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
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
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
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