worship instead of the living God And I must tell you if the youth of this Age if the present rising Generation don 't speedily heighten and encrease their regard to Religion and their esteem of Gods Word and Ordinances Gods Ministers and the means of Grace I fear lest God should suffer those things to come to pass For why should God continue that you care not for and will not improve but account rather a burden then a benefit But put case none of all this should be but that the day of your life should belong and the day of the Gospel as long as it yet there is still a further hazard in delay in regard of the uncertainty of Gods working with the Means For the wind of the spirit bloweth when and where it listeth You may now feel the fair gales and sweet breezes of the spirit moving upon your hearts and blowing fair for Heaven and if you do not now hoist the sails the wind may slack and duller and you may be becalmed for ever God may say his spirit shall strive no more or swear in his wrath you shall not enter into his rest Now God calls if you will not hearken you may call and cry hereafter and he will not hear Then shall they cry unto Pro. 1. 24. c. the Lord but he will not hear them But they refused to hearken and pulled away Mich. 3. 4. the shoulder and stopped their ears that they should not hear they made their hearts Zech. 7. 11 12 13. as an Adamant stone lest they should hear the Law and the words which the Lord of Hosts hath sent in his Spirit therefore it is come to pass that as he cryed that is the Prophet and they would not hear so they cryed and I would not hear saith the Lord of Hosts This is sufficient to caution you to take heed of stopping your ears when they should be most open and ready to hear Do you not read of Esau's weeping for the blessing to no purpose of the foolish Virgins going to buy Oyle too late and of our Saviours telling Jerusalem that her day was spent and those things belonging to her peace were hid from her eyes And don 't these sad examples tell you that there are many who have the sun of mercy set to their souls before the day of their lives may be half spent that God ceaseth to call Christ to invite the Spirit to strive and obstinate sinners are given over to hardness judicial hardness and to treasure up to Rom. 2. 5. themselves wrath against the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God which is the greatest judgment Act. 28. 26 27. on this side Hell And may not this heavy sentence pass against you when you are old who wilfully neglect God and Religion while you are young seeing God is just and righteous in all this Justum est ut à Deo contemnatur moriens qui Deum Omnipotentem contempsit vivens 'T is just with God to contemn thee old and dying who hast despised him young and living not to know you then who will not know him now not to accept the blew Milk when the Devil hath sucked all the Cream just with God not to accept a Sacrifice from those hearts and hands of yours at death which never knew how to offer but to Beelzebub all your life Be wise therefore and consult your own safety which lyes in being religious betimes in following Christ by an holy conversation while you are young then come life come death if you have hold by faith but of the skirt of his garment you are safe and not before and 't is you see a threefold Peradventure if you refuse this now that you shall gain it hereafter Peradventure you may dye young peradventure you may be deprived of the means of Grace or peradventure God may not hereafter work with the means but leave you to a judicial hardness § 7. Last of all weigh this You cannot begin so soon but your time will be spent by that time your work is done Young men if once you become Christians indeed disciples of Christ in truth as you enter upon a very profitable and honourable so upon a very difficult calling You have now a very great work lying upon your hands and but a short time to dispatch it in many Irons in the fire which call for
are vanity yea vanity of vanity And can you be satisfied with a bauble with an ens fictum with the meer notion of a thing nay they are not only empty and unsatisfying but sensual and brutish And though these delights may a little gratifie your sensual appetite yet they can never satisfie the rational part of man his soul The Devil and lust may promise fair and pretend full satisfaction to the mind in the commission of such a sin but ever fall short in the performance I ask the greatest Epicure the most voluptuous person that is in the world and if he will be true to his own experience let him tell me 1. Whether he ever found that pleasure and satisfaction in any vice that Satan promised and he expected Let the sin or vice be what it will yet did it ever yield that pleasure in commission that it did in speculation 2. Whether the choycest of his sinfull pleasures hath not in a little time brought trouble and weariness to his spirits 3. Whether this trouble and weariness is not more grievous and irksom than ever the sensual act was pleasant and delightfull 4. If amongst the choycest and chiefest of his delights in which as he conceives he finds most sweetness and pleasure he should have but one delight without variety and change whether that delight would not soon lose its nature and become a very torment and burden to him As suppose the Drunkard were alwayes bound night and day to his cups the Glutton to his table the Sluggard to his Bed the Miser to his Bags or the lascivious Wanton to his Minion would not this be more irksom than delightful and would not his former contentment become a continual torment Therefore these pleasures are unsatisfying the reasonable part of man the soul cannot sit down or rest contented with them nor with any thing else beneath God by whom and for whom it was created 2. Though this temptation is of great force yet before you strike the bargain and engage your selves to the Tempter sit down again and consider a while the shortness of these pleasures and you will find them upon this account very inconsiderable They are but for a season What Heb. 11. 