* God purchased the church with his own blood: what an argument is here to quicken the negligent! and what ani ⚫ argument to condemn thofe that will not be quickened up to their duty by it! O, faith one of the antient doctors, if Christ ⚫ had but committed to my keeping one spoonful of his blood in a fragil glass, how curiously should I preserve it, and how ⚫ tender should I be of that glafs! If then he have committed to ⚫ me the purchase of that blood, fhould I not carefully look to ⚫ my charge?

What, firs, fhall we defpife the blood of Christ? shall we think it was shed for them that are not worthy our care? O ⚫ then let us hear those arguments of Chrift, whenever we feel ourfelves grow dull and carelefs. Did I die for them, and wilt ⚫ thou not look after them? were they worth my blood, and are they not worth thy labour? Did I come down from hea ven to earth, to feek and to fave that which is loft, and wilt not thou go to the next door, or freet, or village, to feek them? How fmall is thy labour or condefcenfion to mine? I debased myself to this, but it is thy honour to be fo employed.'

Let not that man think to be faved by the blood of Chrift himfelf, that makes light of precious fouls, who are the pur chafe of that blood.

And no lefs charge lieth upon parents, to whom God hath committed the care of their childrens fouls; and masters that have the guardianship of the fouls, as well as the bodies of their families; the command is laid express upon you, that they fantify God's fabbaths, Exod. xx. 1o. to command your houshold in the way of the Lord, Gen. xviii. 19.

O parents, confider with yourselves what ftrong engagements ly upon you to do all you are capable of doing for the falvation of the precious fouls of your dear children. Remember, their fouls are infinitely of more value than their bodies: that they came into the world under fin and condemnation; that you were the inftruments of propagating that fin to them, and bringing them into that mifery; that you know their difpofitions, and how to fuit them better than others can; that the bonds of nature give you fingular advantages to prevail, and be fuccefsful in your exhortations, beyond what any others have; that you are always with them, and can chufe oppor#unities which others cannot; that you and they must shortly part, and never meet again, till you meet at the judgment-feat

*Gildas Salvian, p. 260.

of Chrift; that it will be an unconceivably dreadful day to fee them ftand at Chrift's left hand among the curfed and condemned, there curfing the day that ever they were born of fuch ignorant and negligent, fuch careless and cruel parents, as took Do care to inftruct, reprove, or exhort them. O who can think, without horror, of the cries and curfes of his own child in hell, caft away by the very inftrument of his being!

Is this the love you bear them, to betray them to eternal mifery? Was there no other provifion to be made but for their bodies? Did you think you had fully acquitted your duty, when you had got an eftate for them? O that God would effectually touch your hearts with a becoming fenfe of the value and danger of their fouls, and your own too, in the neglect of that great and folemn truft committed to you with refpect to them! And you, mafters, confider, though God hath fet you above, and your fervants below, yet are their fouls equally precious with your own: they have another Mafter that expects fervice from them, as well as you. Do not only allow them time, but give them your exhortations, and commands, not to neglect their own fouls, whilft they attend your bufinefs: think not your bufinefs will profper the lefs because it is in the hand of a praying fervant; their fouls are of greater concernment than any bufinefs of yours can be.

Infer. 6. Are fouls fo precious? Then certainly the means and inftruments of their falvation must be exceeding precious too, and the removal of them a fore judgment.

The dignity of the fubject gives value to the inftruments employed about it. It is ordinary mercy for fouls to come into fuch a part of the world, and in fuch a time as furnisheth them with the best helps for falvation. Ordinances and minifters receive their value, not from their Author, but from their Object : they that have a dignity stamped upon them, by their usefulness to the fouls of men, Acts xx. 32. it is the feed of life, 1 Pet. i. 23. the regenerating inftrument. It is the bread of life, and Job xxiii. 12. more than our neceffary food. The word is a light, fhining in the dark world, to direct our fouls through all the foares, laid for them, unto glory. It is the foul's cordial in all fainting fits, Pfal. cxix. 50. What fhall I fay of the word and ordinances of God? The fun that fhines in heaven to give us light, the fountains, fprings, and rivers, that stream for our refreshment, the corn and cattle on the earth, yea, the very air we breathe in, is not fo useful, fo neceffary, fo precious to our bodies, as the word is to our fouls.

It cannot therefore but be a fore judgment, and a dreadful

token of God's indignation and wrath, to have a réftraint, or fcarcity of the means of falvation among us; but should there, be (which God in mercy prevent) a removal and total lofs of these things, wrath would then come upon us to the uttermofl. What will the condition of precious feuls be, when the means of falvation are cut off from them? when that famine, worfe than of bread and water, is come upon them? Amos viii. 11. When the ark of God (the fymbol of his prefence) was taken, it is faid, 1 Sam iv. 13. "That all the city cried ont." When Paul took his leave of Antioch, and told them they should fee his face no more, how did the poor Chriftians lament and mourn? as cut at the heart, by that killing word, Acts. xx. 37, 38. It made Chrift's bowels to yern, and move within him, when he faw the multitude fcattered as fheep having no fhepherd, Matth. ix. 36.

Matthew Paris tells us, in the year 1072, when preaching was fuppreffed at Rome, letters were framed as coming from hell, wherein the devil gave them thanks for the multitude of fouls fent to him that year. But we need no letters from hell, we have a fad account from heaven, in what a fad state thofe fouls are left, from whom the means of falvation are cut off: "Where "no vifion is, the people perish," Prov. xxix. 18. and Hof. iv. 6. "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”

It is fad, when those stars that guide fouls to Chrift, (as that which the wife-men faw did) are fet, and wandering ftars fhall shine in their places. O if God remove the golden candlestick out of its place, what but the defolation and ruin of millions of fouls must follow?

