not being like to find Entertainment any where since Riches and Poverty both had refused to receive him yet he was resolved to pursue his Journey not being without hopes of finding his dear Friend at last called Consideration whom he sought for and coming into a famous City where one Youth dwelt could not tell but he might meet with him at his House calling to mind what kindness Young Joseph Moses Samuel David Obadiah Josias John and Timothy of Old and many others had shewed him and therefore came boldly to his Door and desired Entertainment Now it appears this Youngster was a great Gallant but though he had been brought up to Learning and lived in a place where the Gospel was powerfully preached yet was very ignorant as touching the best things though very complisant And after Godliness had in a grave and sober manner desired a Lodging with him he asked him what he was as also his Name Godli Sir I am a Person of Noble Descent being nearly Allâ—ed to a great and mighty Prince and my Name is True Godliness being by him sent to Travel hither to commend his Soveraign Grace and Clemency unto the Inhabitants of thâ— City and I have also brought along with me as Tokens of his Eternal Favour and good Will to such who will receive me very rich Presents and I shall bestow them on you if you will be pleased to Entertain me Youth Your most Humble Servant I must confess I have read and heard much of you but why do you choose to take up your lodging in my House there being many Grave and Ancient Gentlemen near I know not but you seem to be one whose Company would better suit Men of Riper Years Godli Sir my Master gave me orders to commend his Princely Grace and Favour unto you if your Name is Youth besides he hath chosen your House for my Lodging above others nay and he hath made more Blessed Promises upon your kind and loving Reception of me than he hath to any besides in the World Have you not read that Word I love them that love me and they that seek me early shall find me And that Word Seek first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and all other things shall be added unto you Matth. 6. 33. Youth As for those other things I need them not I have enough of the World Godli Aye Sir but you want my Masters Righteousness and also a part in his Kingdom and those are some of those Glorious Commodities I have to bestow upon you if you will Entertain me Youth Aye there it is I perceive I must Entertain you if I would have them but I tell you plainly your Company does not suit with my Age why should you force your self upon me Godliness Why would you have a part in the Righteousness of Christ and in his Kingdom and not receive True Godliness No Sir that will never be you must believe in him and lead a Godly Life or you will have no Lot nor Part in this Matter He that believeth not shall be Damned Mark 16.16 Youth Pray Sir do not trouble me you are going to preach Godliness 'T is sad you should think I trouble you because I desire you to let me have a Lodging with you Yoâ—th Sir you will spoil all my pleasure and sensual delights if I entertain you I know your Manners well enough You will cause me also to turn out of my House my familiar Friends and Consorts that rejoyce my heart in these youthful daies of mine Now those he called his Friends were these following Pride Wanton Vain-glory Love-lust Ambition Gay-clothes Toss-pot Gamester please-Please-friend Time-server Scornful Hate-good and Scoffer Godliness Young man believe me those pleasures and delights which your heart is so much set upon are bruitish and very hateful to God and do also debase your noble Soul which is of a sublime Extraction Nay furthermore hear what wise Solomon saith Rejoice O Young-man in the daies of thy Youth and walk in the waies of thy heart and in the sight of thine eyes May be you will say O this is brave I but after the flash of Lightning comes a clap of Thunder enough to make you quake But know that for all these things God will bring thee to Judgment Your sweet Meat young man is like to have sowr Sauce you will pay dear at last for all your sensual pleasures and vanities Youth But for all your haste wise Solomon made trial of all the delights of the Children of men before he condemned them and so will I too as far as I can Godliness 'T is true Solomon did so and doth he not by the sad experience he had of them tell you all was vanity and vexation of Spirit Come Sir you had better believe the Poyson in the Cup is deadly than to taste of it Youth Sir pray speak no more I have not sowed all my Wild Oats yet let me alone Godliness Wild Oats indeed Come let me perswade you to sow no more of them for 't is but sowing to the Flesh and he that soweth to the Flesh shall of the Flesh reap Corruption You had better far to sow to the Spirit And now I will tell you what a kind of Crop you will have at Harvest by sowing