25 the Apostle saith of some meats is true of all the pleasures of sin they perish in the Col. 2. 22. using Some perish in the enjoying and those that are most durable quickly flee away Like a cloud or vapour if not blown away by the wind of adversity they quickly vanish of their own accord If the stormy wind of outward affliction doth not suddenly puff out the fancied blaze of the young mans joy yet the dayes of old age are drawing on Eccles 12. 1. in which he shall say he finds no pleasure Or to be sure so soon as the hand of death shall give the tree of life a shake these fair blossoms fall all at once And there will be none of these delights in another world 3. Before you make too firm a contract with this boasting Master 't is good to know what Wages he gives And that he may not decieve you take it from a better hand than his The wages Rom. 6. 21 22. of sin is death death that is opposite to eternal life Death that compriseth all in it that is wofull and miserable more sorrow than ever you had joy greater pain and torment than ever you found pleasure or contentment in the wayes of sin Believe it young men sin in the temptation hath a different aspect to what it hath in the reflexion In the former it looks pleasant and fair in the latter horrid and foul For besides the stings and lashes that sinners have in their secret retirements when they are under affliction or under any danger or apprehension of death and judgement there are many intolerable and remediless horrors to follow in another world as the proper consequents and just wages of a sinfull life which miseries if they were but as obvious to the sense now as the pleasures of sin are they would be infinitely more powerfull to take you off from sin than all the temptations of the Devil are or could be to draw you to it And methinks men who call and profess themselves Christians should walk a little by Faith and not wholly by sense and believe future things as certain upon the Divine assertion and revelation as if they really were and and you already felt them Which if you really did the Devil could never perswade you to forsake God who rewards his servants with a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory to serve 2 Cor. 4. 17. him whose wages are present shame and sorrow and hereafter a far more exceeding and eternal weight of misery § 2. Next to this he thinks it not amiss to recommend his service to you for the Glory and Vtility of it 1. As to the Glory of it nothing saith Satan gains men such repute and honour in the world as this He hath his cursed Angels and Agents to commend vice with the highest Elogiums and those that are most bold and daring and can arrive to the highest pitch and degree in sin shall have the greatest accumulations of honour and highest acclamations of bravery of spirit Who bear greater sway or obtain fairer plumes of honour in the world than my followers A suggestion mightily taking with Young men unless they shall consider That Sin hath no repute except it be among the vilest persons the Devils own servants and drudges whose esteem of it renders it the more abominable and odious You never heard any commend swearing drunkenness whoredom covetousness or any vice but such as lived and allowed themselves in the practice of it whose commendation makes them and their sins the more vile And were there such real repute and credit in sin what need is there to put it under the mask of vertue to render it acceptable why is this but because any vice appearing in its proper and native hue and owning its right name seems monstrous and shameful The holiness of God is his most glorious perfection and therefore sin which is directly contrary thereto can have no real glory in it And that is the glory of a man wherein he resembles God and whereby he gains favour and esteem with God and is this by sin Doth not God behold sinners afar off and hate all the workers of Iniquity and doth not all the repute and glory men get by sin and impiety end in the greatest shame and ignominy can that deserve the name of creditable and glorious which dishonors God abolisheth his Image in man defiles the soul besots the reason enslaves the whole man to the prince of darkness and inevitably brings upon all the practicers of it eternal contempt and reproach in the day of the Lord Jesus Surely then Satan saith more of his service than the sinner can ever expect to find 2. Nor doth it yield that Utility or