We account it infufferable cruelty for a man to undertake the piloting of a ship, full of paffengers, who never learnt his compafs; or an ignorant Empiric, to get his living by killing mens bodies; but much more lamentable will the ftate of fouls be, if ever they fall, (which God in mercy prevent) into the hands of Popish guides, or blind leaders of the blind.

Lafer. 7. If the foul be of fo precious a nature, it can never live upon fuch bafe and vile food as earthly things are.

The Apoftle, Phil. iii. 8, 9. calls the things of this world Dogs meat; and judge if that be proper food for fuch noble, and high-born creatures as our fouls are. An immaterial being can never live upon material things; they are no bread for fouls, as the prophet fpeaks, Ifa. lv. 2. "Why do ye fpend money

*The Greek word Evanov, for Kvocado, fignifies that which being rejected by us is thrown to dogs.

(i. e. Time and pains, thought and cares)" for that which is not Bread?" Your fouls can no more live upon carnal, than your bodies on fpiritual things. Earthly things have a double defect in them, by reafon whereof they are called things of nought, Amos vi. 13. of no worth or value; they are neither fuituable nor durable, and therefore, in the foul's eye, not valuable.

1. They are not fuitable. What are corn and wine, gold and filver, pleafures and honours, to the foul? The body, and bodily fenfes, can find fomewhat of refreshment in them; but not the fpirit: That which is bread to the body, affords no more nourishment to the foul than wind or afhes, Ifa. xliv. 20. "He feedeth of athes." "Ahes are that light, and dry mat"ter, into which fewel is reduced by the fire;" the fewel, before it was burnt, had nothing in it fit for nourishment; or if the fap or juice, that was in it, might in any respect be useful that way, yet all that is devoured, and licked up by the fire, and not the least nutriment left in the afhes? And fuch are all earthly things to the foul of man: I am the bread of life," faith Chrift. A foul can feed, and feast itself upon Christ, and the promifes; thefe are things full of marrow and fatness, fubftantial, and proper foul-nutriment.

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2. As earthly things are no way fuitable to the foul, fo neither are they durable. The apoftle reduceth all earthly things to three heads, "the luft of the eye, the luft of the flesh, and the pride of life," John ii. 16, he calls them all by the name of that which gives the luftre, and beauty to them, and pronounceth them all fading, tranfitory vanities, they all pass away: as time, fo these things that are measured by time, are in fluxu continuo, always going, and at last will be all gone. Now the foul being of an immortal nature, and these things of a perishing nature; it must neceffarily, and unavoidably follow, that the foul muft over-live them all; and if it will do fo, what a dismal cafe are those fouls in, for whom no other provision is made, but that on which it cannot subsist whilft it hath them, no more than the body can upon afhes or wind? and if it could, yet they will shortly fail it, and pafs away for ever. So then it is beyond debate, that there lies a plain neceffity upon every man to make provifion, in time, of things more suitable, and durable than earthly treafures are, or the foul must perish, as to its comfort, to all eternity.

Hence is that weighty counfel of him that came to fave them,

Ginis eft craffior illa materia in quam combuftum redigitur. VOL. III.

Iii

Luke xii. 23." Provide yourselves bags that wax nor old, a "treafure in heaven, that faileth not," (i. e.) a happiness which wil: laft as long as your fouls laft. Certainly, the moth eaten things of this world are no provifion for immortal spirits, and yet multitudes think of no other provifion for them, but live as if they had nothing to do in this world but to get an estate.

Alas! what are all these things to the foul? They fignify fomewhat, indeed, to the body, and that but for a little time; for, after the refurrection, the bodies of the faints become fpiritual in qualities, and no more need these material things, than the angels do: It is madness, therefore, to be fo intent upon cares for the body, as to neglect the foul; but to ruin the foul, and drown it in perdition, for the fake of these provisions for the flesh, is the height of madness.

Infer. S. If the foul be fo invaluably precious, then it is a ra tional, and well advised refolution, and practice, to expose all other things to hazard, yea, to certain lofs, for the preservation of the more precious foul.

It is better our bodies, and all their comfors, fhould perish, than that our fouls fhould perish for their fakes. Nature teaches us to offer a hand, or arm, to the ftock of a fword, to fave a blow from the head, or put by a thrust at the heart. It is recorded, to the praife of thofe three worthies, Dan. iii. 28. "That they yielded their bodies, that they might not serve, nor "worship any God, except their own God." By this rule, all the martyrs of Chrift governed themselves, ftill flighting, and expofing to deftruction, their bodies, and eftates, to preferve their fouls, reckoning to fave nothing, by religion, but their fouls, and that they had loft nothing, if they could fave them; They loved not their lives unto the death," Rev. xii. 11.

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Then do we live like Chriftians, when the care of our bodies is fwallowed up, and fubdued by that of our fouls, and all creature-loves by the love of Chrift. Those bleffed fouls hated their own bodies, and counted them their enemies, when they would draw them from Chrift, and his truths, and plunge their fouls into guilt and danger. This was the refult of all their debates with the flesh, in the hour of temptation; cannot we live but to the dishonour of Chrift, and the ruin of our own fouls, by finful compliance against our confciences; then wel come the worst of deaths, rather than fuch a life.

Look into the ftories of the martyrs, and you fhall find this was the rule they ftill governed themfelves by ;. a dungeon, a ftake, a gibbet, any thing, rather than guilt upon the inner