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
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
particular prediction of any of the Prophets But an Historicall relation of what befell this young man and consequently may befall any who will be faithful followers of Christ in a day of trouble Which History St. Mark records for two reasons First to shew the truth of Christs saying That the servant is not greater than his John 15. 20. Lord and if they persecute me they will persecute you Which saying he bids them remember Secondly to discover the Malice of Christs enemies whose rage and malice against him was such that a bare suspition to be of his party to be one of his followers was enough to bring a man into eminent danger of his life So that it had been Impossible for the Apostles to have escaped their Violence had not the Divine power of Christ preserved them for that great work to which He had assigned them For seeing this young man following of Christ they laid hands on him and 't was a narrow scape he made from them I shall not enquire who this young man was concerning whom there are different opinions But onely note his action bespake his affection to Christ for he followed him followed him in bonds left all to follow him and that when his own Disciples v. 49. 50. the great Preachers and first professors of his Name fled away and forsook him All which circumstances duely weighed and put together may make up a demonstration of love and affection And what this young man did is the duty of all young ones to doe viz. to follow Christ that is to be truely Religious according to their Baptismal Vow and the Gospel which they prosess and own To govern themselves by the rule of righteousness endeavouring to answer the hope they have through Christ of future glory and the many and great obligations Christ hath laid upon them to duty and obedience And to convince you young men that this is your duty and to draw you to the speedy and sincere practice of the same is the end of this small Essay and undertaking Since I am equally concerned for the good of your souls with those that are Elder The soul of the Child is as pretious as the soul of the Servant The soul of the Servant of as much value as the soul of the greatest Lord or Master And when I consider the general Corruption and loosness of this age and think how many lie in weight to seduce young ones some to Popery others to open profaneness and debauchery the high way to direct Irreligion and Atheism I judged it greatly needful in my place and capacity to give warning to discover and shew you your danger and to prevent it by exciting you to your duty If possibly I may save some of your souls or at least clear my own Ezek. 3. 8 19. For when I read and meditate on those words of the Lord by his Prophet When I say unto the wicked thou shalt surely dye and thou givest him not warning nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way to save his life the same wicked man shall dye in his iniquity but his blood will I require at thine hand Yet if thou warn the wicked and he turn not from his wickedness nor from his wicked way he shall dye in his iniquity but thou hast delivered thy soul I tremble as well to think what will become of those Watchmen that warn not as of those people who are warned and regard it not Now though this Essay speaks more directly to you that are younger yet the matter of it may be suitable and profitable to all both old and young For when Elder persons hear how much it behoves young ones to be religious they may rationally conclude it highly concerns them to be so much more who according to the Course of Nature have less time to spend and are so many years nearer to Death Judgment and Eternity than the former I shall therefore intreat your regard to what you read in the Psalmists Compellation Young Men and Maidens Old Men and Children mind the Word of the Lord which like the rain falling upon the Earth shall accomplish the end for which it is sent either to soften or harden to be either a savour of life unto life or a savour of death unto death to every Soul that reads it And that my words may make the better and deeper impression I shall press your duty in this Method 1. Shew you that 't is your duty to be Religious in your Youth 2. Urge the Utility and safety of it 3. Answer the many Cavils or discouragements that Satan wicked men or your own corrupt hearts doe or can make against it 4. Shew the Reasonableness and excellency of it 1. It is the Duty of young persons to follow Christ to put on the Lord Jesus Christ and to make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof To be religious mindfull of God and the well-being of their own souls both in this and another world Hence 't is that the Wise man so frequently calls upon young men to hear instruction to learn wisdom and the Eccles 12. fear of the Lord and to Remember their Creator in the dayes of their youth that is know love fear and serve him for words of knowledge in Scripture imply Affection and Practice Love and Obedience Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God in not keeping his Commandments Deut. 8. 11. and his Judgements which I command thee this day so that not to keep the Commandments of God is to forget him and to do them is rightly to remember him thus Solomon requires thee to remember thy Creator in the dayes of thy Youth while thou art strong vigorous and best able in all the faculties of thy soul and parts of thy body to do good service So that Question of David Wherewith shall a young man Psal 119. 9. cleanse his way hath the force of a command to cleanse and free your wayes from all uncleanness unrighteousness perversness and crookedness and to make them direct upright straight and holy according to the Word And in the judgment of Jeremiah this is the proper season for obedience and subjection It is good for a man to bear the Lam. 3. 27. yoak in his youth Whether you will understand it of Jugum crucis the yoak of divine Chastisements or Jugum precepti the yoak of Divine Precepts which is so heavy and irksom to the generallity of youth who cannot bear restraint or limitation no not from God himself Liberty liberty they are all for this not considering that deteriores omnes sumus licentia we are all the worse for taking more liberty than God allows And men never meet a more certain and speedy ruine than when they follow their own Wills So true is that Proverb of ours Wilful persons never want woe Yet as heavy a yoak as this seems to be young men you must take it up sooner