that cursed Seed which you call Wild Oats unless by Repentance you pluck them all up again Youth Why Sir what a Crop shall I reap Godliness You are like in the first place to reap here in this World a Crop of loathsome Diseases for Drunkenness Rioting and Whoring doth commonly produce that Secondly you will reap a Crop of Infamy and Reproach for sin is the shame of any People or particular Soul and it will be much if you reap not a Crop of Want and Beggary too in the end Thirdly You will reap a Crop of horrible and unsupportable Guilt by which means your Conscience will torment and lash you after such a sort that you will not be able to endure it unless you go on in these ungodly courses so long until he is feared with a hot Iron and then you will reap a Crop of a hard obdurate and impenitent Heart Fourthly You will reap a full Crop of all manner of foul and detestable Filth and Pollution yea such Corruption that will cause God to loath your Soul Fifthly You will reap also a Crop of all the fearful Plagues and Curses that are in the Book of God pronounced against wicked and ungodly Sinners Sixthly and lastly At the great and terrible day of Judgment you will reap a full Crop of Gods eternal Wrath and Vengeance a Crop of brinish though fruitless Tears Groans and endless Torments in Hell fire Now if you like to gather in at Harvest such Crops as these go on and sow your Wild Oats plentifully Youth Sir I intend to sow other Seed hereafter I desire only liberty for the Flesh in these my Youthful daies If
you should chance to call at my Door when I am Old I may then possibly see cause to Entertain you nay Sir I promise you I will then open my Doors to you Godli Alas Sir present Promises to open hereafter to God and True Godliness seldom ever ends in real performance He who promised to go and work in his Masters Vineyard went not such who put me off with promises to become Godly hereafter 't is evident do purpose to be wicked for the present besides do you know you shall live to be Old Or if you should that God will send me then to knock at your Door Nay and let me tell you if I should then visit you I fear it will be to no purpose because Sir you ripen apace already in Wickedness and Sin is of an hardening Nature evil Habits are not easily changed the * Blackamore may as soon change his skin or the Leopard his spots as you may learn to do well and open to me when you have been a long time accustomed to do evil Therefore open to me now Youth Sir you will raise my Spirits anon if you leave not off your Canting the sooner you are a Gentleman I am sure few or none cares for Have any of the Rulers and Nobles of the Nations embraced you I mean strict Godliness Why do you not see if they will entertain you Godliness Nay pray be not offended with me I seek your profit I will do you no wrong you shall not lose any thing by me if you will let me have a Lodging with you though possibly you may lose something for my sake but if you do I will repay you again an hundred fold in this World and in the World to come you shall have Life Everlasting And what though not many Mighty and not many Noble ones do love me or will entertain me 'T is not because I do not deserve esteem from them but because they are incensed against me by the Devil and are so in love with Vice my Mortal Enemy Sir I am abused and rendred very odious by wicked men as if I were a factious restless and sediteous Fellow and this is one Reason why I am so slighted and contemned Youth I and to speak the truth I cannot believe but you are the cause of all the present Discord Animosities and Confusions that are amongst us for since you came into this Countrey what Disputes Contentions and Distractions hath there been when sweet Popery was generally received in this Land it was not thus Godliness I and my Children ever I must confess were thus censured and falsely accused though never so stigmatized as now of late Jerusalem of Old was called a Rebellious and bad City because I dwelt in it and my Enemies said of Old Time Sedition had been there and that it was a great Enemy to Kings and Governments But it is no marvel I am thus abused considering my Lord and Master himself was loaded with like Calumnies being accused with Sedition and called an Enemy to Caesar likewise But let not this discourage you from receiving me into your House for all these things are utterly contrary to my Nature and abhorred by me and all my good Friends and therefore pray let me come in Youth It will not be for my Honour I shall be derided and scoffed at should I do it and be looked upon as a dangerous person Therefore pray be gone from my Door Godliness What if you lose the Honour of this World I will raise you to far greater For Honour and Riches are with me yea durable Riches and Righteousness They that receive me and serve Christ God will Honour Youth Pray