of your own Consciences Are you convinced that God in all respects is the best Master and that Religion will bring you the greatest profit and surest gain in the end having the promise both of the life that now is and of that which is to come Why then will you not serve God and become Religious Do you not know that sins against conscience will bring upon you the greatest Vengeance Are you not also convinced of this that men when they come to dye wish they had minded Religion more and served God better And do you not think that when death seizeth you you shall be of the same mind and say O that I had more regarded holiness and the practice of Religion and dedicated and devoted my self to God by an holy life who made me heaped many mercies upon me and promised infinite and eternal rewards to me And will not the thoughts and remembrances of your neglect of Religion and service of God now at death be more bitter than the practice of it could have been burthensome in your life Without doubt it will and must Therefore if you would not be self-condemned at death and judgment resolve to become speedily and seriously Religious to redeem your time to serve the true and Living God with the deepest humility the greatest fear the hottest love and highest faith and the remainder of your days to have your fruits unto holiness that the end may be everlasting life CHAP. VIII Wherein is briefly set forth the excellency of the wayes of Religion above the wayes of Sin § 1. AS a farther perswasive to the practice of Religion and an holy life consider that the way of holiness the way to Heaven take it at the very worst with all the miseries and afflictions that may attend it is better than the way of sin the way to Hell take it at the very best with all the sensual delights and pleasures that are to be found in it The poorest bitterest most despised way to rest and felicity is infinitely more choosable than the richest sweetest fullest and fairest way to torment and misery It is better to go to Christ through a Dungeon in chains of iron than to Satan through a Paradise in chains of Gold Look upon these two with a proper real and sound estimation and there is no comparison between the worst of Piety and the best of Iniquity One is called the way of darkness the other the way of light the one the way of truth the other the way of error the way of holiness is called the way of life the way of sin the way of death The one ends in the highest communion with God the other in the fullest separation from God The former leads to the greatest supernatural blessedness the other to the lowest and most inconceivable destruction Now that I may fully convince your judgments of the truth of this point I shall hint some scripture arguments to confirm it and such as carry with them the greatest force of reason to perswade the minds of men to believe it They are such as these § 2. Though there be more miserable evils in the way of the Godly yet there are more sinfull evils in the way of the wicked Divines distinguish of evils Sinfull and sorrowfull evills Sorrowfull or penall evils which are these outward losses abridgment want disquietness pain sickness reproach and such like There are indeed many of these evils in the way of the righteous And there are sinfull evils as wickedness of heart profaneness of life in the way of the ungodly Now consider all the sorrowful miserable evils of this life and they are but minima in genere malorum the least kind of evils As the good things of this life are the least kind of good things therefore so often heaped upon the wicked And as I said these outward evils which are opposite to these outward good things are but the least kind of evils As Poverty is opposite to Riches imprisonment to liberty sickness to health and want to fulness But what is a sinful evil opposite to 'T is opposite to the best to the greatest good that is God Opposite to the Will of God to the nature glory presence and fruition of God Some good may come by sorrowfull evils a man may climb to Heaven by the cross as the good Thief did But no good can come to a man by sinfull evils for they are all killing and damning Now what is a light affliction for a moment to a destruction endless and intolerable § 3. There be some crosses in the way of Holiness and Religion but there be many curses in the way of sin Our Saviour hath said indeed If any man will come after me let him take up his cross and follow me Such must expect trouble But the advantage is as the Christian is not exempted from the Cross so neither is the Cross divided from the Comfort But as their sufferings abound so their consolation Cor. 2. 1. 5. abounds much more by Christ And a sweetned Cross is better than an imbittered Crown 'T is better that the meat lye in the preserving Brine than rot in the sweetest honey But on the contrary in the way of sin there are it may be not so many Crosses but more Curses As the way of the wicked is filled up with sins so 't is filled up all along with Curses The Pro. 3. 