immortal Souls and Eternal good I earnestly desire to promote and further in the Lord Jesus beware of this assault and Wile of Satan and 1. Consider that no sin is little or small in its own nature Some sins are greater than others but all are great all are breaches of the just and holy law of the mighty God of heaven and Earth and that which hath an infinite object cannot be small Eadem est rotunditatis ratio in nummulo exiguo quae est in magno There is the same reason of roundness in a small piece of money as is in the greatest The same reason of sin in the smallest sins as in the greatest because committed against the same Law of the same God St. James saith Whosoever shall Jam. 2. 10 11. keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point is guilty of all for he that said Do not commit adultery said also do not kill c. If you do refrain from some sins yet if you commit others if you refrain swearing but make no conscience of lying refrain stealing but art guilty of cheating refrain open or actual murder but yet art guilty of malice you break and contemn the whole Law of the same God and you are equally liable to the wrath of God and curse of the Law with those that live in the practice of the most notorious crimes and without infinite mercy and an hearty repentance these sins will damn thy soul and the greatest can do no more Therefore there is no sin small in it self and if the Devil tell you there is he is a lyar But suppose it true that the sin you are tempted to in comparison of some others be small yet this in some respects aggravates the offence if you shall yield to the temptation When a man will forfeit the favour of his Prince for a trifle it argues a great slighting of his favour So the less the sin the greater your contempt of Gods love which is thereby forfeited Our Saviour saith What shall it profit a man to gain the world and lose his soul What shall it profit you to lose Heaven and Happiness to lose God the chiefest good for the greatest sinfull profit or pleasure But when you shall lose and forfeit all this for nought for a small sin a very trifle for that which as you say is not worth speaking of this argues great folly and is a marvellous aggravation of your sin 2. Though Satan seems so modest and fair at first asking but little things yet he will not rest there but if he finds you yielding he will proceed further and prompt you on to the commission of greater As the habits of grace so the habits of sin are strengthened by degrees Though the beginnings are small yet in a little time you will find a great encrease Rivers at first arise from small springs which by running increase to deep and irresistible streams So actual sins for I speak not of Original corruption the fountain whereby the former are fed in their first beginning are but small but by daily practice increase and swell carrying the sinner with a strong stream towards the sea of divine wrath If the Tempter finds you make no conscience of smaller sins his game is fair before him and he knows right well how to play it to his best advantage For he will propose sin to your thoughts and tell you 't is no great matter to think thoughts are free And if he can make you dally with sin in your thoughts then by delightfull thoughts of sin he lays siege to your wills and tells you 't is no great matter to desire or wish so long as you do not act And the chief fort of the will being gained the lesser forts of the affections quickly yield themselves And having entertained and lodged sin in your hearts he tempts you to proceed further to vent it with your lips Words are but wind and your tongues are your own you may and ought to speak And then as there is opportunity he prompts you to practice Go on a little further the sin is sweet try but once put one step in the way you may return at pleasure if you like it not And having yielded so far it may be with great reluctancy and smitings of conscience yet when these are off he comes again and tells you it cannot be worse try once more till at length you begin to commit sin with delight and ease yea with greediness and resolution nay with hardness and obstinacy and now you are fit for any service Satan can require of you or imploy you in Thus 3. The Devil draws men on to the greatest sins by tempting them at first to smaller evils Nemo repentè fit turpissimus No man arriveth to the highest degrees of wickedness on a sudden but is drilled on step by step from one degree to another by the Devil and his own lusts till by degrees the reverence of God is lessened the justice of God slighted the will more inclined the heart more hardned the conscience more seared the habits of sin more strengthned the Devil more encouraged and the sinner at length wholly captivated 4. And have we not daily too many sad instances of this proceeding and dealing of Satan with men How have some men by yielding now and then to the use of a small Oath so perfectly learned the Language of hell that they can hardly speak without swearing so wofull is the gradation of sin and the sly method of Satan with the sinner as St. James sets it forth first tempted Jam. 1. 14 15. then enticed then drawn aside then lust brings forth sin and so proceeds to finishing How Thus Sin hath its conception that 's delight its formation that 's design its birth that 's action its education that 's custom its perfection that 's a reprobate sense and the next step is Hell So you see whither smaller sins will bring you in the end Therefore Obsta principiis c. Excluditur facilius quam expellitur Seneca 'T is easier to keep out vice than to turn it out when once entred Easier to refrain sin at first than to reform it afterwards Small breaches at first are easily stopped but let alone till they become great they often prove irrepairable Weigh these things aright and the force of this temptation falls § 4. The last Temptation to sin is the hopes of future Repentance O saith Satan you are young you may allow your selves some years of pleasure and delight and when you are old then repent and make your peace with God and all is well To resist and conquer this assault I referr you to what went before page 29 to page 35. where you may see the great hazards you run by continuing in sin upon this consideration There being nothing more uncertain than Life nor any thing more groundless than hopes of future repentance where there are present purposes and resolves to sin CHAP. V. Wicked
