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

2. We are next to enquire, What it is that is put by worldly▪ carnal men, into the other end of the scales, and is set up in comparison with all this Everlasting Glory? Yea what it is that is preferred by ungodly men before it? What is it that fin and the world will do for men? What do they find that lose the Lord? What do they get that miss of Heaven? What do they choose, t••• refuse the Needful, Better part?

And here I am even amazed at that which I must give you an account of; O wonderful astonishing thing, that ever such base unworthy trifles should by Reasonable men be put into any comparison with God! Wonderful, that so much madness and wickedness can enter into the mind and heart of man, as to let go all this Glory for a toy? And yet more wonderful, that this should be the case of the greatest part of men on earth! And yet more wonderful, that so m••y make so mad a choice, even when the case is opened to them, and plainly opened, and frequently opened; and when they are earnestly entreated to be wiser, and importuned to make a better choice!

In a word, All that is set against the Lord, and All that is preferred before this Everlasting Life, and All the Portion of ungodly men, is no more then this; The Pleasure of sin for a season: The satisfying of the flesh: A little ease, and pelf, and fair words from men as miserable as themselves; and all this but for a little, a very little time, when Temperance is as sweet at least; a little that is excessive or forbidden, in wealth, or meat, or drink, or clothes, or lust, or other fleshly pleasures, is the Joy, and the Heaven, and the God of the ungodly. The fleshly pleasures which are common to the beasts, and a little vain-glory among men, and this for a short uncertain time, (and then to pa•• to everlasting punishment) this is the chosen portion of the wicked. This is All for which they refuse the Lord, and for which y refuse a Holy life: This is All […] which they part with […] and part with their Everlasting Peace! This is All that they have for Heaven and their salvation! and All for which they se their souls! To the everlasting shame of sin and sinners, it shall be known that this was All! To the abasing of our own soul that sometime were guilty of this madness, I shall tell you again that this is All! To the humbling of the best, to the confounding of the wicked, and the amazement of us all, I must say this is All! This dirt, this dream, this cheat i […] wicked have for God and Glory! This Nothing […] obstinately prefer and choose, before him that […] O wonderful madness, stupidity, and deceit so […] wilful! and so uncurable! till tender […] cure it, in them that shall be saved.