33. Curse of the Lord is in the House of the wicked but he blesseth the habitation of the just And in the 28th of Deuteronomy see how Deut. 28. ad finem cap. thick Curses are sown in the way of the wicked Cursed shall he be in the Field Cursed shall he be in the City Cursed in his basket in his store c. And is not this a miserable way that a man cannot set a step in it but a Curse attends him Is not a Prison where the light of Gods countenance shines better than a Palace where the cloud of Gods wrath sets Is it not better to meet with unpleasant Physick than to drink a delightfull Cup of Poyson Is not a Cross in the way and happiness in the end better than pleasure in the way and Cursedness in the end Then the way of Religion is better than the way of sin § 4. Though in the way of sin you may enjoy more of the Creature yet in the ways of holiness you shall enjoy more of God Wicked men in Scripture are called children of the night good men children of the day Now though in the night there be more stars yet in the day there is more Sun and the Sunlight is better than starlight The ungodly possess more of this world therefore called the men of the world whose bellies God is said to fill with this world as he did Dives his but he had better been without it And David speaking of the wicked saith they Psa 73. Job 21. have more than heart can wish And Job
then choose the pleasures of sin for a season for a few dayes and refuse the pleasures at Gods right hand for evermore Suppose I were now tumbling and trembling upon my dying bed under a cold sweat my eyes set my heart fainting and my breath departing as it must and will be with me a few days hence should I then choose Hell before Heaven should I say then God damn me Lord reject my soul for evermore or this rather Lord Jesus receive my spirit Lord take me to thy self in glory would I then say Lord never let me share in thy mercy or Lord have mercy upon me Lord let me be a companion for the Devil and his Angels in regions of darkness and devouring burnings to all eternity or Lord let me enter into the new Jerusalem the City of the living God the Church of the first-born to the communion of Saints and the spirits of just men made perfect Which of these states would you then choose § 3. Why sinner the former of these is that which you choose now who choose the ways of sin and service of Satan You choose wrath and damnation the company of Devils exclusion from Heaven the place of bliss and the fullest the furthest separation and distance from God the chief good and center of all happiness And is this the choyce you will make in the end when you come to dye No God forbid then reflect and consider a little and be not rash but serious I beseech you in these great things If Heaven be better than Hell life sweeter than death if glory be more desirable upon a dying bed than misery and mercy than wrath why should not the way to mercy and glory be better than the way to destruction the way to life more pleasant to you than the way to death Why should you not choose the way of Religion and holiness now and enter upon it presently this day before the next since you are convinced you must come into this way before you dye or you can never be saved And since you purpose it hereafter and talk of repentance and holiness hereafter why have you any such thoughts or purposes at all but that you are convinced 't is the way to Heaven and that you shall choose the end of this way when death comes And why should you not refuse shun hate and avoid the way of sin now when you are convinced in your consciences you shall be loath to receive the fruit and end of that way when you come to leave the world Certainly wicked men have no reason on their side The Apostle saith Great is the mystery of godliness truly I may invert his words and say Great is the mystery of wickedness For I can see no reason nor do I think any man upon serious thoughts can render any good or solid reason why he should choose the way of the wicked rather than the way of the upright to follow the Devil rather than Christ and to walk in the paths of sin rather than the way of Religion Only men will do it so they are sinful and wicked and will be for ever miserable and wretched because they will fulfilling that of the Prophet their destruction is of themselves 't is wilfull destruction 't is chosen damnation § 4. Therefore young men for whose sake principally I undertook this little work take for a close that of the Prophet Say unto the righteous it shall be well with him for they shall eat the fruit of their doings Isa 3. 10 11 Woe unto the wicked it shall be ill with him for the reward of his hands shall be given him And sit down and consider it till you have brought your hearts to a firm belief of the truth of it There are but two wayes wherein all the men in the world are travelling the way of Sin and the way of Righteousness But two Leaders whom they all follow Christ or the Devil But two places whither they all tend Heaven or Hell And know this direction and exhortation is from the Lord though handed to you by his unworthy servant and if you deny me you therein deny him and if so the time is coming and will come when he will deny you And dare any of you deny the Lord and say as those wicked ones to the Prophet Jeremiah Jer. 44. 16 17. As for the word which thou hast spoken to us in the Name of the Lord we will not hearken to it We will not forsake our sins we will not follow Christ nor be tyed and bound to such circumspection and holiness as his followers are and as his Word requires But we will do whatsoever proceedeth Jer. 18. 