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6. ANother Rule is,* 1.1 That the Difficulty of obtaining shews the Excellency. And surely if you consider but what it cost Christ to purchase it; what it costs the Spirit to bring mens hearts to it; what it costs Ministers to perswade to it; what it costs
Christians,* 1.2 after all this, to obtain it; and what it costs many a half-Christian that after all goes without it; You will say that here's Difficulty, and therefore Excellency. Trifles may be had at a Trivial rate: and men may have damnation far more easily: It is but, lie still, and sleep out our days in careless laziness: It is but, take our pleasure, and minde the world, and cast away the thoughts of Sin, and Grace▪ and Christ, and Heaven, and Hell, out of your mindes; and do as the most do, and never trouble our selves about these high things, but venture our Souls upon our presumptuous conceits and hopes, and let the vessel swim which way it will; and then stream, and wind, and tyde, will all help us apace to the gulph of perdition. You may burn an hundred houses easier then build one: and kill a thousand men easier then make one alive. The descent is easie, the ascent not so.* 1.3 To bring diseases, is but to cherish sloth, please the appetite, and take what most delights us: but to cure them will cost bitter pills, loathsom potions, tedious gripings, absteinious ac∣curate living; and perhaps all fall short too. He that made the way, and knows the way better then we, hath told us, it is narrow and strait, and requires striving: And they that have paced it more truly and observantly then we, do tell us, it lies through many tri∣bulations, and is with much ado passed through. Conclude then, it is sure somewhat worth that must cost all this.
§. 6.
〈◊〉〈◊〉 dicere so ••••bat, 〈◊〉〈◊〉 esse ad inferos viam, nam ill•••• homines adir•• claus••s oculis. Laer••. l 4 c. 7 Quod ille dixit quia mo ••ienti∣bus clauduntur oculi; nos di∣cere possumus de m••n••is caeci∣tate et socordia.
Facile est de∣scensus Aver∣ni, &c.