O blessed and treble blessed is that Soul that is early married to its Saviour betimes espoused to Christ as its Husband Head and Lord. Now therefore is the time to gain and flourish in Grace which is the Earnest of Glory to set up the Kingdom of Christ Luk. 17. 21. within you as ever you hope to be admitted into his Kingdom above you § 3. An early practice of Piety and Religion will bring you the greatest comfort A pious Youth makes a joyous old Age. Age is a time wherein we are to solace our selves with the remembrance of our forepast life to feed upon the spiritual stores upon the graces comforts and Experiences which your former godly and Religious course of life hath gained you For this reason 't is that Solomon sends the young sluggard to the Ant or Pismire to learn prudence which gathereth her food in the Summer Prov. 16. 6 7 8. and layeth up her store in the harvest If you sleep in harvest sloth sin away the summer season what will you live upon in winter will not spiritual want and poverty pinch you in old age But if thou art Religious in thy youth diligently carefull to lay up a stock of grace and vertue a store of prayers and good works in thy youth then thine old age cannot but be attended with joy and comfort peace and plenty You say usually you must work when you are young to keep you when you are old 'T is true here you must work the works of God and of Religion while you are young to support you comfort you and keep you from despair when you are old Do but think what peace what comfort an old man can have who is about to leave the world and hath all the sins of his youth flying in his face following at his heels and waiting when death shall give them an opportunity to accompany him to Judgment When he shall remember that in his youth he forgat God and spent the prime of his years in the Devils service in ryoting and drunkenness chambering and wantonness in strife and envy I say what peace what comfort can he now reap of those things where of he is ashamed where with his conscience is terrified and soul wounded How loath is he to leave the world how unwilling and afraid to die How doth his aged heart ake his shrinked flesh tremble to think of Death and Judgment Who can express the horror and disturbance of his mind when his Reason tells him he is too weak to live and his Conscience that he is too wicked to dye Whereas when a man can truly say and his conscience bears him witness when he is old that he hath laid out his youth and strength for God in the practice of piety and service of his Saviour when he can now say he hath made Religion his business the glory of God and his own salvation his main work and design in his youth when in a word he can say with old Hezekiah Lord Isa 38. 3. remember that I have walked before thee in truth and with an upright heart what an heart full of comfort what a mind full of peace what a soul full of joy shall that man have in old age even in death it self How chearful may such an old Simeon sing his Nunc dimittis Lord now let thy servant depart in peace for I have sought and the eye of my faith hath seen thy salvation which thou hast prepared for me Therefore if you would be joyous when you are old be Religious while you are young Qualis vita finis ita As is your life such shall your end be To me to live is Christ to dye is gain saith the great Phil. 1. 21. Apostle And 't is the righteous hath hope in his death saith Solomon And you deceive your selves if you think you may live vitiously and yet dye happily Holiness in youth is the Tree upon which the choyce fruit of Comfort in old age alone groweth § 4. As it will bring the most Comfort so it deserves the greatest Honour To see young persons following Christ by an holy and heavenly life 't is honourable and deserves the gteatest commendation It is written in the Gospel that when Christ heard a young man say he had kept the Commandements from his youth he loved him to shew how God loves the early obedience and devotion of young ones to himself To speak in the Scripture language God honoureth such for they greatly honour God and them that honour me will I honour saith the Lord. Yea and God makes 1 Sam. 2. 30. more account and takes more notice of a little goodness a little holiness and obedience in a young person than of a greater measure in him that is elder When Jeroboams child was sick God sent him word by 1 King 14. his Prophet that his child should dye and that he only should go to the grave in peace of all Jeroboams family because in him was found some good thing towards the Lord. There could not be much good in him being but a child and bred up in Idolatry too yet because some good was found in him being so young God took a liking to him and shewed his acceptation of him by conferring that favour and honour upon him above all the Family that he should goe to his grave in peace And Solomon tells you that Religion carrieth length of Pro. 3. 16. dayes in the one hand and honour and dignity in the other and she will conferre it Pro. 4. 8. upon thee she will bring thee to honour and the Lord honoureth them that fear him saith David where Fear is put for all Religion Ps 15. 4. and Worship towards God and those that devote themselves to him by an holy fear will God honour And the sooner you doe this the greater love and honour the greater favour and esteem will God have for you Yea as it will procure you honour from God so from all good men Religion and piety is the Image of God in man and wherever a good man sees this he cannot but honour it and those that bear it St. Paul writes to his Romans to shew singular respect to Andronicus and Junia as persons of Note upon this Rom. 16. 7. consideration because they had the happiness and honour to be in Christ before him And surely 't is the greatest honour and happiness in the world to be early in Christ early in the Covenant of grace Is thy Servant in Christ is he Religious and devoted to God he is more honourable than thee his Lord and Master who art irreligious and out of Christ and shall be preferred before thee in the favour and esteem of God both in this world and that to come Nay Religion will make you honourable even in the eyes of the wicked Jehoram a wicked King honoureth and waiteth upon a Religious Elisha proud Herod reverenceth the holy Baptist Piety is a silent