12. ceedeth out of our own mouth do our own devices and walk every one after the imagination of his own evil heart And are you content and willing God should take you at your words and for ever give you over to your own hearts lusts to walk in your own wayes and after your own counsels Are you willing from henceforth to give up all your hopes in Christ your hope of Heaven your hope of Life Salvation and eternal glory and to be damned for ever in another world why this is the choyce you are put to either to live an holy life or to be for ever miserable after death either to submit to the Yoak of Christ or never to receive benefit by the Cross of Christ to kiss the Scepter of his Mercy or fall by the sword of his Justice either to follow him in his Kingdom of Grace or to be eternally excluded his Kingdom of Glory There is no other way but these two One of these you must choose The summe of all is you must repent or perish and follow after Holiness or never see the Lord. Religion is the only way God hath made to Heaven and if you never walk in the way you can never come thither And assure your selves I can have no other end or interest to aim at in taking any pains to perswade you to be good and to be sincere followers of our Lord Jesus Christ but this His glory and your salvation which to aim at is doubtless your Interest as much as mine and if all that I have written cannot convince you 't is so 't is but a few days more and Death and Judgment shall Gloria Trinuni Deo sine Fine THE Young Man's Monitor OR A POETICAL PARAPHRASE Upon the XIIth Chapter of ECCLESIASTES The PREFACE Eccles XII i. Remember now thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth while the evil dayes come not nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them YOung man remember in thy youthfull age Thy Great Creator and betimes ingage Thy Soul and body both with all thy might To do him Service e're the sable night Of frightfull death approach or evil day Of old decrepid age wherein you 'l say There is no pleasure nor a will to work Youth 's
will make you either as miserable as Devils or as happy as Angels I shall add no more but desire you to make this little book your pocket-companion which may sometimes be an assistant to you in grapling with a Lust encountring a Temptation or answering any objection or Cavil which the Devil or his Agents may make against the early dedication of your selves to God by an holy life Nor shall I make any other apology for this publication in this Censorious age but this He that winneth souls is wise Pro. 11. 30. 'T is my duty and desire by all wayes and means to promote the good of Souls And if among the many thousand young ones in this Parish I can gain but one from sin to righteousness from Satan to God I shall neckon it an abundant Recompence for all the Censures I can suffer from evil men If with holy David I may glorifie God and serve my generation by doing good in this or any other kind I shall answer the end of my being and of my being what I am Which that I may let him have the help of your prayers who compassionately wishes the eternall health and happiness of your Souls April 24 th 1680. Samuel Peck IN LAUDEM OPERIS IE to reform the Age and stop the Sluce Of flowing wickedness that 's now let loose Throughout the world if to restore in one The life and beauty of Religion Unto their primitive perfection Or to revive languishing piety Any endeavour may conducive be It must be such as these preventatives The only means to save those pretious lives That yet are free from the inveterate rage Of Vicious habits mortal made by age Obste principiis Sin 's incroachments be Best Smothered by an Early piety The young men of the Princes must be they That must the Enemies of Israel slay 1 King 20. 14. And gain the conquest young men it must be Your selves must gain the glorious Victorie Over God's Enemies such by St. John Are said to Overcome the wicked one Now be Courageous and to lead you on See here is come a Christian Champion The will Conduct you ' gainst the armed files Of Hellish Powers and betray their wiles Unto your View follow his conduct let Your Eyes be now upon his Counsels set Hearken unto his Exhortations bend Your minds to the advice of such a friend That sees your danger and endeavours thus To render you at last Victorious Youths let your practice be his praise as one That seeks no more the profit's still your own R. Tuke Books lately Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside ONe Hundred Select Sermons on several Texts Preached by Tho. Horton late of St. Hellens London Printed from his own Manuscripts left under his hand Sermons by the same Author on 4 th Psalm 42 51 63. Psalm Several Discourses concerning the actual Providence of God in 55. Sermons on several Texts by John Collings D. D. Sermons of Grace and Temptation by Tho. Froysel late Minister of Clunne in Shrop-shire Kingdom of God among Men with a discourse of Unity and Schisme by John Corbet Author of Interest of England Christ displayed as the choycest Gift and Best Master by Nath. Heywood Glimpse of Eternity by Abraham Caley An Exposition on the Assemblies Chatechisme by Tho. Vincent Divine Consolations against the fear of Death by John Gerrard Mr. Edward West's Legacy Counsel and comfort for Troubled Souls by Hen. Wilkinson D. D. A Warning to young men in an Impartial Relation of the horrid murther acted by Robert Brinkhurst A practical Discourse of Prayer wherein is handled the nature