4. Say not you have no time to mind another world : God hath not put any of you under such an unhappy necessity; you have one whole day every week, allowed you by God and man, for your souls; you have some spare time every day, which you know you spend worse than in heavenly thoughts and exercises ; yea, most callings are such as will admit of spiritual exercises of thoughts, even when your hands are exercised in the affairs of this life : be- sides, there are none of you but have, and must have daily some relaxations and rest from business ; and if your hearts were spiri- tual, and set upon heaven, you would find more time than you think on, without prejudice to your callings, yea, to the great fur- therance of them, to spend with God. I can tell you when and where I have found poor servants hard at work for salvation, la- bouring for Christ, some in the fields, others in barns and stables, where they could find any pnvacv to pour out their souls to God in prayer. As lovers will make hard shifts to converse together, so will the soul that is devoted to God, and in earnest for heaven ; and though your opportunities be not so large, they may be as sweet, as successful, and to be sure sincere, as those whose condi- tion affords them more time, and greater external conveniencies than you enjoy : more business is sometimes dispatched in a quar- ter of an hour in prayer, yea, let me say in a few hearty ejacula- tions of soul to God, in a few minutes, than in many long and elaborate duties. If thou cast in thy two mites of time into the treasury of prayer, having no more, thou mayest, as Christ said of the poor widow, g-irje viore than those that cast in of their gi-eat abundance of time and talents.
5. Lastly, Consider, Jesus Christ is no respecter of persons, the poorest and vilest on earth, are as welcome to him as the greatest. He chose a poor and mean condition in this world himself, con- versed mostly among the poor, never refused any because of his poverty : " God accepteth not the persons of princes, nor regard-
• Heb. xiii. 5. Isa. xli. 17. Psal. xxxiv. 9, 10. Psal. xci. 15. Rom.viii. 28.
A THEATISK OF TilE SOL'L OF MAN, 201
" eth the rich more than the poor : for tlicy are all the work of " his hands,'' Job xxxiv. 19. and that both in respect of their na- tural constitution, as men, and their civil conditions, as rich or poor men. Riches and poverty make a great difference in the re- spects of men, but none at all with God. If thou be one of God's poor, he will accept, love, and honour thee above the greatest (if graceless) person in the world. Poverty is no bar to Christ or hea- ven, though it be to the respects of men, and tlie pleasures of this life. Away, then, with all vain pretences against a life of godli- ness, from the meanness of your outward condition ; heaven was not made for the rich, and hell only for the poor : No ; how hard soever you find the way thither, I am sure Christ saith. It is hard Jhr a rich man to entei' into that kingdom.
The seventh way of losing the soul discovered.
VII. The seventh beaten path to destruction, is by groundless presumption ; proesuniendo sperant, et sperando pereunt^ by pre- sumption they have hope, and by that hope they perish.
There are divers objects of presumption, amongst which, these three are most usual and most fatal, viz. that they have,
1. That grace which they have not.
2. That mercy in God they will not find.
3. That time before them which will fail tliem,
1. Many presume they have that grace in them, which God knoweth they have not : So did Laodicea, Rev. iii. 17. " Thou " sayest, I am rich, and have need of nothing, and knowest not " that thou art wretched, and miserable, poor, blind, and naked." Here is a dangerous conspiracy betwixt a cunning devil, and an ig- norant, proud heart, to ruin the soul for ever ; they stamp their common grace for special ; they put the old creature, by a general profession, into the new creature's habit, and lay a confident claim to all the privileges of the children of God.
2. They presume upon such mercy in God, as they will never find ; they expect pardoning and saving mercy, out of Christ, in an unregenerate state, when there is not one drop of mercy dis- pensed in any other way. The whole oeconomy of grace is ma- naged by the Mediator, Jude, ver. 21. all saving mercies come through him, upon all that are in him, and upon no others. God is, indeed, a merciful God, and yet presumptuous sinners will find judgment without mercy, because they are not found in the proper way and method of mercy. Thousands,, and ten tliou- sands carve out and dispose of the mercy of God at their own plea- sure, write their own pardons, in what terms they think fit, and
202 A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF JIAK.
if they had God's seal to confirm and ratify them, it were all well ; but, alas ! it is but a night-vision, a dream of their own brain.
3. But especially, men presume upon time enough for repent- ance hereafter : they question not but there are as fit, and as fair opportunities of salvation to come, as are already past; and in this snare of the devil, thousands are taken in the very prime and vi- gour of their vouth : that age is voluptuous, and loves not to be interrupted with severe and serious thoughts and courses; and here is a salvo fitted exactly to suit their inclination, and quiet them in their way, that they may pursue their lusts without inter- ruption.
I cannot follow the sin of presumption at present, in all these its courses and ways ; and therefore will apply myself to the case last mentioned, which is so common to the world.
The seventh way to destruction shut up hyjive weighty considera- tions.
1. I would beg all those young, voluptuous sinners, whose feet are fast held in the snare of this temptation, seriously to bethink themselves, whether they are not old enough to be damned, whilst they judge themselves too young to be seriously godly. There are multitudes in hell of your age and size ; you may find graves in the church-vard, of your own length, and skulls of your own size : men will not spare a nest of young snakes because they are little. If vou die christless and unregenerate, it is the same thing, whether you be old or young; there is abundance of young spray, as well as old logs, burning in the flames of hell.