profit that the tempter boasts Though he sticks not to tell you that such sins as lying cheating defrauding oppressing griping and over-reaching will afford you huge emolument and advantage You will find them greatly profitable and enriching Hereby you may in a short time command the world live plentifully and provide largely for your Family Thus joyning with Covetousness and worldly-mindedness and that desire men have to uphold and maintain their lusts he prevails with them to become his servants Josh 7. 21. Hereby it was that Achan was tempted to take the Silver and Gold and Babylonish Garment which God had expresly forbidden Gehazi to receive the talents and change of raiments of Naamans 2 King 5. 20 23. servant which his Master had refused Ahab to consent to the Killing of Naboth for 1 King 21. 4. 6. his Vineyard Judas to betray his Master for the Thirty pieces of Silver and Demas Matth. 26. 15. to forsake the truth and cleave to this present world Auri sacra fames such 2 Tim. 4. 10. is the sacred hunger of Gold that men are drawn almost to any course of sin to gain it Nay Satan doth not urge only the conveniency of his service in this regard but the necessity of it too The necessity of such and such ways of sinning without which you can never thrive or get any thing considerable in the world And there is none of those who profess themselves the strictest followers of Christ saith he but know these things are sometimes necessary and if they can have an advantage this way will take it and they must do it or they can never live in the world So that I perswade you to nothing saith Satan but what is both convenient and necessary and what those very Religious men themselves will and must sometimes do for their gain and profit And can any thing be said against this Yes the Apostle saith enough against it to conquer any temptation to it Covetousness is the root of all evil it pierceth through 1 Tim. 6. 8 9 10. with many sorrows it draws men into hurtfull lusts yea it drowns them in perdition and destuction Weigh and consider these words of the Apostle and then tell me 1. Whether there can be such Utility and advantage in the Devils service as he tells you there is whether there be such conveniency in unlawful gains or in any unlawful and indirect means and courses to get gain Is it convenient to be entangled in snares and drowned in perdition and destruction Is it convenient to make shipwrack of faith and a good conscience to load your souls with guilt and to pierce your hearts through with many sorrows Are these things which are the attendants on sin by this temptation more gainfull or more hurtfull Is it convenient or profitable for a man to steal a Garment infected with the Plague which will bring death almost as soon as warmth to him that wears it Will it be advantageous to gain any thing with the wrath and curse of God No wherein then lies the gainfulness of the Devils service Nay shall you not lose as well as get by it or compared together will not your losses be greater than your gains you may perhaps by such and such sins gain a little earth vanity Gold that perisheth and Riches that take to themselves wings and flee away these are your utmost gains But what are your losses by sin what think you of the favour of God which is better than life of peace of conscience which is a continual feast of Heaven which exceeds all the Kingdoms of the Earth and of your own souls which are of more worth than the world what think you of grace here and glory hereafter the choycest Math. 16. 26. treasures the fullest pleasures being durable inexhaustible and eternal These are the losses you are like to sustain Now put them into the ballance together and try whether your gains by sin will outweigh your losses by it if not I hope you will not be tempted by Satan to your own loss You will slight that Chapman that bids you to your loss for any worldly Commodity and why not Satan who is so desirous to be trading with you for your souls but bids you to your loss less than the commodity infinitely less than your souls cost And though he proffers ready mony present gain as he saith yet what comfort will this afford you or what good will this do you when you come at the end of your lives to cast up your Accounts and find the Devil hath cheated you you are infinite losers and eternally undone by the bargain These things considered you will find there is no such conveniency in the Devils service no such utility or profit by it as he pretends 2. Then as to his plea of Necessity know there can be no Necessity to sin though thereby you may get gain worldly gain Duty is necessary to all but sin can never be necessary to any There is one thing necessary saith our Saviour and what is that to get the world over the Devils back or to provide for the body by unjust and sinfull means No to provide for the soul gain Heaven to seek after those things that are not seen which are Eternal and to lay up such a foundation against the time to come upon which you may build that sure hope of future happiness as will never make you ashamed This is needful but it can never be necessary or needfull to live in a course of known sin thereby to make provision for the body It were better to starve the body than damn the soul better to be poor on Earth than to be shut out of Heaven better to lose this life if it were possible a thousand times over than fall short of eternal life though we were sure to gain the world by it Because this gain will in no wise countervail or recompense that loss Upon a mature deliberation therefore and just judgment of things you will find Satan as great a deceiver in this proposal as in any of the former There can be no necessity for sin or the least utility or profit by his service § 3. Another Wile which Satan finds exceeding successfull and winning with young persons is to lessen sin to suggest the smallness of it As Lot said of Zoar is it not a little one so saith Satan of this or that sin is it not a little one a trick of youth a small fault next to none at all If it were blasphemy or murder adultery robbery incest or any such hainous crime there might be just ground of scruple and fear but an officious lye a petty gracefull oath a light curse or a little Levity now and then this need not fright you Small matters and not many nor often neither what need you boggle at these these can never hurt you or injure you in the least But young men the welfare of whose
