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

It is Good and Evil that constituteth all that wonderful difference that is between the Reasonable creatures, both here and hereafter: The Good of Holiness, and the evil of sin do make the difference, between the Godly and the wicked: the Good of Everlasting Happiness, and the Evil of Everlasting Misery, doth make the difference between the Glorified and the Damned. Goodness in General is so naturally the object of mans will, that Evil as Evil cannot be desired, and Good as Good cannot be hated. What then is the matter that few attain the greatest good, and few will scape the greatest misery? It is because they would not Choose that Good, and refuse the way and cause of Misery. But how cometh it to pass that men will make no wiser a choice? Is the case so doubtful that they cannot be resolved in it? every man would have that which he thinks is Best for him. Why do men follow after wealth, or pleasure, or credit in the world, but because they take it to be Best for them? Why ⟨p. 104⟩do they set so light by Holiness, and Christ and Heaven, b• cause they apprehend them not to be Best for them? W• men refuse, and obstinately against all persuasions refuse a Holy life, if they took it practically to be Best for them? what! will they contrive their own destruction? do they long to do themselves a Mischief, and the greatest Mischief in the world? No, that's not the case; But the matter is this: Their senses draw them another way; Their eye, their ear, their taste, their feeling, every sense hath a Pleasure of its Own, and this sense or flesh is violent and unreasonable, and would fain be satisfied: and Reason that was given us to Rule it, is bribed and blinded and perverted by it, and so is ready as a servant to obey it, and to take its part; and the fleshly mind discerneth not the things of God, for they are spiritually discerned: the Will also and the Affections are by the bias of a fleshly inclination corrupted, and habitually lean to the fleshly part: And that which men Love, they will easily think well of, and are glad of any thing like Reason to defend it; and that which is against the Inclination of the Will, will hardly be thought well of, and any thing like Reason will serve against it.

It is Good and Evil that constituteth all that wonderful difference that is between the Reasonable creatures, both here and hereafter: The Good of Holiness, and the evil of sin do make the difference, between the Godly and the wicked: the Good of Everlasting Happiness, and the Evil of Everlasting Misery, doth make the difference between the Glorified and the Damned. Goodness in General is so naturally the object of mans will, that Evil as Evil cannot be desired, and Good as Good cannot be hated. What then is the matter that few attain the greatest good, and few will scape the greatest misery? It is because they would not Choose that Good, and refuse the way and cause of Misery. But how cometh it to pass that men will make no wiser a choice? Is the case so doubtful that they cannot be resolved in it? every man would have that which he thinks is Best for him. Why do men follow after wealth, or pleasure, or credit in the world, but because they take it to be Best for them? Why