your corrupt hearts are to receive it which made St. James Jam. 1. 13 14. say Then men when they are tempted are drawn aside by their own lusts His meaning is Satan may tempt and wicked men may entice but neither can compell or force men to sin but as they are drawn away by their own hearts lusts and voluntarily yield to the temptation And therefore if you would conquer the last and greatest enemy to Religion and your own Salvation hearken not to the exceptions and prejudices of your own evil and corrupt hearts against an holy and Religious life Sometimes your hearts will tell you Religion is only a fit of melancholy sometimes that the laws and commands of God are too strict too hard and difficult and that the pattern propounded in the Gospel for your imitation the holy Jesus 't is impossible for you to imitate or follow And why should you ever think of impossibilities Now if you suffer these or any other prejudices to prevail you quash all purposes and endeavours to be holy at once To prevent this therefore search your hearts frequently and watch them narrowly Often look home to thy heart and examine its sincerity or hypocrisie Ask where its affections are and if you find these attendants on the soul roving recall them or that your heart harbours any evil guests as sinfull thoughts strange notions and apprehensions of God Religion or a future state expell them suffer them not to lodge there And doing this daily watch or keep your hearts with all Pro. 14. 23. diligence for from them are the issues of life or death These are they that will make you friends or enemies to Religion Therefore watch them carefully And thus discharging your part earnestly begg of God to do his to change and renew your hearts To take the stony heart out of your flesh and to give you hearts of flesh Ezek. 11. 19. Crave of him humble pure understanding hearts hearts inflamed with love to Christ and established in this resolution to follow him to the utmost of your power in an holy life and so to continue stedfast to the death whatever the issue be So shall you be religious in good earnest account Gods service perfect freedom follow Christ with great delight and finally enjoy him for ever in his heavenly Kingdom CHAP. VII Shewing that Religion is Rational and the ways of Religion take them at the worst are better than the wayes of sin take them at the best that is considered with their present Concomitants and future Consequents or present Delights and future Rewards THat this Essay may not swell to too great a bulk I shall offer but two things more to your thoughts which may prove as strong shields against all the temptations of the World the Flesh and the Devil and as powerfull motives to an holy and Religious life as any before mentioned Namely the Reasonableness of Gods Service or of Religion and its excellency above the ways of sin § 1. That Religion is Rational or the service God requires of us is highly reasonable This St. Paul affirms I beseech you brethren by the mercies of God that ye Rom. 12. 1. present your bodies a living Sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service Where he exhorts his Romans to a Religious life becoming the Gospel or to consecrate and devote themselves to Gods service in translated and borrowed speeches or words from the offering of Sacrifice And tells them he would not have it seem to them an hard saying or an unreasonable request that he enjoyns them to be thus holy and to serve God with all the powers of their souls and bodyes For whatever they might think or Satan might be ready to suggest to the contrary yet be you assured the offering up to God this willing living and holy Sacrifice is but what is just and right and what in reason you ought to do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 't is but your reasonable service Now if you will shew your selves men this argument must needs prevail with you That Religion is Rational Though some things in it be above reason yet there is nothing required in it but what is highly reasonable Are not my wayes equal Ezek. 18. 25. saith the Lord Why what is just and equal must needs be reasonable If ever men do things rational and becoming themselves it is upon serious thought and due consideration upon which David tells Psal 119. 59. you he betook himself to Gods service and turned his feet unto Gods testimonies And is it not said of the Prodigal that when he came to himself he returned to his Father while he was hairbrain'd mad and inconsiderate Luk. 15. 17 beside himself as it were he went on in his riotous course after his harlots but when he came to reflect to consult his reason he quickly comes to this resolution I will return to my Father Hence Religion in Scripture is called Wisdom and the Religious man the wise the knowing and the prudent man And sin is styled Folly and Foolishness and wicked men Fools and Vnreasonable Now to make this more apparent we shall consider 2 Thes 3. 2. the several parts of Religion as the Credenda Agenda and Speranda those things which Religion requires us to believe do and hope for all which are highly rational or agreeable to Reason § 2. To begin with the Credenda or Credenda what Religion requires us to Believe 1. As that there is a God this is the first principle in Religion the first thing Religion requires our belief of He that cometh to God must believe that he is saith Heb. 11. 6. the Apostle And is not this highly rational to believe a God a first Being who gave being to all other things in Heaven and Earth why did David style him a Fool who said in his heart there is no God if it were not agreeable to reason to believe there is one If you consider the whole world and all the parts of it can any man in reason think they came together by Chance if you cast your eyes up towards the Heavens and take a view of the compass of those vast Bodies consider the glory of the Sun the light of the Moon and Stars the beauty order and exact motion of them all continuing some thousands of years without error diminution or interruption Or if you look downward upon the Earth and consider how it is founded and fastened without prop or pillar and made to hang in the middle of the Air how it is compassed with waters which swell above it is interveined with Rivers covered with grass and herbs inriched with sundry choyce and vertuous Minerals beautified with flowers and furnished with all manner of fruits necessary for man and beast is it ratonial to think that all this is by chance Is it by chance that things in their own nature most contrary as hot and cold moist and
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