The real Christian, or, A treatise of effectual calling wherein the work of God…

Fifthly, We will grant it, that thy lust or idol, which thou so lovest, doth give delight to thy corrupt heart; but is the good so great, that it countervails the evil that attends ⟨p. 63⟩it? We say, and that truly, a man may buy gold too dear; so may men buy pleasures and profits too dear: How quickly are the pleasures of sin over? pass away in the act, some of the strongest of them. Pleasures of sin for a season, Heb. 11.25. but the evil that attends sin hath the word Never attending it: The Worm never dies. Should a Prince give a Subject leave to fill himself with what pleasures his heart could desire, his mind invent, and enjoy them to the height the longest day in Summer, but at night he must go lie in an Oven fiery hot; would any man choose the pleasures of one day upon this condition? A plain similitude, but illustrates the thing in hand. If thou shouldest live the longest measure of time that any man hath done, and spend all that time in nothing but pleasures (which no man ever did, but met with some crosses, afflictions, or sickness) but at the evening of this life must take up thy lodging in the everlasting burnings and devouring fire, Isa. 33.14. were those pleasures answerable to these everlasting burnings? An English Merchant that lived at Dantzick, now with God, told us this story, and it was true: A friend of his (a Merchant also) upon what grounds I know not, went to a Convent, and dined with some Friars; his entertainment was very noble; after he had dined and seen all, the Merchant fell to commending their pleasant lives; Yea, said one of the Friars to him, we live gallantly indeed, had we any body to go to hell for us when we die. Were the evils that follow sin no other then what some feel, even in this life; and for many, their lusts have brought them upon them; yet he were a fool, who would give up himself to the pleasures of any lust to lie under such evils at last: What wants, poverty and misery have some come to, who had once good Estates, but spent them in serving their lusts? What torments do many feel in their bodies by the French pox, and some from the Gout? which though many men who are temperate are afflicted with it, yet some by their intemperance bring it upon themselves.

Fifthly, We will grant it, that thy lust or idol, which thou so lovest, doth give delight to thy corrupt heart; but is the good so great, that it countervails the evil that attends