and Owls do from the Light of the Day and rather chuse to banish it self into eternal Darkness and Despair than be shut up for ever in a Heaven so infinitely repugnant to its Nature And certainly to be thus excommunicated from the supreme Happiness of our Natures and be forced to live in everlasting Exile from God and blessed Spirits and wander about like wretched Vagabonds that are chased and driven from all Hopes of Contentment will be unspeakable Damage to our Souls 2ly The Soul of Man is liable to the most dreadful Punishment and Correction of the Father of Spirits There is no Doubt but spiritual Agents can strike as immediately upon Spirits as bodily Agents can upon Bodies and though we who are Spectators only of corporeal Action cannot discern the Manner how one Spirit acts upon another net there is no Reason to Doubt of the thing and if there be such a mutual Communication of Action between them there is no Doubt but they can mutually make each other feel each others Pleasures and Displeasures and if so then it is only to suppose that the less powerful Spirits are subject to the violent Impression of the more powerful ones and consequently that all finite Spirits are liable to the Lash of an infinite one for why should it be more difficult for the Father of our Spirits to correct our Spirits than it is for the Parents of our Flesh to correct our Flesh For though our Souls are no more impressible with material Stripes than Sun-beams are with the blows of a Hammer yet are they liable to horrid and dismal Thoughts and to be as much pained and aggrieved by them as our Bodies are by the most exquisite Torments So that if God be displeased with us he can imprint his Wrath upon our Minds in black and ghastly Thoughts and cause it perpetually to drop like burning Sulphur upon our Souls He cannot only abandon us to the furious Reflections of our own natural Consciences which as I shall shew you by and by will be hereafter extreamly painful and vexatious but he can also infuse supernatural Horrors into us and pour in such Swarms of terrible Thoughts upon us as will give us no Rest but sting us perpetually Day and Night with inexpressible Anguish And of this you have a woful Example in that miserable Wretch Francis Spira who upon that fearful Breach he made in his Conscience by a cowardly Renouncing of his Religion was without any Symptoms of a bodily Melancholy immediately seised with such an inexpressible Agony of Mind as amazed his Physicians astonished his Friends and struck Terror into all that conversed with him For he was so near to the Condition of a damned Ghost that he verily believed Hell it self was more tolerable than those invisible Lashes that were continually laid upon his Soul and therefore wished he were in Hell and would gladly have dispatched himself thither in hope to find Sanctuary there from those vengeful Thoughts which continually preyed upon his Soul And if in this World our Soul is so liable to the Rod of the Father of Spirits we may be sure it will be so in the other too where God if he pleases can render it an eternal Hell to it self by pouring continually into it fresh Floods of horrible Thoughts which being thrust on by an Almighty Power and perpetually urged and repeated on the Mind must necessarily create in it not only exquisite but uninterrupted Torment And it being in his Power thus to lash our Souls to be sure when once he is implacably incensed against them as he will be hereafter if we do not appease him he will let loose his Power upon them and make them feel his wrathful Resentments in those dire and frightful Thoughts with which he will Sting and Scourge them for ever And if the Soul carry into Eternity with it those provoking Lusts which do here incense God's Displeasure against it it will there have no Shelter from the Storm of his Vengeance which like a Shower of Fire and Brimstone will be continually pouring down upon it For while it continues in this Shop of Vanities it hath a great Variety of Objects to divert those dismal Thoughts which God many times infuses into it but in the other World all these diverting Objects will be removed and then every dismal Thought which God lets loose will seise and fasten upon it and like Prometheus's Vultures prey on its wretched Heart for ever 3ly The Soul of Man is liable to the Fury and Violence of Devils and other malignant Spirits For when ever the Souls of Men do leave their Bodies they doubtless flock with the Birds of their own Feather and consort themselves with such separate Spirits as are of their own Genius and Temper for besides that Likeness doth naturally congregate Beings and cause them to associate with their own Kind good and bad Spirits are by the eternal Laws of the other World distributed in two separate Nations and there live apart from one another having no other Communication or Intercourse but what is between two hostile Countries that are continually designing and attempting one against another So that when wicked Souls do leave this terrestrial Abode and pass into Eternity they are presently incorporated by the Laws of that invisible World into the Nation of wicked Spirits and confined for ever to their most wretched Society and Converse and then how miserable must their Condition be who are damned to such a hellish Neighbourhood and are allowed no other Company but Devils and devilish Spirits For since as I have already shewed you Spirits can as well act upon one another as Bodies what can be expected when such malignant Spirits meet but that they should