things of Eternity; and yet both the one, and the other must be done by all those,that resolve to mind the profperity of their Souls above all other profperity. I fhall to what hath been faid already, (before I come to fhew the great work that is to be done for the welfare of Souls) first give you fome Arguments to prove the Inference,That if SoulProfperity, be the most defirable Profperity; Then is it the most rational thing in the world, to mind it above all things elfe.

(1.) It is a rational thing (ye must all grant it)for any man to part with any thing, except the Peace of his own Confcience, and to do any thing that is poffible to be done, except finning against God, for the preferva tion of natural life. It is a Scripture expref fion, Prov. 6:26. that Life is pretious. It is indeed the most pretious thing in Nature. Matth. 6.25. Is not the life more than meat? Alt. 27. They caft away the Lading of the Ship, in hope to fave their lives, Eftb.7.2 3,4, Let my life be given me at my petition, For we are fold,I and my people to be destroyed, to be flain, and to perish. If we had beenfold for Bond-men, and for Bond-women, I had held my tongue. See how the pleaded for her life the vas lued not the one half of 127 Provinces, in comparison of that. And we read of a poor woman, that had spent all that he had, in hope of health, which is a degree below life,

Mar. 5. Now if it fhould be asked, as Jam. 4. 14. What is this life, that is fo much valued? we must answer, as he doth, That it is a vapour which appeareth for a very little time, and then vanifheth away. The frailty whereof is fet forth by heaps of fimilitudes in Scripture, from the most perifhing things that come under obfervation. It is but a little warm breath, turned in, and out at our noftrils, a narrow paffage, and foon ftopt, Ifa.2.22. Cease from Man, whose breath is in his noftrils, and wherein is he to be accounted of?

Now if it be fo agreeable to reafon, by all lawful means to ferve the Providence of God, for the prefervation of fuch poor, and frail things as our lives are; (as indeed we are bound in obedience to God's command) Is it not much more rational, to do whatever God would have us to do, for the life and well-fare, of our immortal Souls? Certainly if Nature teach a Man to prize his life above the World, Grace fhould make a Man to prize his Soul above his Life. Believe it, To fave our Lives, and to fave our Souls, are two things. This we find in Scripture, that those who have learned to value their Souls, according to their excellency, and have understood how much their own happiness is concerned in them, have willingly run the hazard of their lives, to fave their

Souls,

Souls, not only as Paul, 1 Cor. 9. 27, 1 keep under my Body, and bring it into subjection, left that by any means, when I have preached to others, I my felf should be a caft-away; but allo as they, Revel. 12. 11,-they loved not their lives unto the death. They did not fo love their lives, as out of inordinate care to preferve them, and fo to escape death, when God called them, by their open profeffion to give in their teftimony for Chrift, and his Gofpel, against the Anti-Christian Generation. So Dan. 3. 19, &c. The three Witneffes chofe rather to be thrown into the fiery Furnace, then to worship the Golden Image. Heb. 11. 35, Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance. Yea fo careless have fome of the Saints of old, been of their Bodies, in comparifon of their care for the well-fare of their Souls, as if they had been other folks Bodies, and not their own.

ふ

We

read Act,7, that when the fentence of death was pafled upon Stephen, he prays not for the mitigation of his Enemies rage, he is totally filent concerning his burial. (It's true, there were fome good Men took care of it, Act. 8. 2. but not at his intreaty that we read of) but that which his thoughts were moft taken up withal, ye read verf. 59. They Stoned Steven, calling upon God, and faying, Lord Jefus receive my Spirit. So the Lord Jefus left his Body in the hands of Pilate,but

he

he commended his Spirit into his Father's hands, Luk. 23.46. It is obfervable, what we have Pfal. 141. 7, 8. when fome of David's followers, were hackt, and hewed in pieces, and left unburied, or (as fome think) when their dead Bodies, alter they were buried, were digged up, and their bones were fcattered about the Grave's mouth: When Das vid faw, or heard of this, fee what he had moft in his thoughts: Lord, leave not my Soul deftitate.

Thus ye have one argument to make good the Inference: That it is the most ra2 tional thing in the World, to mind the wellfare of our Souls, above all things elfe, because it is very rational, above all outward things, to mind the prefervation of our lives. And that though it be fo, those that have been wife to Salvation, have minded the faving of their Souls, above the faving of their Lives, there being indeed no comparison between this Natural life, and the Spiritual life' of the Soul.

(2.) It is every way most rational, agree able to the beft, and highest principles of réafon, to mind that most,which Jefus Chrift (in whom dwelt all the Treasures of Wif dom) minded moft. This none will deny, but that as it is the highest pitch of our holiness, that our Ends in all things fall in with his: So it ought to be our greatest bu K finefs

finefs, that in all things we fhould be of the fame mind with Chrift. Now that this was, and ftill is the greatest work that Jefus Chrift did, and still doth mind in our behalf, will appear by these particulars.

1. This was the great work, next to the glorifying of his Father (and therein he did glorifie his Father) that was in his heart to accomplish; in, and by that myfterious work of his Incarnation, in taking upon him Man's nature, and for which he made him. felf of no reputation in the World; for which he fuffered fo much, and still doth fo much by his interceffion in Heaven, to this day, that (as Isa. 53.11.) he might fee the Travel of his own Soul, and be fatisfied in the complete, and Eternal profperity, of all their Souls, which God the Father gave unto him, and for which he engaged himself. John 6. 38,39,40, For I came down from Heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him that fent me. And this is the Fathers will which fent me, that of all which he hath given me, Ifhould lofe nothing, but should raise it up again, at the last day. In 1 Pet. 2.25. Christ is faid to be the Shepherd of Souls. Now a faithful Shepherd, though he will be ready to do his Master, what good fervice he can, in any thing; yet his chiefest care is for his Master's flock. Such a faithful Shepherd is Jefus Chrift, he highly minds the meaneft