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
THE BEST WAY To MEND the WORLD AND TO Prevent the GROWTH of POPERY BY Perswading the Rising Generation to an Early and Serious Practice of PIETY With Answers to the principal Cavils of Satan and his Agents against it c. By SAMVEL PECK Minister of the Word at Popler Eecles XII i. Remember now thy Creatour in the dayes of thy Youth while the evil dayes come not and the years draw nigh wherein thou shalt say I find no pleasure Minimè bonus est qui melior fieri non vult Bern. Macte novâ virtute Puer sic itur ad Astra Virg. London Printed by I. A. for Thomas Parkhurst at the Bible and three Crowns at the lower end of Cheapside near Mercers-Chappel 1680. TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFUL THE Governour Deputy and COMMITTEES Of the Honourable EAST-INDIA COMPANY S. P. Wisheth Temporal and Eternal Felicity Right Honourable I Can call God and the Congregation over which God and you have set me to witness that according to my Duty I cease not to pray for an encrease of your Success and Prosperity Righteousness and Mercy That as by the former you may augment your Treasures on Earth so by the latter you may secure your Treasure in Heaven Or as the Apostle speaks lay up to your selves a good foundation that you may lay hold on Eternal Life 1 Tim. 1. 6. 18 19. And can say withall as in the hearing of my great Lord and Judge I have faithfully endeavoured in my place the Promotion of true Religion and Vertue amongst all sorts especially the Younger knowing what advantages attend on Early Piety and how much the Hopes and Happiness of our Church and State depend upon a sober and Religious rising Generation Consequently how much it concerns us all to look to the well seasoning of those Youth that are committed to our Charge as we tender the future good of the Kingdom wherein we live And when I consider how too sadly true those words of the Poet are which agree well with those of our Saviour Math. 7. 13. Mundi pars maxima nigros Tendit ad Inferni manes ubi luctus irae That the most goe the worst way And the many Setters we have in this Age whose design is to pervert Youth and draw them on to Atheism Popery and Prophaneness I judged it my duty to endeavour their Safety and preservation To which end I have in this small Essay to avoid prolixity summed up what Arguments I could to prevail with them to be Religious betimes shewing them both the Necessity Reasonableness and Advantage of an early Dedication of themselves to God Multa ferunt anni venientes commoda secum Multa recidentes ademunt Hor. And that Youth affords them many Adjuments and Opportunities for Heaven which old Age will deprive them of Now my Reasons Right Honourable of Craving your Patronage of so small a work are these My great Obligations to you which I am willing to take this Opportunity to acknowledge to the World A great part of my Encouragement and Maintenance in the place where I am arising from your Bounty And because I know your countenance of this Undertaking will render it much more acceptable to those for whom it is designed The Hand oft-times commends the Gift If therefore you shall pardon my presumption and Recommend it to the Youth you have relation to and influence upon both at Home and in Foraign parts I hope God will send his Blessing with it and make it successeful that you may see an hopeful Progeny rising up to inherit your Vertues as well as Riches Which that you may shall be the Prayer of Popler April 24. 1680. Your Honours Most humble Chaplain and Servant in the Work of Christ Samuel Peck TO THE YOUTH OF THE PARISH of STEPNEY especially those of the Hamblet of Popler and Blackwall which are under my more particular Charge S. P. wisheth Early Piety and Endless Glory Courteous Youths REligion is by some derived from Religando because it binds us to God by others from re Elegendo a choosing again Mans first choyce is usually evil and when he comes to see his Error and choose again he mends his choice That you may make the best choice at first and so prevent much trouble to your selves is my bearty desire And therefore I have in this Essay recommended Religion and the timely and serious practice of it to you in your youth And however you may esteem of this Counsell now in a little time more I am sure you will say it is good and wish if you neglect it you had been wiser For though Satan blinds the eyes of men in life yet death will open them I have ever observed dying persons to have the truest sentiments and notions the deepest impressions and strongest convictions of a God an Heaven and Hell the souls Immortality and future Judgment of any other If the profoundest Hobbist the rankest Atheist of our Age were present with a dying man whose Reason is sound and Conscience not seared he could 1 Tim. 4. 