Fifthly, I answer, It may be thy distemper and indisposition of body is not so great, but that thou canst buy, and sell, and get gain: Notwithstanding thy aching head, 1and thy shooting back, and thy pained sides, and thy feeble knees, yet thou canst with Martha cumber thy self about thy worldly affairs. In that Cant. 5. 3. Christ calls upon his Spouse, to open the door, and let him in: But sin and shifting coming into the world together, see how poorly and unworthily she labours to shift Christ off, I have put off my Coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them? Rather than she will make no excuse for her self, she will make a silly excuse, a worthless excuse: She was past a child: and what a great business had it been for her to have risen to ⟨p. 280⟩have let in such a guest, that brings every thing with him, that heart 2can wish or need require: She was not grown so decrepit with old age, but that she was able to make her self ready; at least, she might easily have slipped on her morning Coat, and stepped to the door without any danger of taking cold, or of being wet to the skin, and so 3have let him in, who never comes empty handed; yea, who was now come full of the dew of divine blessings to enrich her; for so some sense those words, Mine head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night. O the frivolous pretences, and idle excuses that even gracious persons are apt sometimes to take up to over colour their neglect of duty!
Fifthly, I answer, It may be thy distemper and indisposition of body is not so great, but that thou canst buy, and sell, and get gaine: Notwithstanding thy aking head, 1and thy shooting back, and thy pained sides, and thy feeble knees, yet thou canst with Martha cumber thy self about thy worldly affairs. In that Cant. 5. 3. Christ calls upon his Spouse, to open the door, and let him in: But sin and shifting coming into the world together, see how poorly and unworthily she labours to shift Christ off, I have put off my Coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them? Rather than she will make no excuse for her self, she will make a silly excuse, a worthless excuse: She was past a child: and what a great businesse had it been for her to have risen to ⟨p. 280⟩have let in such a guest, that brings every thing with him, that heart 2can wish or need require: She was not grown so decrepid with old age, but that she was able to make her self ready; at least, she might easily have slipt on her morning Coat, and stept to the door without any danger of taking cold, or of being wet to the skin, and so 3have let him in, who never comes empty handed; yea, who was now come full of the dew of divine blessings to enrich her; for so some sence those words, Mine head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night. O the frivolous pretences, and idle excuses that even gracious persons are apt sometimes to take up to over colour their neglect of duty!
- 1The body it self, if you set too high a price upon it, will make a cheap Soul; and he is the most unhappy man whose outside is his best side.
- 2Rev. 3. 17. 17.
- 3Rev. 22. 12.
