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
is old Pro. 22. 6. he will not depart from it If thou art trained up in sin trained up in a loose licentious course of living in thy youth when thou art old thou wilt not depart from it Men think when they are old then they will mend then they will forsake their evil wayes leave their youthful vices and become marvellous devout holy heavenly and close followers of Christ But very hardly 't is the way you have been trained up in the course you have many years been accustomed to and you cannot now alter or depart from it No less power than that which stops the Sun in its course and turns the Rivers of the south can stay thy carier or turn thee out of the way wherein thou hast so long walked St. Paul makes it a Peradventure if such repent and recover 2 Tim. 2. 25 26. themselves out of the snare of the Devil When men have deferred repentance so long and been the willing captives of Satan so many years 't is an hazard if they repent recover themselves and return to God When the Devil had gotten possession of that man in the Gospel and it was so hard a matter to cast him out that the disciples Mark 9. 20. 21. of Christ could not doe it with all their power and prayers when Christ had dispossessed him and observed with what extremity foaming and renting the Devil came forth he asked the Father of the possessed how long this had hapned to his son Answer is made of a child So if Satan get possession of you in your childhood and youth and continue till you are old he will plead right and title to you then and if ever he be dispossessed it will be with great pain great grief and sorrow yea and with no small hazard of your life I mean the life of your soul for he will hold fast and rent you to purpose e're he part with you As good old Polycarpus said concerning Christ These eighty six years he hath been my Master and I his Servant shall I deny him now or leave him now at last cast No I will dye first So doth Satan say concerning men This person hath served me from his youth I have been his master these forty fifty sixty years and shall I let him go now at last cast no I will keep him mine to the end if all the power of hell can doe it Therefore now is the fittest and most seasonable time to make choice of the Master you intend to follow and serve Christ or the Devil one must be and which you take to now 't is probable you will stick to and serve to your Dying Day Moreover if you consider the requisites to a Disciple of Christ and sincere professor of Religion you will find Youth the most proper Season to attain them in If you will be Disciples of Christ true Christians and unfeignedly religious you must be humble and broken in heart for sin Soul-compunction is necessary to Salvation St. Peters Converts to Christ were humble and pricked in their hearts and cried out Men and Brethen what shall we doe you must either Act. 3. 37. mourn for sin here or burn for sin hereafter Sow in tears if you will reap in joy And the time of youth is most sesonable for this The sooner you begin to mourn for sin your sorrow is like to be the less heavy and the more kindly Your hearts have upon them a natual hardness and if by neglect of repentance they gather a Contracted hardness too they will be broken with the more difficulty Custom in sin takes away the sense of it and the longer you continue in it the more will you find a senseless stupidity growing upon your spirits Your Consciences that are now tender and timerous and somwhat shie and fearfull of sin will by degrees grow hard and seared and past feeling Doe you not know this by experience that those sins which a few years since were a great terror to you you can now commit without the least trouble if an Oath or a Curse had slipt from you or if you had been overtaken with intemperance what stings and gripes have you felt after it but now you are frequently guilty of these Crimes yet without the least remorse or trouble for them Therefore now is the time for this work while your consciences and hearts are tender and free from contracted hardness for the longer you delay the more difficult will it be to bring your hearts to this duty Again you must forsake sin your hearts must not only be broken for but also broken off from sin You must repent and turn Ezek. 18. 30. Luk. 13. 3. from all your evil wayes otherwise iniquity will be your ruine and you will perish by it and the longer you continue in sin the harder will it be to forsake it Custom will become a second nature to you and the changing of your Course will be like the Jer. 13. 23. changing the Ethiopians skin and the Leopards spots When once sin gets rooting in the heart and enslaves and captivates the affections it will be extream difficult to get it out and cast it off While the Cockatrice is in the egg 't is easily crushed Before sin gets too much life and strength you may with the better success oppose it and with the greater ease gain victory over it Now is the time to open your hearts and give entertainment to Christ who is said to knock Rev. 3. 