that when a young nephew of his died, he sent his chaplain to a necromancer to know of him how it fared with him in the other world. The conjurer showed him to the chaplain, lying on a fiery bed in hell, which when the Pope understood, he never joyed more.

Ah! young man, that these occasional hints of hell may be a means to preserve thee from lying in those everlasting flames.

Bellarmin tells us of a certain advocate of th court of Rome, that being at the point of death, was stirred up by them that stood by to repent, and call upon God for mercy. He with a constant countenance, and without sign of fear, turned his speech to God, and saith, "Lord, I have a desire to speak unto thee, not for myself, but for my wife and children; for I am hastening to hell; neither is there anything that Thou shouldest do for me."

And this he spake," saith Bellarmin, who was present and heard, "as if he had spoken of a journey to some village or town, and was no more affrighted."

Sir Francis Bacon, also, in his story of Henry VII., relates, how it was a common byword of the Lord Cordes, that "he would be content to lie seven years in hell, so he might win Calais from the English." But if thou, O young man, art given up to such desperate atheism, and carnal apprehensions of hell, I am afraid God will one day confute thee

K

by fire and brimstone. But I would willingly hope better things of all those young persons into whose hands this treatise shall fall. And thus you see what things must be declined and avoided, if ever you would be good betimes, if ever you would seek and serve the Lord in the spring and morning of your days.

CHAPTER VII.

The things that must be practised by those that
would be good betimes.

BUT as those things must be declined, so other things must be carefully and diligently practised, if ever you would be good betimes. I shall instance only those that are most considerable and weighty:

as,

First, If ever you would be good betimes, then you must labour to be acquainted with four things betimes:

I. You must labour to acquaint yourselves with the Scriptures betimes. You must study the Word betimes. David studied the Word in the morning of his days, in the primrose of his youth; and this made him wiser than his enemies, yea, than his teachers; this made him as much excel the ancients as the sun excels the moon, or as the moon excels the twinkling stars. Timothy was good betimes; and no wonder: for in the primrose of his days, he was acquainted with the Scripture, he was inured to the Word from his childhood, yea, from his infancy; as the word properly signifies, see in Psal.

cxix. 9, "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his ways? By taking heed according to Thy Word." There is no way to a holy heart and a clean life, but by acquainting yourselves with the Word betimes. One hath long since observed, that "God hath bowed down the Scriptures to the capacity even of babes and sucklings, that all excuses may be taken away, and that young men may be encouraged to study the Scriptures betimes." Ah! young men, no histories are comparable to the histories of the Scriptures: 1. For Antiquity; 2. Rarity; 3. Variety; 4. Brevity; 5. Perspicuity; 6. Harmony; 7. Verity. All other books cannot equal God's, either in age or authority, in dignity or excellency, in sufficiency or glory.

Moses is found more ancient and more honourable than all those whom the Grecians make most ancient and honourable, as Homer, Hesiod, and Jupiter himself, whom the Greeks have seated in the top of their Divinity.

The whole Scripture is but one entire love-letter, despatched from the Lord Christ to His beloved Spouse. And who, then, but would still be a-reading in this love-letter? Like Cecilia, a Roman maiden of noble parentage, who carried always about her the New Testament, that she might still be a-reading in Christ's love-letter, and beholding the sweet workings of His love and heart towards His dear and precious ones.

Luther found so much sweetness in the Word, in Christ's love-letter, that made him say, he would not live in Paradise, if he might, without the Word, “At cum verbo etiam in inferno facile est vivere,” "But with the Word he could live in hell itself."

The Word is like the stone Garamantites, that hath drops of gold in itself, enriching the believing soul. This the martyrs found, which made them willing to give a load of hay for a few leaves of the Bible in English.

St. Austin professeth that the sacred Scriptures were his whole delight.

And St. Jerome tells us of one Mepotiamus, who, by long and assiduous meditation on the holy Scriptures, had made his breast the library of Jesus Christ.

And Rabbi Chii, in the Jerusalem Talmud, saith, that in his account all the world is not of equal value with one word out of the law. That which a papist reports lyingly of the sacrament of the mass, viz., that there are as many mysteries in it as there be drops in the sea, dust on the earth, angels in heaven, stars in the sky, atoms in the sunbeams, or sands on the sea-shore, may be truly asserted of the holy Scriptures.

Oh, the mysteries, the excellencies, the glories that are in the Word! Ah, no book to this Book, none so useful, none so needful, none so delightful, none so necessary to make you happy, and to keep