2. not by all his reasoning perswade him to believe that there is no God no future state no reward or recompense to be expected or feared that his soul is like the Beasts that perisheth and being once dead there is an end of him No the light of Reason and Conscience and Principles of Religion are not so easily baffled and extinguished when men are leaving the World Nor can I believe he that hath most and longest endeavoured to eradicate all notions and sense of Religion and of a Deity out of his mind can at all times quietly sit down void of all trouble and hesitation with this resolve that he may live as he list there is none above him to please or displease to love or fear or to call him to an account for what he hath done Doubtless therefore you have a God to serve and souls to save and a Rule to direct you how to do the former so as you fail not of the latter viz. The written Word of God Which tells you the World Satan and your own hearts if followed will lead you to Vanity fin and endless misery That it is a timely and an hearty repentance a lively faith in Christ a superlative love to God and an holy and constant obedience to his reasonable and divine commands which alone can make you happy in this and the other World That Heb. 12. 14. Phil. 3. 20 without holiness no man shall see the Lord that your Conversation must be in Heaven here as ever you hope Heaven shall be your habitation when you go hence So that let the mad World say what it will Religion is to be minded as your main business and the practice of Piety as your greatest concern And the sooner you make it so the sooner shall you be in favour with God and armed against the killing sting of the King of Terrors Which whenever it comes in Youth or Old age
grace in your hearts and your hope of glory in Heaven none can take from you and therefore whatever you lose of worldly wealth for Religion shall be abundantly recompensed in things of an higher nature else that divine promise must fail Jesus answered Mark 10. 29 30. and said Verily I say unto you there is no man hath left house c. for my sake and the Gospels but he shall receive an hundred fold now in this time and in the world to come eternall life Whence you may make this Orthodox Parodox no man ever lost by Christ who was a loser for Christ Then for your Liberty though men should cast your bodies into a Prison on Earth yet they cannot cast your Souls into the prison of Hell If they should throw you into a Dungeon they cannot shut Christ out of that Dungeon or hinder the light of his countenance from shining there If they take away your Civil liberty they cannot take away your spirituall liberty They may exclude you Gods House and publick Ordinances but they cannot debar you the throne of Grace Keep Friends from you they may but cannot hinder God from visiting of you with the sense of his love and pledges of his divine favour which will make the closest prison a delightfull palace And as to Life it self know that though men may kill the Body Math. 10. 28. yet they cannot kill the Soul The argument our Saviour useth to perswade you to fear God more than man So that suppose the worst that can come that men do go to the uttermost link of their power which is to kill the body why dye you must and dye you may while you are young and can you dye upon a better account than for Christ and for Religion certainly none in the world dye with more peace and comfort with greater joy and triumph over death than they that dye Martyrs for Christ dye for the sake of Religion and a good conscience So that all the wrong the enemies of God and his truth can do you is with John Baptist and St. Steven to give you a quick passage to Glory and send you with the more speed to Heaven to Christ Jesus which is far better I beseech you therefore resolve upon it to follow Phil. 1. 23. Christ and secure the salvation of your immortal souls whatever it cost you Hearken to none of these objections of Satan against Religion For if once he can prejudice you against what is good he will soon by another assault draw you to the practice of what is evil CHAP. IV. Several Temptations of Satan whereby he seeks to draw young persons to his own service the service of sin § 1. SAtan having bid fair to barr you off from what is good his next attempt is to allure you to evil Being prejudiced against Gods Service he prompts you next to his own In which method as he is very subtil so oft-times very successefull As he that would gain another mans servant to himself decries the service he is in as laborious slavish and unprofitable and withall commends his own as full of and attended with all good properties so doth Satan to gain souls not only reproach and discommend the Service of Christ but cries up and applauds his own Five objections he hath made against Religion and the practice of it and he hath as many temptations drawing to the way and practice of sin the first whereof is this § 2. 1. The delight and pleasure of it nothing so delightfull and pleasant as sin none enjoy so much pleasure and content as his servants Will you take it saith Satan upon the word of David who was forced to acknowledge this and to leave it upon record in Divine Writ that my servants are prosperous there are no bands in their Psal 73. 