let me alone till another time until I am a little older Godliness Sir my Master commands you to remember him now in the daies of your Youth and to remember him is to embrace me And let me tell you to reject me is Rebellion against him who is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords shall not what he requires you to do be done Youth I have other business at present of greater Concern than to attend on such a Guest take an answer therefore and be gone Godliness Nay do not mistake your self for to attend upon me and to lead a Godly Life is business of the greatest Concernment in the World Were you not made and sent hither on purpose to serve and honour your Creator and not to live like a Bruit to satisfie your Lust and serve the Devil as heretofore you have done and if you do persist in these Courses be sure you will perish in Hell at last for evermore Upon this the Young Gallant was in a great Rage and swore Damn him he would be revenged on him and on all his Friends and never endure True Godliness more Nay and presently all his Companions and Attendants who were in his House mentioned before stirred him up to fall upon Godliness immediately and force him away Pride swelled like a Toad Vain-glory vaunted himself and both bid him disdain the very motion Godliness had made Time-server and Please-friends bid him mind what was the All-a-mode of the Times and do as other Young Gallants did Scornful looked with Contempt upon True Godliness Toss-pot had the Young Man away to the Tavern and Gamester after he came there set him to play at Cards Dice c. Love-lust enticed him to a Whore-house Scoffer and Scornful loll'd out their Tongues at Godliness jearing and deriding him shamefully Nay and not only so but also made base Songs of him crying Hie Boyes up go we And Hate-good commanded them all to fall upon him and rid him out of the World and had it not been for fear of some Neighbours who though they were but Moral People he had doubtless been utterly trod down under their Feet But Blessed be God he escaped this time also and got away leaving the poor Debauched Youth to himself to gratifie his own Sensual and Luxurious Appetite O how perverse is Flesh and Blood in whom All Vice abounds and Blossoms from the Womb What God commands Youth is adverse unto But what Hell bids O that 't is that he 'll do The Rich the Poor with Youth I do espy Act in their Parts in Life's short Tragedy But are they Men or Beasts See view them well Souls they have but what in them does dwell You may perceive if you do cast your Eyes On what they choose and love and what despise CHAP. VI. Shewing how Godliness came to knock at the Door of one Old-Age as also the cause and Reasons why he refused to entertain him GOdliness being rejected both by Riches Poverty and Youth resolved to see whether he might not be entertained by a cerain decripped and feeble person called Old-age concluding within himself that 't was very probable his dear Friend Consideration whom he had a long time sought for might lodg in his
Age therefore gave him this following general Reply and departed Godliness Father Old-age it grieves me to find you thus blind and hardened in your evil waies and the rather because I see your enemy Death also standing with his Sword drawn here at your Door ready to enter in and Hell is at his heels Alas Death who now shakes his Sword over your head will soon sheath it in your heart What will you do who contemn True Godliness through Ignorance when you come to stand before God in Judgment there is but a little airy breathings between you and Eternal Burnings it 's better to have your eyes open on Earth to bewail your Sins than to have your eyes open in Hell to bewail your Sufferings though you will not let me in now who would make you happy yet you will not be able e'er long to keep Death out who will make you eternally miserable 'T is sad you will not see your danger till you cannot escape your danger As I now stand at your Door saying Open to me but am not let in so you e'er long will say Lord Lord open to you but you shall be kept out for none but those who receive me into their Hearts on Earth shall be received by Christ hereafter into Heaven Those who contemn Godliness here shall be condemned for their ungodliness hereafter Your poor deluded Soul who thinks its state so good without Grace and Regeneration will find it bad e'er long under wrath and condemnation For except a man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God John 3. 