20. at these doors by his Word and Spirit which you must open to him as ever you expect he should open heaven to you and become subject to him in his Kingdom of Grace if ever you will reign with him in his Kingdom of Glory And doubtless the fittest season for it is now in youth for if you shut these doors now you will find them fast bolted and barred when you are old Sin in the soul is like rust in Iron it renders it unapt to move though pulled with great strength The Devil is a subtil adversary and the longer you permit him to hold possession of this Royal fort the more will he fortifie it against Christ and beat off with the more ease whatever assaults are made upon you by the Word and Spirit of God Christ will enter most willingly if you will receive him he desires it he seeks it behold I stand at the door and knock but if you refuse your affections will be more allenated and hearts more hardened Qui non est hodie cras minus aptus erit If you are not inclined or disposed to God to Religion and that that is good to day you will be more indisposed to morrow if you are not willing Christ should take possession of your hearts this week or month or year you will be less willing the next The sooner the better That proverb is true here and cannot be crossed Blessed is the Wooing that is not long a doing
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
but a powerfull Orator to perswade all that see it to love and honour it What Diogenes said of Learning is truely applicable to Grace and Religion it makes poor men Rich old men Happy and young men Honourable It gives such lasting honour as the rusty teeth of old Time can never eat out the Name of the Ps 112. 6. righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance Would you be truely great then be sincerely good For true honour of which all men are greatly ambitious non parvas animo dat gloria vires immensum gloria calcar habet The itch of honour scratch till the blood come still abides is not attained by building of Babels nor by gathering wealth or adorning your selves with the plumes of pride Pharaohs Horses may have costly Trappings and the Midianites Camels chains of gold Cant. 1. 9. Judg. 8. 26. nor yet by being Masters of mischief or notable for some act of villany as he who to get himself a name burnt the famous Temple of Diana Can any man think the dunghill of wickedness a fit Mine to dig an honourable Name from Or that the only way to make a man sweet is to wallow in Jakes's and Kennels Certainly Grapes grow not on Throns nor Figs on Thistles Neither is the sweet Oyntment of an honourable estimation or good Name which Solomon saith is better than life compounded of those stinking ingredients pride lasciviousness prodigality covetousness intemperance and prophaneness No the name of the wicked shall rot in despite of all Offices Preferments Titles Policies or favours whatsoever Their impious deeds wherein they gloried while living shall be raked up to their reproach and dishonour by after ages Cains malice and Pharoahs pride and rebellion against God have hitherto kept pace in the world with Abels devotion and Moses his meekness And as the names of the wicked are thus torn on earth so their souls are committed to hell covered with shame and delivered over to everlasting contempt Impiety Dan. 12. 2. therefore is not the mean to true glory But the way to true and lasting honour is to seek it by a Religious conversation A good name ariseth out of things true just honest lovely and of good report Famam extendere factis hoc virtutis opus Whoever would be truely famous must be really Vertuous Be faithful sober and just honour God and do good and you shall be honoured of God and good men while you live and when you leave the world you shall leave your name a blessing to Posterity Your remembrance shall be sweet your name a perfume and your memorial pretious In a word do worthily in Ephrata and so be famous in Bethlehem Vertue Ruth 4. 11. and Religion shall emblazon thy name when nothing else will or can A Field of sincerity charged with the deeds of piety cannot but be accomplished with the Crest of Glory § 5 Now is the most Acceptable time What the Apostle saith of the day of the Gospel I may say of the day of Youth Behold now is the accepted time The 2 Cor. 6. 2. Noontide or Evening of thy life may be acceptable some are received at the eleventh hour But the Morning is most acceptable God is pleased to see young sinners looking and inquiring after a Saviour to see them setting out for Heaven betimes and seeking the Kingdom of God in the first place before Satan or the World hath revished their Virgin affections The youngest disciple was the beloved disciple and Christs first care and Command is for these Feed my Lambs O these are most Joh. 21. 15. acceptable and dear to him because their Graces are most visible and conspicuous Early goodness is like the morning blush like the first opening of the Rose like a Diamond set in a Ring of Gold It hath a Delightfull fragrancy and a glorious lustre every ones eye is upon it and every one that is truly godly admires and loves it As the witty speeches of a pratling Babe are many times more taken notice of than the grave sayings of an old Cicero so early grace in young converts is more observed than in those of gray heads The beauty of their vertue doth then snine clearest and the power of it doth then appear greatest To see young ones delighted in reading and hearing Gods Word much in Prayer frequent at Sacraments and other holy Exercises to see young persons deny themselves taking up the cross and yoak of Christ casting off the World mortifying the flesh with the affections and lusts of it deafning their ears to all inticements and allurements of pleasing sins advising others so to do To see there manfully opposing and conquering the Tempter in his wiles and policies following God fully and with full purpose of heart cleaving to the Lord none but must needs take notice of this The grace of Christ in them is so powerfull and the activity of that grace in them so lively that it must needs be visible And this tending much to Gods glory must needs render them more acceptable Adde to this that your strength to serve God is greatest 1 Joh. 2. 