and omniscient God will be your Guide in this way so he will afford you all needful helps and assistances to help you forward both inward and outward Inward his Spirit and Grace preventing corroborating renewing preserving grace which shall daily increase in your souls All outward aids and assistances as the Word which is called a Staff to keep thee from falling and a Light to keep thee from straying the Sacraments which are as dew upon thy graces to increase them and seals to thy Faith to confirm it to the end The help of all Gods faithful servants living and dead The dead recorded in Scripture help thee by their Examples the living by their Prayers And above all thou hast Christ in Heaven making continual intercession for thee This very consideration proclaims the way of Religion more excellent and more eligible than the way of sin § 7. Add to this that the way of Religion though somewhat strict and difficult is the only way to glorifie God and enrich your selves The glory of God is the principal end of your Creation and Redemption All that you have and are your lives estates souls bodies parts are all from God and given for God and ought to be improved to his glory You neither made your selves nor were made for your selves neither is any thing given to you to serve your lusts Honours are not given to make men proud nor Authority to make men insolent nor Riches to make men idle nor parts to make men subtil in evil but all to make us good and to render us more apt to glorifie our Maker And as this way brings glory to God so gain to your selves As a man who walks on in a way of sin though he could gain the world must be a loser in the end because he loseth his own soul So if a Christian going on in the way of righteousness and true holiness should lose all he hath in this world if he should never see a quiet day upon Earth never feel a drop of joy in his heart never eat a morsel of bread but in a prison nor ever do any service for God but at a Stake yet in the end continuing faithful he is a great gainer for all this because he saves his soul and gains Heaven And because these light afflictions for a moment shall end in a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory And our blessed Saviour saith He that forsakes Father or Mother or houses or lands for my sake shall receive an hundred fold in the life that now is and in the world to come everlasting life Therefore if you have any desire both to glorifie God here and secure to your selves eternal gain hereafter walk in the way of Holiness Piety and Religion And which is further and greatly considerable let me last of all mind you of this that neither the way of Religion nor the strictness of it will last long Your works duties sufferings afflictions and crosses shall not be for ever Perhaps you may be Religious strict and holy in this Life a few years or months or days and then all thy hard duties all thy crosses and afflictions all thy combates and conflicts with sin Sathan and the world and all thy doubts fears despondencies and griefs are at an end for ever and thy felicity begins that shall never end The Conclusion § 1. HAving offered some disswasives from Sin and perswasives to Holiness all that yet remains is my earnest and hearty entreaty that you would sit down and consider what you have read For this little Essay with the other greater helps which God affords you shall assuredly be a witness for or against you in the day of Judgment Books are like Physick if they do n't do good they do hurt And if any thing make it work kindly it must be Consideration Pondering and weighing well in your minds what you have read on both sides for Piety and against Iniquity Soul matters spiritual and Heavenly things are of eternal moment therefore call for the greatest deliberation and seriousness But most men are rash and inconsiderate in these mighty affairs therefore so often in Scripture stiled Fools and in truth there is none so foolish as the sinner They consider not what they do They are carried to their courses with vain not with serious thoughts upon the fury of rash resolution not upon the stableness of advice and counsel Whereas would they but take counsel of themselves by a deliberate consideration would they as we say proverbially but look before they leap they might shun many impieties which they run headlong into For consideration takes an intimate view of matters and rightly ponders of the nature and full shape of things it turns things over and over inside out considers this and thinketh of that it seeth the best and worst it compareth nature with nature kind with kind cause with cause occurrence with occurrence issue with issue reason with reason and end with end It asks where and how a thing begins and when and how it ends So that would you take more consideration which is in your power to do you would not be so foolish and mad in your choice for your selves as the most are Had the Prodigal son but well considered before-hand what would have been the issue and end of leaving his Fathers house for the company of Harlots he would never have been so hasty to be gone Had Gehazi thought with himself how dear he must 2 King 5. 27. pay for his two Talents and suits of apparel he would never have run so fast to overtake Naaman as he did But generally men will not consider of the matters of salvation and damnation Delight pleasure or profit make the sinner quick and venturous and will give no time willingly for consideration which would be a great wound to sin and often crush that Cockatrice in the Egg in the first motions of it But men little consider that for every sinful profit or pleasure the precious soul is laid to pawn to answer for it The Drunkard will not consider he pawns his soul for his inebriating cups the Unclean person for his lascivious act the miserable Worldling for his ill-gotten gain yea and the common Swearer for his rash Oaths But feed greedily on the sweet morsels and suck liberally of the present pleasures of sin not considering what the Feast will cost when the reckoning 's paid Therefore I say let me prevail with you to sit down and consider a while And if your conscience tells you you are yet the servants of Satan walking in known wayes of sin ask your selves whether you have sufficient reasons for this your choyce such as will afford you comfort when death comes What if you should once a day commune as David speaks with your own hearts after this manner § 2. Were I this day to dye what would my choyce be then would it be the same that now it is or hitherto hath been should I
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