and duty of Prayer by Tho. Cobbet Of quenching the Spirit the evil of it in respect both of its causes and effects discovered by Theophilus Polwhiele The re-building of London encouraged and improved in several meditations by Samuel Rolls The sure way to Salvation or a Treatise of the Saints mystical Union with Christ by Richard Stedman M. A. Sober Singularity by the same Author The mischief of sin by Tho. Watson The Childs Delight together with an English Grammar Reading and Spelling made easie both by Tho. Lye The Young-mans Instructor and the Old-mans Remembrancer being an Explanation of the Assemblies Catechism Captives bound in Chains made free by Christ their Surety both by Tho. Doolitle Eighteen Sermons preached upon several Texts of Scripture by William Whitaker The life and death of Edmund Stanton D. D. To which is added a Treatise of Christian-conference and a Dialogue between a Minister and a Stranger Sin the plague of Plagues or sinful sin the worst of Evils by Ralph Venning M. A. Cases of Conscience practically resolved by I. Norman The Faithfulness of God considered and cleared in the great Events of his Word or a Second part of the fulfilling of the Scripture A Cordial Endeavour TO Prevail with YOUTH to be Pious CHAP. I. SInce the first quarrell in the Garden between Man and the Devil wherein Satan proved so successeful he hath never wanted Seconds to take up his Weapons and manage his warfare against the promised seed God told the Woman then I Will put enmity and hath it not Gen. 2. 15. proved true Hath it not been so all along from Adam to Noah from Noah to Abraham and so to Christ Mark the whole passages of our Saviours life and tell me what day was not to him a persecution how was he tossed from post to pillar and from one danger to another How many wiles and snares did the Enemies contrive and lay for him that they might take him and Mark 14. 1. put him to death which though he long avoided yet at length this their wicked purpose was effected And now the Captain is taken the Soldier must look to suffer v. 46. when the principal is slain the followers must expect to bleed The apprehension of Christ could not quench or satisfie the bloody thirst of these blinded Jews but having laid hands on the leader they eagerly seek after all the herd Having rent the Lamb from the fold they seek to worry the whole Flock as appears by the Evangelists relation of the Soldiers dealing with a young man that followed Christ And there followed him a certain young man v. 51 52. having a linen cloth about his naked body and the young men laid hold on him and he left his linen Cloth and fled from them naked Fled for his life and glad he could escape with an whole skin Some would have this tragedy foretold by the prophet Amos And Amos 2. last he that is Couragious among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day saith the Lord. But I conceive otherwise that the prophet here speaks of the flight of the Israelites before their enemyes which the Lord himself had threatned of old by Moses Deut. 28. 15. for their disobedience This therefore of the Evangelist cannot be said to be any accomplishment or fulfilling of any
his long home and the mourners go about the streets BEfore thou be afraid of what is high And causeless fears now in thy way do lye Before the blooming of the Almond tree And the Grashopper shall a burden be Before desire fail because man must To his long home that is return to dust The Mourners fill the streets with hideous cryes And make them eccho their sad Elegyes PARAPHRASE BEfore thy Health and Strength are so far spent That thou shalt tremble at the least ascent Time was you could have over mountains run Climb pyramids as if you 'ld fetch the Sun From his Celestial Orb or meant to trace Some other Planet in his nimble race But now 't is otherwise you stoop and bow Creep on all four looking down below And if but one of all the four do stumble You tot'ring stand and in a moment tumble And when thy crasie body's down it lyes Looking for help but hath not strength to rise Hence 't is the smallest stone or straw or Hill That 's in thy way thy way with fears doth fill The Almond Tree doth flourish gray hairs sit Thick on thy head as blossoms do on it Those Church-yard flowers make thy head as white As Mother Earth is in a snowy night The Grashopper the lightest burthen tires Thy old and crasie bones All thy Desires Of pomp and pleasure fail the Mourners meet And pensive walk together in the Street Because thine age doth tell them that the Grave Hath got one foot already and must have The other shortly one step more and then No tears or groans can call thee back ag'en Remember thy Creator c. VERSE VI. Or ever the Silver Cord be loosed or the Golden bowl be broken or the Pitcher be broken at the Fountain or the Wheel broken at the Cistern BEfore the Cord of Silver lose its strength The Bowl of Gold be broken or at length The Pitcher from the Fountain broken go Or Wheel be broken at the Cistern too PARAPHRASE BEfore the Pith or Marrow of thy back That heretofore could bend and yet not crack Could burdens bear and ne're complain or winch Be weak and loosed with an aged wrinch Before the Pericardium of thy brain Being broke and shatter'd thou turn child again While yet the Veins and Vessels do impart The Spirits to the Fountain of thine Heart VERSE VII Then shall the dust return to the Earth and the Spirit shall return to God who gave it FOr when these cease thy Spirit takes it's flight To God and bids thy body now good night So thy day 's ended now thou must return A lump of Ashes to thy lasting Urn. The Conclusion VERSE VIII Vanity of vanities saith the Preacher all is vanity THus thou hast Reader in a rustick strain The wisemans counsel What doth yet remain Are strong and well fram'd Arguments to prove His counsel seasonable and to move Thee to the practice of it One doth lye In the eighth verse that all is Vanity This was the Preachers text when he * Eccl. 1. 