extinguish the Flames of Luft, it is certainly better to marry than to burn, as the great Apoftle has determin'd, and the meanest honeft Marriage is rather to be chofen than the most fplendid finning; in what Rank foever Men are plac'd Marriage is honourable among all Men, and the Bed undefil'd, but Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge, Heb. 13. 4. How much then is it to be lamented, that this facred Inftitution and honourable State, fo neceflary to the Happiness of Mankind, and fo highly efteem'd, not only by Chriftians, but by all the wifer Heathens, fhould be fo much neglected and contemn'd (if not ridicul'd) by fo many, even of thofe that value themfelves for their Honour and Quality, and that promifcuous Lufts and Dalliances, in the peftilent Society of vile Strumpets, fhould ever be preferred before all the Safety and Comfort of Conjugal Affections, chafte Conversation, and a legitimate Off Spring.

The younger Sons of good Families many times chufe a fingle Life (tho' it ill agrees with their Conftitution) because they cannot marry to great Fortunes, which may enable them to live as fplendidly as their Elder Brother; they are apt to imagine (as one of them has pleaded) that Marriage will fink their Figure, clog their Circumftances, and keep them from coming near the Port of their Family. But this Conceit often proves the Ruin of Soul, and Body, and Estate, and Honour too,, when the rejecting the proper and lawful Cure of their youthful Appetites makes them indulge themfelves in forbidden Liberties and unbounded Enjoyments, until at length they run out into all the flagrant and fhameful Practices of the most deteftable Lewdness.

Upon this Account it were much to be wished that our Nobility and Gentry would fet fome Limits to their Grandeur, and moderate their Expences with fuch a prudent and frugal Conduct, as to be able and willing to afford a competent Maintenance to their Younger Sons as well as the Eldeft, and that they

would

would take an early Care to provide fuitable Matches for them all, as foon as they be grown up, and before they be corrupted by the fashionable Vices of this dif folute Age, from which the obliging Affection of a modeft and chafte Wife might in a great measure preferve them.

7. Laftly, To keep you from immoderate Love of and Complacency in the Riches, Honours, and Pleafures of this World, befides reflecting upon what was before fuggefted concerning the Vanity and Emptinefs, Uncertainty and Unfatisfactorinefs of all Earthly Enjoyments, you may further confider how inconfiftent the predominant Love of Temporal Things is with the true Love of God and your immortal Souls. Love not the World, (fays St. John) neither the Things that are in the World: if any Man love the World, the Love of the Father is not in him, 1 Joh. 2. 15. Know ye not (faith St. James) that the Friendship of the World is Enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a Friend of the World is the Enemy of God, James 4. 4. The Love of the World and the Love of God are like the Scales of a Ballance, as the one falls the other rifes; not that every Degree of Love to the Things of the World is repugnant to the Love of God, but when we love them more than God, or indeed with an Equality to him, when we put our Trust in Riches, make Gold our Hope, and the fine Gold our Confidence, when we love the Praise of Men more than the Praife of God, and act with more Re gard to worldly Applause than to true Honour, Juftice, and Rules of Duty, or when we are Lovers of· Pleasure more than Lovers of God, placing our chief Joy and Felicity in licentious and riotous Living, or at best in gratifying the Senfes with the molt refined way of Voluptuoufnefs, with the Pomp and Splendor of Life, and the choiceft Delicacies of Art and Nature; fuch an immoderate Affection for any worldly Enjoyments evidently proves us to be in a State of Enmity with God, and to be no Friends to our own Souls. And is not this L 3 Argu

1

Argument enough to diffwade you from it? Can you be willing to be in fuch a State as will expofe you to all poffible Evils, and render you uncapable of enjoying the only valuable Goods, the Delights and Pleasures, which are pure, and perfect, and everlasting, in the Vifion and Fruition of God himself? For if we fo fix our Affections on Earthly Things as to make them our Portion and Happiness, Heaven can be no Heaven, and God can be no God to us.

