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Infer. 4. Then the expofing of the body to danger, yea, to certain deftruction, for the prefervation of the foul, is the dictate of fpiritual wifdem, and that which every Chriftian is bound to chufe and practife, when both interests come in full oppofition, Heb. xi. 35. Dan. iii. 28. Rev. xii. 11. No promises of preferment, no threats of torments, have been able to prevail with the people of God to give the leaft wound, or do the leaft wrong to their owa fouls. When Secundus was commanded to deliver his bible, he answered, Chriftianus fum, non traditor: I am a Christian, I will not deliver it: then they defired him to deliver aliquam ecvolam, a chip, a ftraw, any thing that came to his hand in lieu of it: he refused to redeem his life by delivering the least trifle on that account to fave it.

That is a great word of our Lord's, Luke ix. 24. "He that " will fave his life, fhall lofe it: and he that loseth it for my fake "hall find it." Chriftians, this is your duty and wisdom, and must be your refolution and practice in the day of tempra. tion, to yield your bodies to preserve your fouls, as we offer our arm to defend the head. Oh! better thy body had never been given thee, than that it should be a foare to thy foul, and the inftrument of cafting it away for ever. Oh! how dear are fome perfons like to pay for their tenderness and indulgence to the flesh, when the hour of temptation fhall come! mortify your irregular affections to the body, and never hazard your precious immortal fouls for their fakes. It is the character of an hypocrite to chufe fin rather than affliction, Job xxxvi. 21. But if ever thou haft been in the deeps of fpiritual troubles for fin, if God have opened thine eyes to fee the evil of fiu, the immenfe weight and value of thy foul, and of eternity, “Thou wilt "not count thy life dear to thee, to finish thy courfe with joy," Acts xx. 24.

Inference 5. If the foul be an immortal being, that shall have no end, Then it is the great concern of all men to ftrive to the utmost for the falvation of their fouls, whatever become of all leffer temporary interefts in this world, Luke xiii. 24. There is a gate, i. e. an introductive means of life and falvation: This gate is strait, i. e. there are a world of difficulties to be encountered in the way of falvation: but he that values and loves his never-dying foul, must, and will be diligent and conftant in the ufe of all thofe means that have a tendency to falvation, be they never fo difficult or unpleasant to fleth and blood. There be difficulties from within ourselves, fuch as mortification, felf-denial, contempt of the world, parting with all at the call of Chrift; and difficulties from without, the re

proaches, perfecutions, and fufferings for Chrift, which would not be fo great as they are, were it not for our unmortified lufts within; but be they what they will, we are bound to strive through them all, for the falvation of our precious and immortal fouls.

(1.) For it is the greatest concernment of the foul, yea, of our own fouls; we are bound to do much for the faving of another's foul, 2 Tim. ii. 10. much more for our own; this is our darling, Pfal. xxii. our only one.

(2.) Others have done and fuffered much for the faving of their fouls; and are not ours, or ought they not to be, as dear to us, as the fouls of any others have been to them? Matth. xxi. 32.

(3.) The utmost diligence is little enough to fave them. Do all that you can do, and suffer all that you can fuffer, and deny yourselves as deeply as ever any did, yet you shall find all this little enough to fecure them, 1 Pet. iv. 18. The righteous themselves are fcarcely faved, 1 Cor. ix. 24.

(4.) The time to strive for falvation is very short and uncertain, Luke xiii. 25. John xii. 35. It will be to no purpose, when the feafons and opportunities of falvation are once over. There is no striving in hell, a death-pang of despair hath feized them, hope is extinguished, and endeavours fail.