be continually snarling among themselves and baiting and worrying one another When Wrath and Envy Malice and Ill-nature are the common Genius that inspires and acts the whole Society what can their Conversation be but a continual Intercourse of mutual Mischiefs and Vexations especially considering how they have here laid the Foundations of an eternal Quarrel against one another For there the Companions in Sin will meet who by their ill Counsels wicked Insinuations and bad Examples did mutually contribute to each others Ruin and when these shall meet in that woful State how will the tormenting Sense of those irreparable Injuries they have done each other incite them to exercise their hellish Fury upon and play the Devils with one another And when a Company of waspish Spirits so implacably incensed against one another shall meet and like so many Scorpions Snakes and Adders be shut up together in the infernal Dens how is it possible they should forbear hissing at and stinging and spitting Venom in one anothers Faces But then besides the mutual Plagues which those incensed and furious Spirits must needs be supposed to inflict upon one another they will be also nakedly exposed to the powerful Malice of the Devils those fierce Executioners of
is that they only released Offenders from the Obligation to Civil and Ecclesiastical Punishments but could by no means free them from the eternal Punishments of the other Life Not that I make the least Doubt but that truly penitent Offenders were forgiven the eternal Punishment then as well as now and forgives too for the sake of Jesus Christ the Lamb that was intentionally slain from the Beginning of the World but by what hath been said it's plain they were not forgiven by Virtue of that Law whereby the Eternal Word reigned over the House of Israel but rather by Virtue of that Gospel which was first preached to Adam and afterwards to the Patriarchs wherein Christ the Seed of the Woman and the Seed of Abraham is promised in whom all Nations of the Earth should be blessed 'T is true the Sacrifices of the Law were typical of the Sacrifice of Christ and so consequently was that temporal Pardon obtained by them typical of that eternal Pardon which we do obtain by the great Propitiation of our Saviour for so the Apostle tells us that the Law had in it a shadow of good things to come Heb. 10.1 But we must not imagine that eternal Remission which is the Effect of Christ's real Sacrifice could ever be obtained by those Sacrifices which were only the Shadows and Resemblances of it So that that Remission of Sins which the Eternal Word gave whilst he tabernacled among the Jews was nothing near so perfect and compleat as that which he afterwards proclaimed in the Tabernacle of our Flesh because it neither extended to all Kinds of Sins nor yet to all Kinds of Punishments it left some unforgiven as to the Punishments of this Life and it left all unforgiven as to the Punishments of the Life to come But having pitched his Tabernacle in our Flesh he did by the meritorious Sacrifice of himself obtain of his Father this publick Act of Grace this free Charter of Mercy for all Mankind That whosoever would repent and amend whatsoever Sins he is guilty of whatsoever Punishments he is obliged to he shall certainly be forgiven them all and be as freely received into God's Grace and Favour as if he never had offended him for he is the Propitiation for the Sins of the World And by him saith the Apostle all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses Acts 13.39 In this respect therefore the Eternal Word dwelt among us full of Grace in that he proclaimed such a full and perfect Pardon of all Sins and of all Punishments to all that with a true Faith and hearty Repentance should turn unto him and accordingly this Pardon is frequently called by the Name of Grace or of the Grace of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ Act. 15.11 Heb. 12.15 Rom. 3.24 4thly He dwelt among us full of Grace in respect of the internal Grace and Assistance which he so abundantly afforded us above what he did to the Jews under the Law of Moses when he tabernacled among them I make no doubt but God in all Ages hath been always ready to assist good Men in their Duty This the very Heathens themselves believed that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that God did concur with all good Men and that no Man did ever arrive to any eminent Degree of Virtue without a Divine Afflatus or Assistance And had the good Men among the Jews been ignorant of this what should move them to pray as we find they often do that God would wash and cleanse and quicken and strengthen and inliven them For so in the Book of the Psalms you find good David very often praying that God would teach him his Commandments and incline his Heart to keep them and keep him back from presumptuous Sin By which Prayers it's evident they had good Encouragement to hope that God would be ready to concur with them and to bless their pious Endeavours with the internal Assistance of his Grace and Spirit And this Encouragement I suppose they might have partly from their natural Notions of God which must needs suggest to them that He being infinitely good as he is will never be wanting to his Creatures in any think that is necessary to the obtaining those noble Ends for which he created them and consequently that he will be assistant to them in their Duty which is the way to that End and not leave them to contend with Difficulties which are insuperable to their natural Power and Ability and