(4.) The time to strive for salvation is very short and uncertain, Luke xiii. 25. John xii. 35. It will be to no purpose, when the seasons and opportunities of salvation are once over. There is no striving in hell, a death-pang of despair hath seized them, hope is extinguished, and endeavours fail.
(5.) Doth not reason dictate and direct you to do now, whilst you are in the wav, as you will wish you had done, and repent with rage, and self-indignation, because you did it not, when you come to the end, and behold the final issues of things ? Suppose but thyself now either, (1.) Upon a death-bed launching into eternity; (2.) Or at the bar of Christ ; (3.) Or in view of heaven ; (4.) Or in the sight and hearing of the damned : what think you ? will not you then wish, Oh : that I had spent every moment in the world that could possibly be redeemed from the pure necessities of life, in prayer, in hearing, in striving for salvation ? From a prospect 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 answered, / must die, I must die.
Objection 1. Do not say, you have many incumbrances, and other employments in the world: for (1.) "One thing is necessary,'* Luke x. 42. Those are conveniences, but this is of absolute ne- cessity. (2.) They will strive the better for this, Mat. vi. 33. " Seek " this, and they shall be added." (3.) Do but redeem the time that can be redeemed to this purpose ; let not so much precious time run waste as daily doth.
Objection 2. Say not, no man can save his soul by his own striv- ing, and therefore it is to little purpose ; for " it is not of him that
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* willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth " mercy," Rom. ix. 16.
True, this in itself cannot save you ; but what then ? must we oppose those things which God hath subordinated ? Bring this home to your natural or civil actions, eating, drinking, ploughing, or sowing, and see how the consequence 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 confessedly from free fracc, though God hath dispensed them to you in the way of your diligence and industry.
Objection 4. To conclude; Say not, the difficulties of salvation are insuperable ; it is so hard to watch every motion of the heart, to deny every lust, to resist a suitable temptation, to suffer the loss of all for Christ, that there is no hope of over-coming them.
For (1.) God can, and doth make difficult things easy to his people, who work in the strength of Christ, Phil. iv. 13. (2.) These same difficulties are before all others that are before you, yet it discourageth not them, Phil. iii. 11. Others strive to the utter- most. There are extremes found in this matter: some work for salvation, as an hireling for his wages, so the Papists ; these dis- parage grace, and cry up works. Others cry down obedience as legal, as the Antinomians, and cry up grace to the disparagement of duties. Avoid both these, and see that you strive: But (1.) Think not heaven to be the price of your striving, Rom. iv. 3. (2.) Strive, but not for a spurt; let this care and diligence run throughout your lives ; whilst you are living, be you still striving : your souls are worth it, and infinitely more than all this amounts to.
Inf. 6. Doth the soul out-live the body, and abide for ever ? Then it is a great evil and folly to be excessively careful for the mortal body, and neglective of the mortal inhabitant In a too much indulged body, there ever dwells a too much neglected soul.
The body is but a vile thing, Phil. iii. 21. the soul more valuable than the whole world, Matth. xvi. 26. To spend time, care, and pains for a vile body, whilst little or no regard is had to the precious immortal soul, is an unwarrantable folly and madness. To have a clear and washed body, and a soul cdl filth, (as one speaks) a body neatly clothed and dressed, with a soul all naked and unready: a body fed, and a soul starved ; a body full of the creature, and a soul empty of Christ ; these are poor souls indeed. We smile 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 houses of sticks and straws : And what are they but children of a bigger size, that keep such ado about the body, a house of clay, a weak pile, that must perish in a few days. It is admirable, and very convictiveof
584 A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAN.
most Christians, what we read in a Heathen. " I confess (saith * " 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 serve it ; but he that serves it, is a servant to " many cares, fears, and passions. Let us have a diligent care of " it, yet so as when reason requires, when our dignity or faith re- " quire it, we commit it to the fire."
It is true, the body is beloved of the soul, and God requires that it moderately care for the necessities and conveniences of it ; but to be fond, indulgent, and constantly solicitous about it, is both the sin and snare of the soul. One of the fathers being invited to dine with a lady, and waiting some hours till she was dressed, and fit to come down ; when he saw her, he fell a weeping ; and being demanded why he wept, Oh ! said he, lam troubled that you should spend so many hours this morning in pinning and trimming your body when I have not spent half the time in prayings repenting and caring for my own soul. Two things a master commits to his servant's care, (saith one) the child, and the child's clothes : It will be but a poor excuse for the servant to say, at his master's return, Sir, here are all the child's clothes neat and clean, but the child is lost. Much so will be the account that many will give to God of their souls 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 soul, that is lost and cast away for ever, I took little care and thought about it. It is remarkable what the apostle saith, Rom. viii. 12. We owe nothing to the flesh, we are not in its debt, we have given it all, more than all that belongs to it : But we owe many an hour, many a care, many a deep thought to our souls, which we have defrauded it of for the vile body's sake. You have robbed your souls to pay your flesh. This is madness.