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
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
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