1. to 7. death but their strength is firm They are not in trouble as other men neither are they plagued like other men Their eyes stand out with fatness they have more than heart could wish Where do you find such a commendation of Religion or the service of God as David here gives of my service saith the Tempter And huge cunning he is in the management of this temptation that it may take effect For he labours what he can to conceal from your eyes those more excellent pure spiritual delights and pleasure which Religion procures to the Soul both here and hereafter And withall hides from you the sting and bitterness of sin covers the hook guilds the pill that the sorrow the vexation and torment which sin will procure to you in the conclusion may not be descerned nor so much as once seriously thought of He would not for a world could he prevent it you should read and believe that of Job Thou Job 13. 26. Eccl. 9 11. writest bitter things against me and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth Or that caveat of Solomon Rejoyce O young man in thy youth walk in the wayes of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment Lest you should know and consider how dear you must pay at last for sin and so be discouraged from his service And still to give his temptation the greater force he represents the delights of his service the pleasures of sin as present that they may be had daily and without difficulty and so secret too as no mortal eye shall take notice of you Such sins and sinful delights may you enjoy and indulge your selves in and no body e're the wiser You may be frequent and bold in them none can know it or call you to an account for it All which is marvellous taking hugely tempting What present pleasure and private too sweet delights and secret too who would refuse them And that he may be sure not to fail of his end he hath yet a farther stratagem that is to plough with your own Heifer to joyn with the lusts of your own hearts with which he holds a secret correspondence to propose such objects and wayes of sin as are desirable and suitable to your natural temper and inclination He knows 't is the pleasure of sin you are betwitched with As Eve of old was captivated with the pleasantness of the forbidden fruit so her children Gen. 3. 6. and posterity are naturally taken with the same bait This therefore is the first commendation of his service and first temptation to sin the delight and pleasure of it 2. Now to resist and overcome this temptation be prevailed with to take into your serious thoughts and remembrance what follows That the pleasures of sin how full and fair soever Satan represents them are really low mean empty thin and unsatisfying Solomon gives you the summe and full of them in few words and that upon experience Childhood and Youth Eccles 11. 10. are vanity that is the delights and pleasures of that age
men joyn with Satan in this evil design to discourage young persons from being Religious THat so few young ones follow Christ or mind Religion seriously is partly from wicked men Satans instruments and Agents who like their grand imployer the Devil vilifie and reproach the professors and followers of Christ Satans design now on foot is if possible to deride and scoffe Religion out of the world by representing the professors and followers of it as a company of vile and inconsiderable men This I say is his design and certainly since the Gospel was preached he never had more to help it forward 'T is a thing too common for any to be ignorant of it to hear wicked men § 1. Represent and decry the Religious party in the world as illiterate rude and unlearned avouching that Religion is regarded by none but such When they see a young person following of Christ seeking after Heaven or but that way inclined they presently cry out to him as the Scribes and Pharisees did to those Soldiers that were sent to take Jesus Are you also deceived which of the Rulers have believed on him Do the wise and great men of the world walk in this way Certainly if this Gospel way this following Christ and being so Religious and precise were so needfull or delightfull so desirable or profitable as the preachers talk the wise and Learned men of the Age who are best able to judg of the true worth of things would embrace it and follow it But alas they see no such excellency in it And will you be deceived by a company of ignorant illiterate sots that know not light from darkness or good from evil We hope you are wiser than to make these your guides or to dance after their pipes This is the language of Satans Ambassadours and factors for Hell In answer to whom you may easily reply 1. That this way which they so much vilifie and decry was first preached and recommended to the the world by Jesus Christ the great counsellour as Isaiah calls him the Wisdom of the Father in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledg who had more wisdom and understnding than all the learned Rabbies and profound Doctors in the world He I say came down from Heaven to reveal this way to the sons of men and was the greatest Prophet that ever was upon the face of the Earth And his followers the Apostles though Fishermen at first and illiterate as to humane learning yet they received from Christ such extraordinary gifts of the holy Ghost as made them skilfull in all languages and imparted to them such measures of true wisdom and understanding as all the writings of men could never teach them And that Doctrine which both Christ and they preached to the world was confirmed by many apparent and undeniable Miracles whereby it was manifest that it came from God who is Knowledg and Wisdom it self Therefore Religion had