14. and your time longest which gives you this double advantage you may not only escape many pollutions in the world wherewith others are defiled to the dishonour of God and wounding of their own souls but you may bring much glory to God in your generations God hath work enough for you to doe all tending to his glory and your own salvation throughout the whole day of you lives though you begin in the Morning of your Youth and continue very diligent till the weary Evening of decrepit Old age overtake you I might instance in some of the chief part of your work you have a Pardon of sin to sue out Evidences for Heaven to clear corruptions to mortifie lusts to subdue a treasure or store to lay up graces to gain and improve temptations to resist enemies to defeat Relations to mind and many duties towards God and men to discharge work enough for the whole day to do all this well begin as soon as you will as soon as you can And as a Master who hath many servants and a multitude of business is best pleased with that servant that goes about his work betimes and continues at it all day because he doth his Master the most service and brings him the greatest gain so God who hath variety of work for his people and servants is most delighted with those that set to it betimes and continue diligent in his service to the end I say of all others these are most acceptable to God Gods Firstlings are his Darlings for these doe him the most service and bring him the greatest glory § 6. Now is the most safe time in respect to your selves your own souls At first if you be carefull no doubt but you may prove successefull in this great and weighty concern soul-work God-work eternity-work But if you make
dry fluid and firm shall all conspire to the advantage of the Creature as to their common ends Is it by chance that the Springs do feed the Rivers the Rivers the Sea the Sea the Clouds the Clouds the Earth the Earth the Beasts and the Beasts Men Surely a man when he sees a fair House or goodly Ship which is made of many pieces of timber iron stone c. which grew in several parts of the Earth may as reasonably conclude that these several parts did of themselves meet together by chance and make up that Building or Vessel as believe that the goodly frame of the Heavens and Earth with all things that are therein were made and put into that order without the wisdom of a great Creator This first thing then to be believed is highly rational viz. That there is a God 2. That this God this first Being or Creator is the chiefest good And is it not reasonable also to believe this There is in every man an innate desire of good Who will shew us any good is the harmonious Psal 4. inquest of all mankind And that there is a chief good the light of Nature and Reason teacheth us The Heathen believed quod sit though they could not agree quid sit summum bonum And our experience will tell us this chief good is not in any thing here below 'T is not in Riches or Honours or Pleasures because all these are both uncertain and unsatisfying Therefore 't is rational to conclude it can be nothing beneath or short of him who hath made all things both in Heaven and Earth and hath breathed into man this spark of desire after good which nothing can extinguish nor any thing but himself fully satisfie Thus far then Religion is reasonable in what it requires us to believe that there is a God and that this God is the chiefest good 3. That this God hath made all things in this lower world for some End Is it not rational to believe this who is so irrational as to think a wise man should spend many years in contriving some Engine or other excellent piece of art and be at vast cost to accomplish it but he hath some end in it So certainly the great and eternal Wisdom hath designed Man and all other Creatures which he hath made to their particular Ends as appears by that propensity and appetite which he hath imprinted in their natures towards that end as the main point and scope of their being And what should this end be but as Solomon tells us his Prov. 16. 3. own glory This is also rational to believe that God made all things for himself and more especially Man for his service and all other things to be usefull and serviceable to man and man to admire and adore his Maker to serve and worship him in a peculiar manner That of the Prophet looks this way I have created him for my Glory Here is both the Isa 43. 1. 