partly from those general Evangelical Promises which God made to them by the Patriarchs and Prophets from whence they might fairly infer that he who had promised to do so much for them upon Condition they persisted in their Duty and Allegiance to him would never be wanting on his Part to strengthen and enable them to it But I can by no means allow that they were encouraged to hope for any such Assistance from any Promise of that Law which the Eternal Word gave them when he tabernacled among them and by which in his Father's stead he ruled and governed them and that both because there is no such Promise found in all that Law and because the Apostle tells us that the Law was weak through the flesh Rom. 8.3 and calls it the Ministration of Death written and engraven in stones in opposition to the Ministration of the Spirit that is not written in Tables of stone but in fleshly Tables of the heart 2 Cor. 3.7 8. comp with v. 3. And Galat. 3.13 14. you find the Apostle opposes to the Curse of the Law the Blessing of Abraham and the Blessing of Abraham he tells us is the Promise of the Spirit through Faith that is by the Gospel And thus under the Law there was doubtless an internal Grace and Assistance vouchsafed to good Men though not promised by it yet after the Eternal Word forsook the Tabernacle of Moses and came to tabernacle in our Flesh it 's evident that then he did more plentifully communicate this his Grace to the World than ever for then the Spirit was said to be shed upon us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Lord and in the 16th ver of this 1st of John we are said of his fulness to receive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grace upon Grace that is Grace heaped upon Grace and a vast overflowing Abundance according to that of Theognis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is thou givest me Calamities upon Calamities So that unless we will our selves it is now impossible we should fall short either of our Duty or the blessed Reward of it since our Saviour is become such an overflowing Fountain of Grace to us and hath promised to communicate it to us in such plentiful Effusions if we will sincerely ask and honestly endeavour after it and therefore in this respect also he may well be said to dwell among us full of Grace in that while he dwelt among us he obtained for
Understandings So long as a Man lives in any known Sin he doth not only live without but against his Reason which instead of being the Guide of his Actions hath nothing at all to do with them but like an idle Spectator doth only behold the brutish Scene without any Part or Concern in it And whilst a Man thus abandons himself to the Government of his own blind Will and lives not only in the perpetual Neglect but Contempt of his Reason it is impossible for him not to wast and impair it For as our rational Faculties are improved and perfected by Exercise so they naturally languish and decay through Disuse and inactivity and consequently the less Use we make of them in the Government of our Lives and Actions which is their proper Office and Employment like standing Waters they must corrupt and putrifie And indeed there is no impure Lust but doth by its own natural Efficacy disable Mens Reason and Understanding For while we are in these Bodies our Mind is fain to work by bodily Instruments and to make Use of Brains and Blood and Spirits in all its Operations and according as their Temper is good or bad its Operations will be more or less perfect But while a Man indulges himself in any impure Affection that will naturally distemper these Organs of his Mind and indispose them for the Use of his Reason For so Madness which is such a Distemperature of the Brain and Blood and Spirits doth wholly alienate them from the Use of Reason and Discourse is usually found to be the Effect of some wild and extravagant Affection such as Pride or Covetousness Anger or Fearfulness Jealousie or Lust and if these Passions being once arrived to their utmost Rage and Excess do so often run into down-right Madness and Distraction to be sure every inordinate Degree of them must be a Tendency towards it a great Disturbance of Mind though not a total Distraction and how much they exceed their due Bounds and Measures by so much they must taint and vitiate these necessary Instruments of our Mind and Reason Thus every inordinate Lust doth by a natural Influence disturb Mens Reason and sully the clearness of their discerning Faculties So that what Clearness is to the Eye of the Body that Purity from vicious Affection is to the Eye of the Mind it brightens its Apprehensions and renders its Conceptions of Things more quick distinct and vigorous Whereas on the contrary all disorderly Affection doth more or less cloud and disturb the Brain chill or inflame the Spirits hurry them into tumultuous Motions or render them listless and unactive by which continual Disorders our discerning Faculties must by Degrees be extreamly weakened and confounded And whilst the Mind is thus lost in the Fogs of inordinate Affection it is an easie Matter to seduce and mislead it it being through the Dimness of its sight apt to be imposed upon by false Colours and tinctured with Prejudice and undue Apprehensions of Things Weak Minds are easily abused especially in Matters of Religion which being placed beyond the Prospect of Sense require a severer Attention in order to the forming of right Apprehensions concerning them and therefore the more Men weaken their Understandings by their Lusts the more they must