1. began And now he hath quite through his subject ran He re-asserts and doth with vigour cry Sirs I have prov'd it All is Vanity Riches and Honours and whate're the world Ver. 8. Affords are quickly into nothing hurl'd Its pomps and pleasures sensual delight Like Vanity do vanish when the night Of death approacheth or the evil Time Of aged darkness clouds thy youthful prime Nor doth the wiseman speak at random hee Had paid for counsel e're he counsel'd thee He sought it out and after doth dispense This spirit'al physick on experience Ver. 9. By Physick rules his Physick is the best It hath affix'd a true probatum est And that 's enough For though he could have writ No doubt whole Volumes on this Subject yet He gives the reason why he doth forbear ' Cause multitude of Books a burden are Ver. 12. A burden unto him to write to you To read a burden Wherefore Young man now Take all in brief thy Maker that 's above Ver. 13 14. Fear honour his Commandments keep and love The Motive to inforc't is this in Summe That thou must dye and unto Judgment come O aeterna Veritas vera Charitas chara Aeternitas tu es Deus meus ad te suspiro die nocte August Soli Deo Gloria Sine FINE A Plain and profitable Dialogue between a Sinner and Time Sinner THough Time be bald perhaps he is not dumb Would'st thou but stop Old Time I would have some Discourse about thy Person and thy Glass Thy Sythe and Foretop Pray before thou pass Give me but leave in a few words to try Whether thy self know'st what they signifie Time Ask what thou wilt I 'le answer as I walk But I ne're did nor now can stand to talk Sinner Why art thou bald Old Man what hast thou wore All off with age except that lock before Time No 't is an Hierogliphick that doth teach If time 's once past in vain it is to reach An hand out after him that you must meet Him as he comes if past you cannot greet Your Goods may be confiscate Money lent To Hucksters Houses burnt Estates quite spent You may imbrace a stinking Dunghil then Job 2. 8. Job 42. 10. As Job once did recover all agen But men or Angels cannot once repay To you the loss of one Month Week or Day Nor can one minute past e're be recall'd And that 's the meaning of my being bald Sinner But why do Eagles-wings adorn thy Glass To manifest how suddainly we pass From birth to death Or do they represent Our Swifter flight from hence the sand being speâ—â—… Time Yes 't is a lively Emblem that doth show How swift man 's few and sinful hours do go Not go but run run that 's too slow they flye Well said the Wiseman then a time to dye Eccl. 3. 2. And to be born there is but mentions none For life e're he could write it that was gone When Hezekiah's Sun and Moon 't is said And as some think his Stars were retrograde Full ten degrees and Joshua's Sun did stand Still in the Heavens still the nimble sand Of flying Time continued running They Who lived then could not for that long day Reckon themselves one day or hour younger Nor did it make their lives one minute longer But as the Glass continues running 'till The last sand drops so passeth Time and will Not step one minute back for high or low The Glass once run ready or not you go Where Time shall be no more but swallowed be Up in the Ocean of Eternity Thus miserable man you understand Why I this Glass do carry in my hand And though no Looking-glass yet maist thou see By it how short thy sinfull dayes may be Sinner What means thy crooked sweeping Sythe hast thou Taken the field of the whole world to mowe Time Yes that I have and will not let a
Spire Of with'ring grass live grow one Cubit higher Than is appointed by the God of Heav'n At whose commanding word I lay all ev'n My Sythe is keen and 't is impartiall too For I ne're strike untill my God saith do Cedars and Shrubs Rich Poor Good Bad do fall When their Time 's come 'T is I devour all More precious trees stand longer 'till they 're ripe But fruitless Cumber-grounds I often wipe Sooner away at his command who say's The wicked shall not live out half their dayes Psal 55. 23. And though a long time I have pickt and chose And still do so yet all must in the close Be hewed down Some shall transplanted be Into the heav'nly Canaan every tree That here is fruitfull Others that have bin Like the wild Olive fruitfull only in The works of darkness shall be hewed down And into everlasting fire thrown Matth. 3. 10. Sinner Once more and I have done fain would I know What is the reason Thou do'st Naked go Time In short it is to put all men in mind The Time is coming they must leave behind All worldly pomp and as they naked come Job 1. 