Meditations and discourses concerning the glory of Christ applied unto unconverted sinners, and saints…Meditations and discourses concerning the glory of Christ applyed unto unconverted sinners, and saints…

2. A neglect of making Religion our Principal business, is another Evidence of the Decay of all sorts of Grace in us: For where Grace is in it's proper Exercise, it will subordinate all things unto Religion, and the Ends of it, as David twenty times declares in the 119th. Psalm. All things, all Occasions of Life shall be postponed thereunto: The Love and valuation of it will bear sway in our Minds, our Thoughts and Affections, and the practice of it shall give Rule unto all other Concernments: But is it so with many amongst us? It is well if Religion be one thing, it is far enough from being the One thing; every other thing is preferred before it, and it can hardly crowd in to possess any place in their Minds. To see Men continually plodding in the Affairs of the World, regulating all their actings by their concernment in them, diverting only at some seasons, as it were out of their way unto Duties of ⟨p. 61⟩Religion, it is vain to say, that they make Religion their Business: But there is scarce a more certain Evidence of a frame of Mind spiritually Decaying in all sorts of Graces, if ever any of them were in it in Sincerity and Power, than this one, that Men do not make Religion their chiefest Business: And a little Self-Examination will help Men to judge what it is that they make so to be.

LASTLY, I might also instance in the uselessness of Men in their Profession; in want of Love unto all Saints, Barrenness in Good Works, unreadiness and unwillingness to comply in any extraordinary manner with the Calls of God unto Repentance and Reformation; in Love of the World, and Pride of Life, with Passions suited unto such Principles, predominant in them; for they are all undeniable Evidences, that those with whom they are found, had never any true Grace at all, or that they are fallen under woeful Decays. But what hath been spoken may be sufficient unto our present purpose.

LASTLY, I might also instance in the uselesness of Men in their Profession; in want of Love unto all Saints, Barrenness in Good Works, unreadiness and unwillingness to comply in any extraordinary manner with the Calls of God unto Repentance and Reformation; in Love of the World, and Pride of Life, with Passions suited unto such Principles, predominant in them; for they are all undeniable Evidences, that those with whom they are found, had never any true Grace at all, or that they are fallen under woful Decays. But what hath been spoken may be sufficient unto our present purpose.