be exposed to Errors and Delusions But them 2. Living in any known Course of Sin renders the Principles of true Religion uneasie to Mens Minds Whilst a Man leads a wicked Life his Religious Principles if they are pure and true will perpetually reproach and upbraid him For there are no Contraries in Nature more irreconcilable to one another than true Faith and bad Manners the great Design of all true Faith being to move and persuade Men to abstain from all Ungodliness and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present World If therefore a Man's Faith be true and genuine he cannot live wickedly without acting against the full Persuasion of his own Mind which must necessarily render him very uneasie for in this State of Things he acts with a self-condemning Judgment and every Compliance with his Inclination sets him at odds with his Reason all the while he is meditating any wicked Design he struggles with his Conscience and confronts and outrages his own Convictions and when he hath acted it every Reflection he makes on it is a bitter Invective against himself Thus so long as the Principles of true Religion possess his Mind he finds himself continually hagg'd and oppressed by them they sit as an uneasie Load upon his Soul and will not suffer him to Sin in quiet but perpetually cause his sinful Delights to go off with an ungrateful Farewel and recoil upon him in many a sickly Qualm and Convulsion In which State of Things he hath no other Remedy but either to forsake his Principles or his Lusts or to live in perpetual Variance with himself and therefore if he still resolve to Sin on in all probability he will soon grow quite weary of true Religion and quit his Mind as soon as possibly he can of those stern and inflexible Principles which create these Discords in his Breast And whilst he is in this Temper it will be an easie matter to pervert him to any Religion that will give Ease to his straitlaced Conscience and cast a more favourably Aspect on his Lust for being resolved to follow his vicious Inclinations he now sees through them and understands by them and whilst his Mind runs upon the false Biass of his Lusts that Religion which is most grateful to them will seem most reasonable to him Shew him a way how he may worship God acceptably without the Expence of a strict Attention and the inward Devotion of a pure Heart and heavenly Affections meerly by numbring so many Prayers on a String of Beads by seeing a Priest act over such a Set of Ceremonies and hearing him in varied Tones sometimes pronounce and sometimes murmur a Form of Words in an Vnknown Language and though at first view it may seem very absurd to him yet the very Loosness and Carnality will be apt to engage his Affections to it and then they by degrees will go near to wheedle his Understanding into a more favourable Opinion of it Propose to him an Expedient how he may go to heaven at last without undergoing the Severities of a sincere Repentance and Amendment tell him there is a certain Church in the World whose Priests if he confess his Sins to them with any Degree of Sorrow and Remorse have full Power to Pardon and Absolve him so that if he do but take Care not to die without Confession however he lives he cannot miscarry for ever He may indeed go into a very hot Place called Purgatory and there suffer a while very grievous Things before he get to Heaven but if instead of parting with his Lusts while he lives he will part with his Mony when he dies he may at easy Rates purchase of that Church such a
if after all their Labout Craft and Contrivance they can but seise the Game they hunt for the Blood of a Soul is so rich a Draught that they think it a sufficient Recompence for all their painful and mischievous Devices for St. Peter tells us that they go about like roaring Lions seeking whom they may devour And to be sure those malignant Spirits would never be so impertinently mischievous as to spend their time in catching Flies and did they not know our Souls to be noble Preys they would never go so far about as they do nor take so much Care and Pains to Catch and Insnare them So that from their unwearied Diligence to seduce and ruin us we may most certainly conclude either that they are very foolish Devils or that our Souls are very precious Beings but howsoever their Diligence to destroy them is a plain Argument that they esteem them precious it being by no means to be supposed that such Wise and Intelligent Beings as they are would so much concern themselves as they do about things which they had little or no Esteem for And thus you see at what a vast Rate our Souls are valued by the whole World of Spirits how from the highest to the lowest those best and wisest Judges of the just Worth of Souls do all unanimously concur in a great and high Estimation So that whether we value them by their own natural Capacities or by the Estimation of those who are best able to judge of their Worth and Excellency we have abundant Reason to conclude them most precious and inestimable Beings And now I shall concude this Argument with some Inferences 1. From hence I infer by what it is that we ought to value our selves and estimate the Dignity of our own Natures viz. by our rational and immortal Souls those excellent Beings that are so invaluable in themselves and so highly esteemed by the best and wisest Judges 'T is this intelligent and immortal Nature within us that is the Crown and Flower of our Beings 't is by this that we are exalted above the Level of meer Animals by this that we are allyed to