The application of redemption

The less the thing is, the less care and conscience thou §2expressest for the good of thine own soul. When thou wilt run the hazard of […] happiness for the gaining of a little profit, so many pence in the shilling, so many shillings in the pound; nay, but the giving satisfaction to a lazy, sinful, sensual humour. Alas poor Creature, hadst thou no more for thy soul but pence and shillings, a little laziness for thy life and happiness, and Salvation, dost thou value thy soul of no greater worth? Our Saviour in the Gospel sets a higher price upon it, Matth. 16. 25. 26. What will it profit a man, if he should win the whole world, and lose his own soul, […] what shall he give in exchange for his soul? q. d. A. man should be a loser by the gain, and a beggar by the bargain if he had all. And yet deluded Creature thou wilt sell thy comfort, the peace of thy conscience, the salvation of thy soul for a thing of naught. The whole world is vanity, nothing, and less than nothing, and thou wilt part with thy happiness for that which is far less than that which is less than nothing. When Naaman came to the Prophet to be cured of the Leprosy of his body, and so to save his Natural life, and he was directed and enjoined by the Prophet to wash seven times in Jordan; he began to take it in distaste as a course that was too mean and base for his comfort and Cure, Are not (says he) the Waters of Pharpar and Damascus better than the Waters of Jordan? His Servants seasonably and wisely check the carelessness of his own safety and recovery; Had the Prophet commanded thee some great thing, wouldst thou not have done it? How much more when he saith, wash and be clean? 2 Kings, 5. 12, 13. The greatest labour should have been undertaken to preserve thy life, what carelessness is this to neglect the least that may procure thy safety? It's so ⟨p. 171⟩here, our sick, sinful, leprous and polluted souls, lies now at hazard ready to perish; had the Lord enjoined us to the heaviest task, things of greatest danger and difficulty to be done and suffered for the safeguard of […] souls, would we not, should we not have done them? parted with a limb for our lives, our lives for our souls? and shall we not be willing to part with the paring of our nails, these poor, empty, lying vanities, for our everlasting happiness? what Atheistical carelessness is this?