A saint or a brute the certain necessity and excellency of holiness, &c. ...…

so that unless we will let them have their bone to themselves, and give them our cloak when they have taken our coat, and say as • sheth [Let him take all] there is no living quietly by […] A dog at his carrion, or a swine in his trough, is not more greedy then many of these sensualists, that labour of the Caninus app• titus to their trash: But to Holiness they have no appetite, and are worse then indifferent to the things that are in•sirable: They have no covetousness for the things which […] commanded earnestly to covet, 1 Cor. 12 31. They have •tle hunger and thirst after righteousness, that a very little or none will satisfy them: Here they are pleading always for ••deration, and against too much, and too earnest, and too long: And all is too much with them that is above stark naught, or dead hypocrisy: and all is too earnest and too long that would make Religion seem a business, or would engage them to seem serious in their own profession, or put them past jest in the worship of God, and the matters of their salvation. Let but their servants or children neglect their worldly business, (which I confess they should not do) and they shall hear of it with both ears: But if they sin against God, or neglect his Word or Worship, they shall meet with more patience then Eli's sons did: A cold reproof is usually the best; and it is well if they be not encouraged in their sin; and if a child or servant that begins to be serious for salvation, be not rebuked, derided, and hindered by them. If on their days of labour they over-sleep themselves, they shall be sure to be called up to work, (and good reason); but when do they call ⟨p. 45⟩them up to prayer? When do they urge them to read, or consider, or confer of the things that concern their everlasting life? The Lords own day, which is appointed to be set apart for matters of this nature, is wasted in idleness or worldly talk. Come at any time into their company, and you may have talk enough, and too much, of news, or of other mens matters, of their worldly business, sports and pleasures: But about God and their salvation, they have so little to say, and that so heartlessly and on the by, as if they were things that belonged not to their care and duty, and no whit concerned them.