7. Author and end of mans Creation The Author God I have Created him the End for my Glory And it is greatly reasonable to believe this For how absurd is it to think that God should set up this admirable house of the visible world and put man in possession of all and yet expect no Rent from this Inhabitant no fealty from this Tenant To conceive that God should make a body so curiously wrought in the lower parts of the Earth Embroyder it with Nerves Veins Arteries and variety of proportion and parts miracles enough between head and foot to fill a volume and enliven this body with a spark of his own fire a ray of his own light an Angelical Heaven-born soul endowed with all faculties of Will Memory Understanding and Reason and such high perfections besitting it for the service of its Creator and send this Excellent Creature into the world making all things therein subject to him meerly to eat drink sleep buy sell and pursue sinfull delights and pleasures Certainly the wise God had an higher and nobler end and design in framing and fashioning Man with so much cost and care Namely the serving and glorifying himself who hath so fearfully and wonderfully made him and so plentifully and richly provided for him And therefore the Jewish Talmud propounding the Question Why God made man on the Sabbath-Eve gives this answer That he might presently enter upon sanctifying the Sabbath and so begin his life with the worship of God which was the chief end and reason of his creation Whereas if God had not intended man for an higher end than eating drinking sleeping or taking his pleasure which is the life of a Beast then brutish principles had been sufficient for such Brutish ends and practices The soul of a Beast might have served his turn But since God hath made man an intelligent Creature and given him a reasonable soul which no other creature in this world hath 't is reasonable to believe he hath made him for an higher end than the other Creatures And those who will help the weak eyes of nature by the glass of Scripture cannot but see the Makers end in mans excellency It is written in such broad letters that God made Man to serve him and shew forth his praise that he that runs may read it Thus you see that those things which Religion requires our belief of as that God is is the cheifest good and hath made all things for some end and man especially for his service are all argeeable to reason § 3. Then for the Agenda the practick Agenda part of Religion or those things which Religion requires you to do it is all still but reasonable service To convince you of this consider it as it is set down in sundry places of Scripture which contain the whole of Religion or whole duty of man in this particular Begin with Solomon Let us hear the conclusion of the Eccles 12. 13. whole matter Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man And is not all this your reasonable service or duty that you should fear and reverence and have an awful dread upon your spirits of that God that hath made all things and governs all things that pondereth the goings of man and seeth all the thoughts and imaginations of his heart That God at whose presence the mountains fall down the Rocks rend and the Earth trembles and quakes that God who as the wise man speaks in the following words will bring every work into judgment and bestow eternal rewards or inflict eternal punishments upon men according to their works done here in the flesh is it not reasonable you should fear him and keep his Commandments whose Commandments are not grievous but holy just and good Who hath an absolute soveraignty over you and all the world to command what he pleaseth and is pleased to command nothing but what the discharge or doing of shall make for your good as well as his
own glory Who in his wisdom and mercy hath so interwoven his honour with our salvation that we cannot seek the promotion of the one but we necessarily promote the other to observe and do these commands to the utmost of our power is it any whit more than reasonable Hear also what the Prophet Micah saith in this case He hath Mich. 6. 8. shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God Here again is the whole practice of piety and surely nothing but reason in it That men should deal justly one with another be kind loving and mercifull That they should walk humbly in the sight of God between whom and us there is an infinite disproportion for God is in Heaven we on Earth God perfectly holy and we both originally and actually impure and unclean and is not humility in us towards this God a reasonable duty Again The grace of God that bringeth salvation saith St. Paul Tit. 2. 11. 12. teacheth us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly Here is the sum of all Religion and is it not highly rational that you should forsake those ways of unrighteousness and deny those wordly lusts which deprave your natures darken your understandings and besot your reason as Whoredom Drunkenness Covetousness Intemperance and the like which make men very beasts or in some sence worse than beasts Yea which destemper and disease the body marre your health shorten your lives and ruin and destroy your immortal Souls And on the contrary that you should be sober righteous and godly which tends to the refining and heightning of your natures the health and happiness of your bodies and the eternal welfare of your souls in both worlds can any thing be offered or prescribed to man more reasonable than this To sum up all in the words of our blessed Lord Whatsoever you would that men Math. 7. 