For a moment of sinful pleasure

(Lewis Bayly, "The Practice of Piety" 1611)

"O the madness of man, that for a moment of
sinful pleasure will hazard the loss of an eternal
weight of glory!

Better it is to go sickly with Lazarus to heaven;
than full of mirth and pleasure, with the rich man
to hell. Better it is to mourn for a time on earth,
than to be tormented forever with devils.

Without Christ you are but . . .
a slave of sin,
death's vassal,
the food of worms,
whose thoughts are vain,
whose deeds are vile,
whose pleasures have scarcely a beginning,
whose miseries never know an end.

What wise man would incur these hellish torments,
though he might, by living in sin, purchase to himself
for a time the empire of Augustus, the riches of Croesus,
the pleasures of Solomon, the voluptuous fare and fine
apparel of the rich man? For what should it avail a man,
as our Savior says--to win the whole world for a time,
and then to lose his soul in hell forever?"