Angels and do border upon God himself And he that values himself by any thing but his Soul and those things which are its proper Graces and Ornaments begins at the wrong End of himself forgets his Jewels and estimates his Estate by his Lumber And yet good God what foolish Measures do the Geneerality of Men take of themselves Were we not forced by too many woful Experiments it would be hard to imagine that any Creature that believes a rational and immortal Soul to be a Part of its Nature should be so ridiculous as to value it self by the little trifling Advantages of a well-coloured Skin a suit of fine Cloaths a Puff of popular Applause or a few Baggs of white and red Earth and yet God help us these are the only things almost by which we value and difference our selves from others You are a much better Man than your Neighbout he alas is a poor contemptible Wretch a little creeping despicblae Thing not worthy to be looked upon or taken notice of by such a one as you Why in the Name of God what is the Matter Where is this mighty Difference between you and him Hath not he a Soul as well as you a Soul that is capable to live as long and to be as happy as yours Yes yes 't is true indeed but notwithstanding God be thanked you are another-guess Man than he for you have a much handsomer Body your Apparel is much more fine and fashionable you live in a more splendid Equipage and have a larger Purse to maintain it and your Name forsooth is more in Vogue and makes a far greater Noise in the World And is this all the Difference between your mighty selves and your pitiful Neighbours Alas poor Men A few Days more will put an End to this and when your rich Attires are reduced to a Winding-sheet and all your vast Possessions to six Foot of Earth what will become of all those little Trifles by which you value your selves Where will be the Beauty or Wealth the Port or Garb which you are now so proud of Alas Now that lovely Body looks as pale and ghastly that losty Soul is left as bare as poor and naked as your despised Neighbours Should you now meet his wandering Ghost in the wide World of Spirits what would you have to boast of more than he now your Beauty is withered your Wealth vanished and all your outward Pomp and Splendor shrouded in the Horrors of a silent Grave Now you will have nothing distinguish you from the most Contemptible unless you have wiser and better Souls and by so much as you were more respected for your Beauty and Wealth your Garb and Equipage in this World by so much will you be more despised for your Pride and Insolence your Covetousness and Sensuality in the other Let us therfore learn to value our selves by that which will abide by us by our immortal Souls and by those heavenly Graces which do adorn and accomplish them by our Humility and Devotion by our Charity and Meekness by our Temperance and Justice all which are such Preheminences as will survive our Funerals and distinguish us from base and abject Souls for ever But for a rational and immortal Creature to prize it self by any such temporary Advantages is altogether as vain and ridiculous as it was for the Emperor Nero to value himself for being an excellent Fidler 2ly From hence also I infer how much we are obliged to live up to the Dignity of our Natures Should a stranger to Mankind be admitted into this busy Stage of humane Affairs to survey our Actions and the paultry Designs we drive at certainly he would hardly imagine that we believed out selves to be such a noble sort and strain of Beings as we are If you saw a Man seriously imploying himself in some sordid and beggarly Drudgery could you imagine that he believed himself to be the Son of a King and the Heir of a Crown And when it is so apparent that the main of our Design is to prog for our Flesh and make a comfortable Provision for a few Years Ease and Luxury who would think that we believed our selves to be immortal Spirits that must live for ever in an inconceivable Happiness or Misery When we consider the high Rank which we hold in the Creation the vast Capacities which there are in our Natures and the noble Ends which we were made and designed for are we not ashamed to think how poorly we prostitute our selves and vilify our own Faculties by the sordid Drudgeries wherein we exercise and imploy'em When we think what a Reputation we have throughout all the World of Spirits what a vast Rate we are valued at by God and Angels and Devils are we not confounded to think how we under-value our selves by those low and
inglorious Ends which we pursue and aim at O good God that thou should'st give me a Soul of an immortal Nature a Soul that is big enough for all the Joys which thy everlasting Heaven is composed of and I be such a Wretch to my self such a Traytor to the Dignity of my own Nature as to give up my self and all my Faculties to the Pursuit of such vain and wretched Trifles That I who am akin to Angels should make my self a Muck-worm and chuse Nebuchadnezzar's fate to leave Crowns and Scepters and live among the salvage Herds of the Wilderness That having such a great and noble Nature I should content my self to live like a Beast and aim no higher than if I had been born only to eat and drink and sleep and wake for thirty or forty Years together and then retire into a silent Grave and be insensible for ever Wherefore in the Name of God let us at last remember what we are and what we are born to Let us consider that we have Faculties that are capable of exerting themselves for ever in the most inravishing Contemplation and Love of the