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
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
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
or later if you will be saved and the sooner the better the Prophet tells you so 't is good to bear the yoak in your youth And St. Paul who paid so dear for setting out after Christ no sooner gives this advice to his young son Timothy to flee all youthful lusts and to follow after righteousness 2 Tim. 2. 22. faith and charity And you read under the Law it was Gods ordinance that in the Lev. 2. 14. Meat offerings of their First fruits they should offer green Ears of corn The Gospel of it is this that God expects and requires a primary and early dedication of our selves to him That so soon as we come to age and understanding to dispose of our hearts and affections we should first offer them to him For with such offerings the first fruits the green Ears the youthfull age God is well pleased as you may gather by the favour of God to those persons who very early devoted themselves to his service as Samuel who began to serve God in his minority Josiah who at eight years of age did that that was right in the sight of God and Tymothy who knew the Scriptures from a child and the children of the elect Lady whom St. John testifies walked in the truth These precepts and presidents from Scripture 2 Epist v. 3 4. are sufficient to prove that it is the duty of young men to mind Religion to walk in all the wayes of God and to take up Christs yoak and burden and to follow him who in the dayes of his humiliation encouraged such to come to him by telling them that of such was the Kingdom Mark 10. 14. of God CHAP II. Containing some Arguments to prove the Equity and Necessity and Safety of this Duty and to enforce the Practice of it § 1. SIrs though at first view this may seem an hard saying and an harsh and unreasonable task yet upon deliberate and serious thinking you will find it is founded upon good upon great very great reason It is highly reasonable and just that God who made you should have the best of you the best of your age and time Now our first dayes are our best Optima quaeque dies miseris mortalibus aevi prima fugit The choycest part of mans life is that which first passeth from him Youth is the Golden age wherein our souls are brisk and lively and our bodies active and strong to labour Now are you fittest and best able to watch and pray and undergoe the severities of Religion Old age is full of infirmities dim eyes shaking heads trembling hands and feeble legs Old men are dull of apprehension of bad Capacity and remembrance and clogged with those cares and crosses which youth is free from And is there any reason God should be put off with the dregs of old age when you have spent your spriteful youth in the service of sin You read that the King of Babel would have young men well favoured Dan. 1. 4. without blemish and such as were of great ability to stand before him and shall the King of Israel the Lord of Glory have none to stand in his Courts but the halt the blind and the lame such as David hated Old Barzillay rendred this as a reason why he was unfit to wait on the King at Jerusalem his old age and is old age which is neither serviceable nor acceptable to men good enough for God When you have not a good leg to bring you to Gods House nor good Ears to hear his Word nor a good Eye to read the Scriptures nor a good head to retain nor a good Intellect to apply or improve what you read or hear shall God be served now and not before Hath God given you those members senses and faculties perfect and good and will you not employ them in his service till they are spoiled and fit for nothing Till the members of your bodyes are multiplied by Crutches and Glasses and the powers of your souls quite debilitated and decayed is there any reason for this Were you to present a gift to the King would you not present the best you have how much more ought you to do this to God dare you think he deserves less than man or will be put off with what man will not accept If you do you are vilely mistaken If you offer the blind for sacrifice is it not evil or the lame and the Mal. 1. 8. sick is it not evil offer it now unto thy governour will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person saith the Lord of hosts Take heed therefore you do not reserve that for God which you would be ashamed to offer to man he will not accept it nor is there any reason he should 'T is highly reasonable and just you give him the best of all from whom you receive all you have and hope for § 2. Youth is the most seasonable time for Religion and the service of God Then are men most capable of instruction advice and Counsel then are they most flexible and most apt and easie to be wrought upon to be brought to a good course of piety and Religion Pueri ad omnem disciplinam sunt flexibiliores ad omnem disciplinam tardior est senectus There is a vast difference between Youth and old age in respect of discipline and flexibility The Wax when 't is soft receives the best and fairest impression the Tree while young is most easily bowed Young persons are most receptive of wholsome instruction and most easily brought to any thing that is good Remember this you that are young if you shall neglect Religion slight and shun the wayes and Commands of God now and vanquish all thoughts of God and his service till you are old you cannot imagin what an hard matter you will find it then to dispose your minds to holiness and frame your lives to godliness and Religion as hard a matter as for an aged person to learn to read well in a day that never knew a letter in all his life We say of a man who hath long addicted himself to sloth he cannot work Why what is the matter hath he not his limbs his health his strength and a Calling to imploy them in yes but he hath gotten such an habit of idleness that he cannot work he had rather suffer than labour want then work Thus 't is in respect of Religion if you now addict your selves to impiety and sin and are wholly unhinged as to Religion and the service of God while you are young in old age you will find a kind of impossibility to be otherwise to change your course seriously to mind Religion to brook an holy and strict course of life to imitate obey and follow Christ whithersoever he calls you though 't is to save your immortal souls There is very much in those words of Solomon to this purpose Train up a child in the way he should goe and when he
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
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