21. Into the world return as naked home Riches nor Honours Robes nor ought they have Shall descend after them into their grave But that 's not all My naked body show's The Time is coming when God shall disclose Mark 4. 22 All secrets that lye hid and naked lay The hearts of all men at the Judgment day Rom. 2. 16. Sinner And yet once more old Time wilt thou declare To me my future daies how short they are How many are to come how many past That I may know how long my life shall last Psal 39. 4. Time No I may not God hath determin'd none Shall know how long their lives are nor how soon Death may o'retake them that they alwayes may Be making of provision for that day And one would think Vncertainty should make The Sinners flesh to tremble heart to ake To fly mad mirth all sin and still be doing Something for Heav'n who ev'ry hour 's going To Death and Judgment and for ought he know's This day may end his joys begin his woes Luk. 12. 20. To wind up all there is a Latin Verse Or two which now I only shall reherse 'T is to the purpose and a serious one I 'le leav 't with you to English and have done Fleres si scires unum tua tempora mensem Rides cum non sit forsitan una dies Englished If thou did'st know thy life should last One month and then expire Tho'uldst pass that month in Sorrow And dost thou laugh when this day past Perhaps thou maist retire Into thy grave to morrow God grant I then may number So My dayes which yet remain That whensoe're Death calls to go I Glory may attain Amen In illo die O Jesu esto mihi Jesus FINIS Books printed for and are to be sold by Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside SErmons on the whole Epistle of St. Paul to the Colossians by M. I. Daille translated into English by E. S. with Dr. Tho. Goodwin's and Dr. I. Owen's Epistles Recommendatory An Exposition of Christ's Temptation on Matth. 4. and Peter's Sermon to Cornelius and Circumspect Walking by Dr. Tho. Taylor A practical Exposition on the 3d Chap. of the 1 Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians with the Godly Man's choice on Psa 4. 6 7 8. by Anthony Burgesse An Exposition on four select Psalms viz. Sermons The fourth Psalm in eight The forty second Psalm in ten The fifty first Psalm in twenty The sixty third Psalm in seven An Analytical Exposition of Genesis and of 23 Chapters of Exodus by G. Hughes D. D. Books 4 to Present State of New England The Door of Salvation opened by the Key of Regeneration by G. Swinnock M. A. An Antidote against Quakerism by Steph. Scandert An Exposition of the 5 first Chapt. of Ezek. with useful observations thereupon by William Greenhill The Gospel-Covenant opened by P. Bulkley God's holy Mind touching matters Moral which he uttered in ten Commandments Also an Exposition on the Lord's Prayer by Edward Eston B D. The Fiery Jesuit or Historical Collections of the rise encrease Doctrines and Deeds of the Jesuits Horologiographia optica Dyalling universal and particular speculative and practical together with a description of the Court of Arts by a new Method by Sylvanus Morgan The Practical Divinity of the Papists discovered to be destructive to true Religion and mens Souls by I. Clarkon The Creatures goodness as they came out of God's hand and the good mans mercy to the brute creatures in two Sermons by Tho. Hodges B. D. Certain Considerations tending to promote Peace and Unity amongst Protestants Mediocria or the most plain and natural apprehensions which the Scripture offers concerning the great Doctrines of the Christian Religion of Election Redemption the Covenant the Law and Gospel and Perfection The Saints triumph over the last enemy in a Sermon at the Funeral of Mr. James Janeway by Nath. Vincent The Vanity of Man in his best estate in a discourse on Psal 39. 5. at the Funeral of the Lady Susanna Keate by Rich. Kidder M. A. Peaceable Disquisitions by Jo. Humphreys 56 Sermons of Providence by Joh. Collings D. D. Sermons concerning Grace and Temptation by Tho. Froysell The Morning Lecture against Popery or the Principal Errours of the Church of Rome detected and confuted in a Morning Lecture preached by several Ministers of the Gospel in or near London Four usefull discourses 1 The Art of improving a full and prosperous condition for the glory of God being an Appendix to the Art of Contenment in three â—ermons on Phil. 4. 12. 2 Christian submision on 1 Sam. 3. 18. 3 Christ a Christiaâ— life and death is gain on Phil. 1. 21. 4 The Gospel of Peace sent to the sons of Peace in six Sermons on Luke 10. 5 6. by Jer. Burroughs Dr. Wilds Letter of Thanks and Poems A new Copy-Book of all sorts of usefull hands The Saints priviledg by dying by Mr. Scot. The Vertuous Daughter a Funerall Sermon by Mr. Brian The Miracle of Miracles or Christ in our Nature by Dr. Rich. Sibs The unity and essence of the Catholick Church visible by Mr. Hudson View of Antiquity by Mr. Jo. Hanmer The intercourse of Divine Love between Christ and the Church or the particular Believing soul in several Lectures on the whole second Chap. of Cant. by John Collins D. D. Large Octavo Heart-Treasure or a Treatise tending to fill and furnish the head and heart of every Christian with Soul-enriching treasure of truths graces experiences and comforts The sure mercies of David or a second part of Heart-Treasure Closet-prayer a Christians duty All three by O. Heyword Heaven or Hell here in a good or bad Conscience by Nath. Vincent