(5.) Doth not reafon dictate and direct you to do now, whilft you are in the way, as you will wish you had done, and repent with rage, and felf-indignation, because you did it not, when you come to the end, and behold the final iffues of things? Suppose but thyfelf now either, (1.) Upon a death-bed, launching into eternity; (2.) Or at the bar of Chrift; (3) Or in view of heaven; (4.) Or in the fight and hearing of the damned: what think you? will you not then wifh, Oh! that I had spent every moment in the world that could poffibly be redeemed from the pure neceffities of life, in prayer, in hearing, in ftriving for falvation. From a profpect of this it was, that one spent many hours daily on his knees to the macerating of his body; and being admonished of the danger of health, and advised to relax, he anfwered, I must die, I muft die.

Objection 1. Do not fay, you have many incumbrances, and other employments in the world: for (1.) "One thing is neceffary," Luke x. 42. Thofe are conveniences, but this is of abfolute neceffity. (2.) They will thrive the better for this, Mat. vi. 33. "Seek this, and they fhall be added." (3.) Do but redeem the time that can be redeemed to this purpofe; let not fo much precious time run wafte as daily doth.

Objection 2. Say not, no man can save his foul by his own ftriving, and therefore it is to little purpofe; for "it is not of him "that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that shew"eth mercy," Rom. ix. 16.

True, this in itself cannot fave you; but what then? must we oppose those things which God hath fubordinated? Bring this home to your natural or civil actions, eating, drinking, ploughing, or fowing, and fee how the confequence will look.

Objection 3. Say not, it is a mercenary doctrine, and disparages free grace; for, are not all the enjoyments and comforts of this life confeffedly from free grace, though God hath difpenfed them to you in the way of your diligence and induftry.

Objection 4. To conclude; Say not, the difficulties of falvation are infuperable; it is fo hard to watch every motion of the heart, to deny every luft, to resist a suitable temptation, to fuffer the lofs of all for Chrift, that there is no hope for overcoming them.

For (1.) God can, and doth make difficult things eafy to his people, who work in the ftrength of Chrift, Phil. iv. 13. (2.) These fame difficulties are before all others that are before you, yet it difcourageth not them, Phil. iii. 11. Others strive to the uttermoft. There are extremes found in this matter: fome work for falvation, as an hireling for his wages, fo the Papists; these disparage grace, and cry up works. Others cry down obedience as legal, as the Antinomians, and cry up grace to the difparagement of duties. Avoid both thefe, and fee that you ftrive: But (1.) Think not heaven to be the price of your striving, Rom. iv. 3. (2.) Strive, but not for a fpurt; let this care. and diligence run throughout your lives; whilst you are living, you still striving: your fouls are worth it; and infinitely more than all this amounts to.

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Infer. 6. Doth the foul out-live the body, and abide for ever? Then it is a great evil and folly to be exceffively careful for the mortal body, and neglective of the immortal inhabitant. In a too much indulged body, there ever dwells a too much neglected foul.

The body is but a vile thing, Phil. iii. 21. the foul more valuable than the whole world, Matth. xvi. 26. To spend time, care, and pains for a vile body, whilft little or no regard is had to the precious immortal foul, is an unwarrantable folly and madness. To have a clear and wafbed body, and a foul all filth, (as one fpeaks) a body neatly cloathed and dressed, with a foul all naked and unready; a body fed, and a foul farved; a body full VOL. III.

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of the creature, and a foul empty of Chrift; these are poor fouls indeed. We finile at little children, who in a kind of laborious idleness take a great deal of pains to make and trim their babies, or build their little houfes of fticks and straws: And what are they but children of a bigger fize, that keep fuch ado about the body, a houfe of clay, a weak pile, that muft perish in a few days. It is admirable, and very convictive of moft Chriftians, what we read in a Heathen. "I confefs (faith * Seneca) there is "a love to the body implanted in us all; we have the tutelage "and charge of it; we may be kind and indulgent to it, but "must not ferve it; but he that serves it, is a fervant to many cares, fears, and paffions. Let us have a diligent care of it, yet so as when reafon requires, when our dignity or faith re"quires it, we commit it to the fire."