There are no earthly, fenfual, and worldly Enjoyments to be found in Heaven; in the Kingdom of Glory there are no Treasures of Gold and Silver, no Marble Structures with ftately Furniture, no Wardrobes of rich Apparel, no Ivory Tables nor fumptuous Dishes, no luscious Viands nor Falernian Wines, no luxurious Eating and Drinking, no glittering Coaches with fplendid Equipage and coftly Trappings, no Crowd of Attendance in gay Liveries, no odoriferous Gardens, Vineyards, and Groves, interwoven with artificial Streams, no Stage-Plays nor Balls, no airy Mirth and Jollity. All the Felicities of that bleffed Place are quite of another Nature, moft Divine, moft Sacred, and Spiritual, as well as infinitely more beatifick, pleafant, and durable, than any thing this World can afford. If therefore you place your chief Delight and Satisfaction in any of the Goods of this World, and make them the prime Objects of your Affection, you will be altogether unqualify'd for the more pure Fruitions of Heaven. If an over great Efteem of and Complacency in your Earthly Riches, Pleafures, and Pomps, continue to be the prevailing Temper of your Souls while you are in this Life, it will doubtless be fo in the other too, and that must neceffarily render you unfpeakably miserable, when you shall be not only separated for ever from all your fenfual and earthly Enjoyments, but perfectly void of all Savour or Relifh of the Things of Heaven, as unmeet to be Partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light, as a blind Man is to be pleased with

bright and orient Colours, or the deaf with harmonious Mufick.

In fhort, if you defire to go to Heaven when you die, and to be in any Capacity of Happiness when you come thither, I must befeech you not to retain too great a Fondness and Paffion for this World not to place your chief Content in full Draughts of its intoxicating Pleafures, or in large Portions of its uncertain Riches and fading Glories, but rather to take. care while you live to get your Hearts purged from all immoderate Affection to Earthly Things, your Minds enlightened with Divine Knowledge, and your Souls fanctify'd throughout, and wholly inclined unto God, fo as to love him, and prefer him above all Things, and make it your highest Ambition to ferve, and honour, and pleafe him, unto the End of your Days. Then fhall you go out of this World rightly difpofed and fitted to behold the Light of his Countenance, and to folace your felves in it as the highest Object of your Defires; and then you may be fure that your Defires fhall be fully fatisfy'd, and you fhall be infinitely more bleffed than all the Grandeur of this World can poffibly make you.

CHA P. IV.

Of the Blessings and Advantages the Young Gentry enjoy above others, and the Way to make an early and happy Improvement of them.

Having confidered the Difficulties and Temptati

ons unto which, moft noble and honourable Keaders, you that are in the upper part of the World may frequently be expofed, and the Poffibility of overcoming them, together with the Means whereby they may be conquered, I beg Leave in the laft place, with all due Refpect, to put you in remembrance what Advantages you have above others, and how you may make an early and aufpicious Improvement of them. In thefe Particulars there is the lefs need of copiously enlarging, because they have been confidered by the pious, learned, and ingenious Author of the Gentleman's Calling. But yet I fhall not wholly omit all Difcourse of them, becaufe that Book is not fo generally intelligible to all forts of Young Gentlemen, as it would have been if it had been wrote with fuch a natural Clearness of Thought and Expreffion as that other Treatife of his, The Whole Duty of Man. For where there is an elaborate Mixture of Wit and Eloquence, with great Variety of Tropes and Figures, it often clouds and obftru&s the Evidence of the Reafoning, and the Perfpicuity of the Stile and Phrafe. The like may alfo in fome degree be faid of his Ladies Calling, fome Parts of which do not feem very much accommodated to the Underfanding of Young Perfons, tho' of better Rank. I mention not this to difcourage any of you from reading the Works of that celebrated Author, which have been fo well accepted in the World, but 'tis hop'd that in the Perufal of what is here fuggefted you will not only