not its rise and beginning from illiterature or ignorance as these men suggest For God was the founder and imposer of it not man 2. Then for the following Ages of the world there have been as learned as wise and knowing men Religious and Zealous followers of Christ as any that were otherwise The Antient Fathers that lived near to the Apostles time and in the following centuries of the Church they were the very Compendium and living Library of all true learning And these by their writings left behind them do give evidence to the world they were zealous Professors and defenders of the Christian Faith and Religion Yea and at this day there are persons as knowing and deeply skilled in all learning and knowledge who are sincere followers of Christ and hearty approvers of Religion and the practice of Godliness as any that serve Satan and tread the paths of sin and unrighteousness And that there be any as no doubt there are some learned men in the world prophane irreligious atheistical scoffers at Christ and Religion it is from a just judgment of God upon them giving them over to strong delusions to believe a lye because they have imployed their gifts and parts not for but against the Truth 3. And for those sincere professors and followers of Christ and practicers of Religion which are of an ordinary rank in the world and so may want the advantage of humane Learning yet they are endowed with spiritual knowledge and Divine understanding Though they are not so well read in the writings of men as others yet they are better read in the writings of God the holy Scriptures which are the well and fountain of all saving knowledg and able to make a man wise unto salvation Though they are not taught by men the Mysteries of Nature yet they understand the Methods of Grace and Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven which is far better Therefore it was the saying of a Father who wanted not humane St. Jerom. Learning that he preferred one plain saying of St. Paul before all the Eloquence and Rhetorick of the Schoolmen Besides I might add that it makes for Gods Glory to choose such as are unlearned and to work by these his great designs and ends amongst men who will give God the sole praise of whatever they have receive or do Now can it be amiss to remember here that in the Judgment of Wisdom it self there are none how rich soever they may be for humane Learning so void of Wisdom and understanding as the irreligious and wicked man Therefore are such so often styled Fools in Holy Writ The religious and the wise man the wicked and the foolish man are convertible terms in the Logick of the Holy Ghost Solomon puts this infamous title of Fool upon the irreligious and ungodly above fifty times in his books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes And you know what David records him to be that saith in heart There is no God And what that Sensualist was in the judgment of Christ who took up his rest and felicity Luk. 12. 20 in his worldly enjoyments with the neglect of Heaven and Religion the way to it On the contrary therefore it must needs be an argument of the highest reason and deepest understanding to own a God to love him superlatively and serve him faithfully with a desire and design to enjoy him eternally in the fruition of whom the rational soul is fully satisfied and compleatly happy This may suffice in answer to this Cavil of ungodly men That none regard Religion but the ignorant and unwise For whether he that serves God or he that serves him not whether he that saves his own soul or he that damns it for ever be the wiser person judge ye § 2. The professors and Practicers of Religion are reproached and. cryed down as proud singular self-conceited persons who think themselves wiser than all the world besides affecting a needless and singular preciseness making the way to Heaven much narrower than it is as if there was
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
sloth still in thy aged bones doth lurk Wherefore before thy halting age doth come Before thy Spirits suffer martyrdome Thy joynts are feeble and thy heart is faint And killing evils do thy body taint Before thy wit thy health and strength decayes Give God the prime and flower of thy dayes VERSE II. While the Sun or the Light or the Moon or the Stars be not darkned or the clouds return after the rain BEfore the Sun and Moon withdraw their light And Stars be dark'ned by an aged night Thine eye-lids drop down brinish tears amain Like dripping Clouds returning after rain PARAPHRASE ER'e wrink'led age and Paleness doth disgrace The Serene lustre of thy youthfull face Thy comely cheeks do lose their Rosy hew And heat and vigour bid thy lips adieu Before thine eyes grow dark and dim and doe Like Stars by day at last extinguish too Or understand it thus before the Sun Quite through thy youthfull Zodiack hath run Or if not then yet while the Light doth last While yet thy stronger Manhood is not past Or if not then before the Moon is gone Thy Manhood and thine Elder years are done At least at last while Midnight Stars do shine Before thy dotage miseries combine Like Clouds and threaten sorrows in a show'r Even such as may dissolve thee every hour Remember thy Creatour VERSE III. In the day when the Keepers of the house shall tremble and the strong men shall bow themselves and the grinders cease because tbey are few and those that look out of the windows be darkened BEfore the day approach when those that keep Thy clayie cottage tumble those that peep Forth of the windows do in hast retreat Thy strong men bow and grinders cease to eat PARAPHRSE THe wise-man means before thy hands and arms That kept thy body ‖ 2 Cor. 5. 