12. should do unto you that do ye unto them for this is the Law and the Prophets Here our Saviour tells you is all as to practice that God and Religion requires of you and is not this highly reasonable Would you not that others should dishonour discredit wrong defraud you or covet any thing that is yours is it not reasonable you do not these things to them Or would you have others kind merciful just and charitable to you is it not reasonable you should be so to them One of the Heathen Emperors was so taken with this saying of our Saviour that he caused it to be written in sundry places of his Palace and severely punished him that did not observe it And so admired Christ for it that he would have built a Temple to him but that he feared it would have proved the ruine of those Temples dedicated to their Gods And certainly he must put off the use of reason and disown the name of man that will not acknowledg this is reasonable to do in all things as he would be done unto And this is the sum of all Religion This saith Christ is the Law and the Prophets Hitherto then all that God and Religion requires of you is but reasonable service § 4. As to the speranda or munera the Speranda sive munera religionis reward of Religion or which Religion promiseth and procureth to her sincere followers as a peaceable conscience a quiet mind communion with God the sense of his favour and love pardon of sin and the adoption of sons here and eternal bliss hereafter a Crown a Kingdom Coheirship with the Son of God yea such rewards as eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor can it enter into the heart of man to conceive You must needs grant 't is highly reasonable a man should prefer these before fading pleasures and sensual delights and that he should seek the attainment and enjoyment of them by all means seeing the present and future welfare of the whole man soul and body depends upon it And seeing there is no way or means by which you can secure these to your selves but by being truly holy and Religious by following Christ in that pattern of obedience and holiness he hath set before us the doing of this must needs be our most reasonable service § 5. Henceforward then whatever Satan may suggest young men conclude all Atheism and Irreligion to be irrational which teacheth men to dream and fancy that there is no God but that all things came by chance and by chance continue that there is no future state no future reward to be expected or future punishment to be feared that man lives only for himself and when he dyes is like the beasts that perish that the thing called Religion is only an invention to keep the lower spirit of the world in awe and order Certainly an Atheist is but a beast in the proportion and dress of a man or a man bereft of that quality which distinguisheth him from a beast Reason For it is impossible for a man to manifest more want of reason than in denying God and wandering from him who is the fountain of his being and Well-spring of all his blessedness And nothing doth more evidence a mans reason than to acknowledg a Supream Truth to be believed a chief good to be embraced a great and eternal God to be adored and worshiped And therefore though Philosophers difference man from bruits by his cheif natural quality viz. Reason yet some Divines like rather to do it by his supernatural excellency viz. Religion Partly because Religion is the highest and truest reason and therefore causeth the greatest essential distinction or difference And partly because Religion is the end and excellency of the rational creature of which Bruits are wholly incapable Atheism therefore is most unreasonable And how great will your condemnation be who profess to believe this and yet refuse to serve God and to give him that Sacrifice that is due to him and which you confess is but your reasonable service what will you act against your reason and conscience will not the sense of the worth of your immortal souls nor the serious consideration of the weight of an unchangeable estate in another world nor the convictions of Gods Spirit and your own consciences that Religion is reasonable prevail with you to be religious in good earnest and to serve God with all the powers and faculties of your souls and bodies Are you convinced that the true and living God hath made you for an higher end than to gratifie your sensual appetite follow your particular callings and mind lying vanities why then do you not mind things of an higher nature and import the service of God and salvation of your own souls why do you yet lay out your money for that which is not bread and your labour for that which will never satisfie against the dictates of Reason and Convictions
sets forth the abundance that befals them but all this is but the world but the Creature And as the Princes kiss was more valuable than his cup of Gold so the good we enjoy from God is more than all we can enjoy from the Creature In the way to destruction you may have more riches but in the way to Heaven you shall have more graces which are more pretious than Gold yea than fine Gold that perisheth In the way of sin you may have the acclamation of men but in the way of holiness you shall be sure to have the approbation of God A wicked man may say in his way this house is mine this estate these possessions mine but the godly man may say this Heaven is mine this Jesus is mine All that the one can boast of is that these Creatures are mine and these sins are mine but the other may say God is mine his love mine his favour his mercy his promises all mine for evermore Judge now is it not better to enjoy a spring than a drop the Sun than a candle the Substance than the shadow Is not fulness better than emptiness the