eternal Fountain of Truth and Goodness of Copying and Transcribing his most adorable Perfections his Wisdom Goodness Purity and Justice from whence the infinite Happiness of his Nature derives and thereby of glorifying us into living Images of God and rendring us like him both in Beauty and Happiness in a word that we have Faculties to converse with Angels and with blessed Spirits to bear a part in the eternal Confort of their Joys and Praises and to relish all those unknown Delights of which their everlasting Heaven doth consist And having such great and noble Powers in us is it not a burning shame that they should be always condemned to an endless Pursuit of Shadows and Impertinencies Let us therefore rouse up our selves and shake off this sordid and degenerate Temper that sinks and depresses us and makes us act so infinitely unbecoming the Dignity of our immortal Natures And since we are descended from and designed for the Heavenly Family let us learn to demean our selves upon Earth as becomes the Natives of Heaven Let us disdain all base and sordid all low and unworthy Ends of Action as Things beneath our illustrious Rank and Station in the World of Beings and live in a continual Tendency towards and Preparation for that Heavenly State which is the proper Orb and Sphere of our Natures 3ly From hence also I infer how much they undervalue themselves that sell their Souls for the Trifles of this World For since we know before-hand that the Wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all Unrighteousness and Ungodliness of Men and he hath plainly assured us that our Souls must smart for ever for our Sins it necessarily follows that whenever we knowingly suffer our selves to be inticed into Sin we make a wilful Forfeiture of our Souls He that knows that such a Draught however sweetned and made palatable is yet compounded with the Juice of deadly Nightshade and notwithstanding that will have the poisonous Draught is wilfully bent to Murder and Destroy himself And when we see that the Pleasure of our Sin draws after it the Ruin of our Souls and yet will Sin notwithstanding we do in effect stake our Souls against it and with our Eyes open make this desperate Bargain that upon Condition we may injoy such a sinful Pleasure we will willingly surrender up our immortal Spirits to the Pains of an endless and intolerable Damnation And if so O blessed God how do the Generality of Men depreciate and undervalue themselves For how often do we see Men in their little Frauds and Cozenages sell their Souls for a Penny gain in their lascivious and intemperate Humours barter their Souls for a Moments Mirth or Pleasure in their ambitious Projects and Designs part with their Souls for a Blast of vulgar Breath and popular Noise For in every Temptation to Sin the Dewil cheapens our immortal Souls bids so much Pleasure or so much Profit for them and in every Compliance with the Temptation we take his Offer and strike the fatal Bargain So that if we will Sin we had need Sin for something since we must pay so dearly for it But alas there is no Proffer the Devil can make us that is a tolerable Price for the Blood of our Souls though he should offer us the whole World for it our Saviour assures us that he would bid us infinitely to our Loss and if so what wretehed Sales do we make of our Souls when we Sin for Trifles lie and cheat to get a Penny consent to a wicked Motion for a Pleasure that will wither while we are smelling to it and expire in the very Injoyment For so much we value our Souls at and do in effect declare that in our Esteem these precious Beings which God and Angels set so high a Price on are worth no more than what that Profit or Pleasure for which we Sin amounts to O good God! What cheap and worthless Things then are our Souls in our Esteem who sell and barter them every Day for such mean and worthless Trifles How do we part with our Gold for Dross and exchange our Jewels for Pebbles What sordid Thoughts what wretched vile Opinions have we of our selves that are so ready upon all Occasions to sell our selves for nought or which is next to nought for the sorry Proffers of every base and infamous Lust O would to God we would at last make but a just Estimate of our selves and thereupon resolve as it is most reasonable we should never to comply with any sinful Motion till we can get more by it than our Souls are worth and then I am sure we should be for ever Deaf to all the Proffers which the Devil or World can make us 4ly And lastly From hence also I infer how much we are obliged above all things to take Care of our Souls For since they are Beings of such vast Capacities in themselves and of such an high Estimation in the World of Spirits methinks we should all be convinced that to take leave of their Welfare and prevent their everlasting Miscarriage is the highest Concern and Interest of a Man And yet God forgive us if we consult the common Practice of Mankind we shall find that there is scarce any thing in which we have any Interest at all that is more slighted and disregarded by us Our Body is the Darling that hath our Hearts and takes up all our Care and Thoughts and to entertain its Appetite and accommodate it with Pleasures and Conveniencies there is no Expence either of Labour or Time grudged or thought much of but as for the Soul that precious and immortal Thing which will be living and perceiving unspeakable Pleasures or Pains when this Body is dead and insensible that is overlooked as a Thing not worthy our serious Notice or Regard And though we cannot