1. call'd an house from harms Shall cease their work and through thine abuse Shall by an Aged palsy lose their use Those wary watchmen that did always stand And keep a Centinel at thy command Undaunted were and ready to endure The fiercest Onsets thereby to secure Their head and body now alas they faint Base cowardise doth now their courage taint Those painfull Labourers whose daily task Was to administer what thou did'st ask Did first provide and after feed thee too As careful Nurses for their nurslings doe Now stand in need of others to dispence Convenient diet for their Sustinence Their former work they cannot now ingage But trembling stand through feebleness and age Thy Legs and Thighs those men of strength to run Now bow themselves and cry their Race is done Time was they nimbly posted thee about That thou might'st find thine own inventions out When they did swiftly trace the ways of sin And would to th' house of God as swift have been If thou had'st put them to 't but now alas Weakness is where their Youthfull vigour was Their strength is gone and they are tyred so With running heretofore they scarce can go Thy usefull Grinders that were once compleat Now fail and cannot masticate their meat Thine Eyes those window-peepers that did show Like brighter Stars within their Orbs below Like wasted Tapers lose their light and blink And back into their hollow Sockets sink The Wisemans counsell is therefore that you Before these evils come Remember now Thy Great Creator VERSE IV. And the doors shall be shut in the street when the Sound of the grinding is low and he shall rise up at the voyce of the bird and all the daughters of musick shall be brought low Er'e the doors be shut And to the Grinding Sound an end be put Before the Bird shall raise thee by her voyce And all the Daughters cease their pleasant noise PARAPHRASE SOme lit'rally by Doors doe understand Those of the house wherein he liveth and By which he ran when young into the street His Friends and his Associates to meet And by which Doors his Friends resorted thither To laugh and quaffe and pass the time together But now those doors are shut and privacy Old age likes better than their company Or by these Doors we understand the Ear Which now is shut is deaf and cannot hear These are the Doors by which you do receive The sweet instructions that your Teachers give All counsel good and evil is convey'd By these unto the Soul by which she 's sway'd To this or that O open then the door To Wisdom's saving counsel now before Old age hath clos'd it and thou then begin To call advice when none can enter in Perhaps the Wiseman doth by Doors intend The Mouth and Nose and whatsoe're doth send Aid to the Intrails and by Streets he may The Pipes and Veins and Arteries display Which in old age grow faint and filthy too And cease their former Offices to doe The Valves are clos'd the tyred blood now stops Within it's veins and circulates by drops The Doors are off the hinges and 't is hard To open them that rusting age hath barr'd Before this be thy case stirr up thy strength And set to work for Heav'n that at length When from this house of Clay thy Soul must put Thou maist not find the Door of Heav'n shut Before thy mouth which now doth grind and crump It's food with noise it 's food doth softly mump Before such noise as you ne're wont to hear At midnight wake and Startle you with fear The Birds sweet voyce which you were wont to love Is harsh and now to passion doth you move Not only Thunder or the noise of Drums Beating and ratling in your sleeping rooms Disturb your rest but at the smallest din You are awak'ned and must rise agin A Cock may'nt crow or little Chicken peep Alas Old age must ask them leave to sleep Before the Daughters Musick shall be turn'd To Low and harsher Notes the bellowes burn'd Jer. 6. 29. That fed the Organs or before thy Lungs Those bags of breath do fail thee and thy tongue Time-keeper to the rest shall falter quite Thy pipes are hoarse and do so creak 't would fright Thy self to hear them now which heretofore Melodiously could sing and chaunt and roar Keep time and tune too and rise and fall Observe their stops and quaver it withall Could play so sweetly that they 'd often move And ravish such as do wind-musick love But now these Daughters bid their mirth good night Their Musick 's such as cannot now delight They now afford although they strain for 't too No better musick than Groat Fiddles do Or if you please which yet is more forlorn No better sound than doth a Gelders horn Therefore before thy Pleasant dayes are gone Young man thy Great Creator think upon Remember thy Creator c. VERSE V. Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high and fears shall be in the way and the Almond-tree shall flourish and the Grashopper shall be a burden and desire shall fail because man goeth to