3. This is the day of Gods long-suffering but quickly will come the day of your long-suffering for He whose mercy you have abused while you live will let out His Vengeance against you to Eternity when you die much to the same purpose he spoke to him and with abundance of sorrow left him to perish in his sins How sad's the case of frail and mortal man Whose time is short its length is but a span In Youth he 's proud Ambition then so Raigns That he true Grace and Godliness disdains Virtue is then contemn'd 't is Vice which he Doth make his choice but yet does hope to be When Old-age comes another man for know He would have Heaven but not let the Earth go But when he 's old sin in him 's grown so strong He 's more adverse to Grace than are the Young Take heed you don't upon Old-age depend Least he deals by you like a Traiterous Friend CHAP. VII Shewing how True Godliness in his Travels chanc'd to fall into a certain Island where he met with a great number of cruel Enemies who conspired together to take away his Life and the Life of his Servants but their Grand Plot failing they contrived many Sham-plots to cast the whole Intreague upon his own Friends and Servants together with True Godliness's sad and grievous Lamentation TRue Godliness having Travelled as you have heard up and down in the World for many years and suffered divers hardships and grand Affronts and abuses at last came by the gracious Providence of God into a small Isle neither did he Travel alone but like a High-born Pirnce though in a state of Exile he had some Servants to attend and wait upon him who loved their Master as their own Souls yea and above their natural lives their Names were Heavenly New-man Innocency Humility Sincerity Temperance Sobriety Faithful New-obedience Hope-well True-love Blessed Experience Excellent Knowledg Christian Courage Vehement Desire Godly Zeal with many more Now after he had been for some considerable time in the said Island and had through his sweet and Heavenly and peaceable carriage got himself many Friends and Favourites having lived many years in good credit and esteem amongst them and no body thought or dreamt he had been in the least danger But in process of time on a sudden there being a little before arrived in the same Isle a great number of out-landish-men called by some Mahometans but their right name it seems was Babylonians being Natives of a great City that bears that Name * Now divers strange ridiculous Orders of men they had amongst them and all cruel enemies to True Godliness But one Order of them proved more subtile and implacable than the rest called Loyalatites being as 't is said the Spurious Off-spring of one Ignatius who were men of such base Spirits that they were content to become meer Pimps and Panders to a great Whore endeavouring alwaies to allure Kings Princes and mighty men to commit Fornication with her and if they could not effect that then they perswade Subjects to cast off their Allegiance to their Spiritual and Temporal Soveraign and to own the Usurpt Power and Jurisdiction of their Master the King of Babylon Now these men remembring what a great enemy True Godliness had been to them in the same Isle in former times and how he had forc'd them to pack up their Trumpery and be gone nay and not only so but also found that he had got a great number of the Inhabitants of the said Isle to side with him against their beloved Mistriss and great Goddess â—â—ana which they feared might stand in the way of her mounting the Saddle once again they maliciously and traiterously made a devellish Conspiracy to destroy True Godliness and all those who favoured him and to set up false and counterfeit Godliness in his stead and indeed so far they had proceeded in this hellish design that by the help of some deluded souls they had brought over to their party had not the all wise God who alwayes took care of his precious Darling Godliness by his most eminent and oâ—er-ruling Providence defeated the Conspiracy and discovered the Conspirators Godliness with his Servants and all his poor Friends would doubtless have had the greatest blow that he had met with for many Ages before but they being betrayed by one who seem'd to adhere to their Party who was privy to their horrible bloody and detestable intention having unknown to them a kindness for True Godliness and his dispised Friends and Servants whereupon the whole Island was inraged against these cruel Babylonians and called a Counsel together to search into the bottom of their Hellish design and so it happened that divers great Lords who had been poysoned with their bloody and detestable principles were found in the Conspiracy and were Attainted for High Treason for though their great design was to destroy True Godliness yet they as it seemed consulted also to destroy the Prince of the Country and all who were true Favourites of Godliness And in the conclusion one of the Lords in the Conspiracy had his Head cut off and divers of the Loyalatites or Ignatius's Off-spring were drawn hang'd and quartered Now one would have thought this eminent hand of God's Vengeance against them might have deterred them for ever attempting the ruine and utter overthrow of True Godliness any more