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
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
you shall mourn without measure without profit and without end So that here the Father of lyes speaks some truth The Disciples of Christ must be mourners Math. 5. 4. mourners for sin though he conceals that such are pronounced blessed by Christ But withall here is a great Lye couched under this little truth viz. that in the ways of sin you shall meet with no sorrow which I say is a huge lye for in the way of sin there is no avoiding sorrow Your Pride crossed expectations frustrated the world failing afflictions and crosses coming unexpectedly upon you will cause great sorrow and anguish of mind These things the Religious and holy man can bear with much patience and chearfulness but they are an heart-breaking to others For if the world frown upon you and friends forsake you as they did Job in affliction and trouble who have you to smile upon you or to comfort you God will not his wrath is revealed from Heaven against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men and he is angry with the wicked every day Satan cannot this Master whom you serve will torment you then vex and grieve you then by adding to and aggravating of your miseries but as you commonly speak the Devil a bit of comfort must you expect or shall you receive from him No young men be not thus deluded A sinfull course is and will be a sorrowfull course it will bite like on Adder and sting like a Serpent in the end The wages Satan gives for all the service you can do him is shame reproach and sorrow And is not Godly sorrow for sin which worketh salvation better than sorrow by sin which endeth in damnation Is not that sorrow or kind melting of the heart by a sweet sense of Gods love which will yield more solid delight and pleasure to your inward man than ever you found in the wayes of sin much more Eligible than sorrow that worketh death Then 't is better to be Gods servant then the Devils slave 2. Besides this is a real slander cast upon Religion that there is no pleasure to them that pursue and practise it The faithfull servants of God and disciples of Christ are not required to throw away all comfort and pleasure in Creature-enjoyments God doth no where command you to leave them but only injoynes the prudent and moderate use of them the contrary to which breeds more bitterness in the disappointment than ever it yielded sweetness to any in the enjoyment Religion allows eating and drinking though not to gluttony and drunkenness affords you to take a subordinate comfort and delight in food rayment friends and possessions and herein more true delight and comfort by sweetning these enjoyments with the mercy love and blessing of God than ever you could find in them before for before you enjoyed the Creature only now God with the Creature Therefore Christ is not so severe a Master as Satan represents him He is bountifull enough to his servants allowing them not only for necessity but delight Gives them all things richly to enjoy with Christian moderation He doth not command 1 Tim. 6. 17. David to throw away his Harp nor Christians utterly to abandon all mirth and pleasure but to take and use it in due measure and season Eat thy bread with joy saith God and drink thy wine with a Eccles 9. 7 8. merry heart What can you desire more Religion gives you leave to be merry though not to be mad It allows you so much pleasure and delight as will do you good and no more and to desire more than this is prodigious folly and madness 3. Grant that all sinfull delights must be denyed yet God promiseth other and better delights in exchange and I hope there is no wrong or injury in this Are not those joyes which affect and refresh the Mind preferable to them which only stir the Spleen Those joyes which arise from this sure hope of an enduring Substance are they not better than those joyes which spring from the embraces the feigned and fancied embraces of a shadow what think you of spiritual heavenly joyes and delights If you will throughly forsake the wayes of sin and works of Satan and heartily embrace the practice of Religion carefully endeavouring an imitation of Christ by an holy life with constancy and resolution you shall find such sweet peace and freshing joy flowing from the sense of Gods love the light of his countenance communion with him in his holy Ordinances and in the hope of the beatifical vision hereafter in heaven as the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and pride of life could never afford nor the greatest sensualist ever boast of or pretend to And whatever sorrow you have for sin whatever griefs afflictions or losses you may be exposed to in this life for the sake of Religion they shall last but a while a little while and in the end be turned into the fullest joy Sorrow may continue for a Psal 126. 5 6. night but joy cometh in the morning you may sow in tears but you shall reap in joy you may go forth weeping yet bearing precious seed yet you shall certainly return again rejoycing bringing your sheaves with you This light affliction for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal 2 Cor. 4. 17. weight of glory Which text alone is sufficient to wipe off this prejudice of Satan against Religion and to make you strictly Religious in good earnest § 5. There is but this one objection or prejudice more that I shall mention which Satan hath to discourage you from following of Christ He represents it as a thing exceeding perilous and dangerous O saith he you cannot follow Christ but you must run your selves upon great hazards and dangers you may lose all you have for your profession if perilous times come your Religion may cost you your Estates Liberty nay your very Lives and is it not better sleeping in a whole skin and to save all then hazard and lose all for an humor and fancy of which you may repent when it is too late 1. As fierce as this Lyon in the way appears yet you need not be frighted if you will remember that as great losses attend you in the ways of sin as in the way of Religion In reference to your Estate which you may lose for the sake of Christ which you ought not to reckon upon yet you shall be no looser in the end And whatever your profession may cost you Sin may cost you as much Some mens lusts are more expensive to them than other mens consciences are to them And if you should lose your worldly comforts yet you may have never the less comfort in the world For if the stream fail the fountain cannot You may fetch comfort from above if you have none below And usually the less comfort the sinner hath from the creature the more the Soul hath from God The treasure of
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