It is true, the body is beloved of the foul, and God requires, that it moderately care for the neceffities and conveniences of it; but to be fond, indulgent, and conftantly folicitous about it, is both the fin and fnare of the foul. One of the fathers being invited to dine with a lady, and waiting fome hours till she was dreffed, and fit to come down; when he faw her, he fell a weeping; and being demanded why he wept, Oh! faith he, 1 am troubled that you should spend fo many hours this morning in pinning and trimming your body, when I have not spent half the time in praying, repenting, and caring for my own foul. Two things a mafter commits to his fervant's care, (faith one) the child, and the child's cloaths: It will be but a poor excufe for the fervant to say, at his master's return, Sir, here are all the child's cloaths neat and clean, but the child is loft. Much fo will be the account that many will give to God of their fouls, and bodies, at the great day, Lord, here is my body, I was very careful for it, I neglected nothing that belonged to its content and welfare: But for my foul, that is loft and caft away for ever, I took little care and thought about it. It is remarkable what the apostle faith, Rom. viii. 12. We owe nothing to the flesh, we are not in its debt, we have given it all, more than all

*Fateor infitam effe nobis corporis noftri charitatem. Fateor nos hujus gerere tutelam, nec ego indulgendum illi, ferviendum nego. Multis enim ferviet qui corpori ferviet, qui pro illo nimium timet, qui ad illud omnia refert; hujus nos nimius amor timoribus inquietat, folicitudinibus onerat, contumeliis objicit: honeftum ei vile eft cui corpus nimis charum eft: agatur ejus diligentiffime cura: ita tamen ut cum exiget ratio, cum dignitas, cum fides, mittendum in ignem fit. Senec. Ep. 14. P. 545.

that belongs to it: But we owe many an hour, many a care, many a deep thought to our fouls, which we have defrauded it of for the vile body's fake. You have robbed your fouls to pay your flesh. This is madness.

Infer. 7. How great a blessing is the gospel, which brings life and immortality to light, the most defirable mercies to immortal fouls! This is the great benefit we receive by it, as the apostle fpeaks, 2 Tim. i. 10. "Chrift hath abolished death, and brought "life and immortality to light by the gofpel," Life and immortality by a dia voi, is put for immortal life, the thing which all immortal fouls defire and long for. Thefe defires. are found in fouls that enjoy not the gofpel-light; for, as I faid before, they naturally spring out of the very nature of all immortal fouls: But how and where it is to be obtained, that is a fecret for which we are entirely beholden to the gospel-discovery. It lay hid in the womb of God's purpofe, till by the light of gofpel-revelation it was made manifeft. But now all men may see what are the gracious thoughts and purposes of God con. cerning men, and what that is he hath defigned for their im mortal fouls, even an immortal life; and this life is to be obtain, ed by Christ, than which no tidings can be more welcome, fweet or acceptable to us.

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Oh therefore study the Gospel. "This is life eternal, to "know thee the only true God, and Jefus Chrift whom thou "haft fent," John xvii. 3. And fee that you prize the gospel above all earthly treasures. It is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation. You have two ineftimable benefits and bleffings by it. (1.) It manifefts and reveals eternal life to you, which you could never have come to the knowledge of any other way; thofe that are without it, are groping or feeling after God in the dark, Acts xvii. 27. Poor fouls are conscious to themselves, that there is a juft and terrible God, and that their fins offend and provoke him; but how to atone the offended Deity they know not, Micah vi. 6, 7. But the way of reconciliation and life is clearly difcovered to us by the gospel. (2.) As it manifefts and reveals eternal life to us, fo it frames and moulds our hearts, as God's fanctifying inftrument, for the enjoyment of it. It is not only the inftrument of revelation, but of falvation, the word of life, as well as the word of light, Phil. ii. 16. It can open your hearts, as well as your eyes, and is therefore to be entertained as that which is the firft rank of bleffings, a peerlefs and ineftimable bleffing.

Infer. 8. If our fouls be immortal, certainly our enemies are