chiefest good which is God than the least good which is the Creature Is it not better to possess glorious certainties than specious seeming nothings and vanities In a word is it not better to enjoy him who alone is all happiness than all other things which without him are but a cypher then the way of holiness is better than the way of sin § 5. The way of Religion hath more liberty in it than the way of sin I know you will think this a strange assertion 'T is for this reason that wicked men choose the way of sin that they may have liberty This is one main end of their walking in this way and main cause of their being so hardly brought off from it because 't is wide and broad and they may have room and liberty enough But they are deceived in their end for there is more liberty in the waies of God than in the waies of sin To make this good know there is a threefold liberty 1. An indifferent liberty which is conversant about the lawful use of the Creature The way of Religion barres not this liberty at all nor diminisheth it but adds to it rather adds some drams of sweetness to relish the Creature A Religious person may buy sell marry eat and drink and glad his heart in the lawful use of Creature-comforts though not dishonour God and defile his own soul by the abuse of them as the wicked do who by their sin poyson all their lawful things Drunkenness and Excess turns his meat and drink into poyson pride makes his garments infectious all his blessings become a curse and his very liberty in these things a perfect slavery by his vile lusts So that a godly man enjoyeth more liberty about the use of lawful things than any wicked man upon Earth whatsoever 2. There is a carnal liberty which is nothing else but the licentiousness of a mans lusts the liberty of a corrupt a base heart a liberty for men to do evil to act as they list and to live without all check or controll Our tongues are our own who shall be Lord over us I confess Religion allows no such liberty which is falsly so called and the way of Religion is not at all the worse for denying men this liberty but the better As it is no defect but a perfection in God that he cannot lye or deny himself so it is the excellency of Religion that it allows not of a licentious liberty which in truth is a bondage and wholly inconsistent with true liberty The Holy Ghost calls the service 2 Pet. 2. 19. of sin a bondage And will you call this liberty which God himself calls a bondage and the worst of bondage spiritual bondage to corruption sin and Satan who worketh in wicked men effecttually ruleth over their hearts and carries them captive at his will is this liberty to be held with the chain of Hell Is that man at liberty who is at the command of every vile lust if his lusts bid him swear he swears lye steal commit adultery do this or that sinful action and he doth it Is that man at liberty who is now captivated to one sin then to another One while a slave to prodigality then to covetousness now a slave to presumption then to despair now to excessive mirth and revelling then to exceeding fears and horrors while his lusts give his soul no rest night or day but tire him out from time to time with importunity and all he doth he doth with a slavish spirit Sometimes anxious and careful how to commit sin and then fearing lest those sins should be discovered First his evil heart sollicits him to sin and he cannot withstand it and afterwards his conscience like Judas his torments him for sin that he cannot endure it And look how many lusts you have unmortified so many Lords and worse than Egyptian taskmasters you have over you This is all the liberty you have in the way of sin wherein there lies Serjeants Jaylors Fears Attachments and thy own Conscience both Witness Judge Prison and Hell But in the way of Religion and holiness there is a spiritual liberty the highest attainable Joh. 8. 36. Rom. 6. 14. Gal. 3. 13. Rom. 8. 15. Rom. 8. 1. in this world this is liberty from the dominion of sin from the curse of the Law and from all condemnation It is such a liberty as takes away the spirit of bondage and puts in the spirit of adoption the spirit of love making us willing to serve God whose service is perfect freedom Here is a liberty to plead for mercy at the throne of grace and doth never cease till it be consummated in glory Therefore if you are for true liberty choose the way of Religion for the contrary is so far from liberty that it is the greatest slavery and bondage on this side Hell § 6. In the way of Religion and holiness as you shall have Liberty so all things else that are needful to make the way easie and delightful to you A sufficient Guide God Thou shalt guide me by thy counsel and afterward receive me to glory Psal 73. 24. A better Guide you cannot desire and better counsel you cannot have 't is sufficient to direct you in all dangers fears temptations and difficulties To every one that walks in this way God gives the same assurance that he did to Jacob I will be Gen. 28. 15. with thee and keep thee in all places whither thou goest and I will not leave thee When thou art weary I will give thee rest when thou fallest I will raise thee up when thou wanderest I will reduce thee when thou art fainting I will strengthen thee when thou dyest I will save thee I will Heb. 13. 5. never leave thee nor forsake thee And as the omnipotent
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