HEAVENLY FOOTMAN

THE AUTHOR'S EPISTLE TO ALL SLOTHFUL AND CARELESS PEOPLE.

Friends,

Solomon saith, that "the desire of the slothful killeth him;" and ifso, what will slothfulness itself do to those that entertain it? Theproverb is, "He that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame:"and this I dare be bold to say, no greater shame can befall a man,than to see that he hath fooled away his soul, and sinned away eternallife. And I am sure this is the next way to do it; namely, to beslothful; slothful, I say, in the work of salvation. The vineyard ofthe slothful man, in reference to the things of this life, is notfuller of briars, nettles, and stinking weeds, than he that isslothful for heaven, hath his heart full of heart-choking andsoul-damning sin.

Slothfulness hath these two evils: first, to neglect the time in whichit should be getting heaven; and by that means doth, in the secondplace, bring in untimely repentance. I will warrant you, that he whoshould lose his soul in this world through slothfulness, will have nocause to be glad thereat, when he comes to hell. Slothfulness isusually accompanied with carelessness; and carelessness is for themost part begotten by senselessness; and senselessness doth again putfresh strength into slothfulness; and by this means the soul is leftremediless. Slothfulness shutteth out Christ; slothfulness shameth thesoul.

Slothfulness is condemned even by the feeblest of all the creatures."Go to the ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise." "Thesluggard will not plow, by reason of the cold;" that is, he will notbreak up the fallow ground of his heart, because there must be somepains taken by him that will do it; "therefore he shall beg inharvest;" that is, when the saints of God shall have their gloriousheaven and happiness given to them; but the sluggard "shall havenothing;" that is, be never the better for his crying for mercy;according to that in Matthew xxv. 10-12.

If you would know a sluggard in the things of heaven, compare him withone that is slothful in the things of this world. As 1. He that isslothful is loath to set about the work he should follow; so is hethat is slothful for heaven. 2. He that is slothful, is one that iswilling to make delays: so is he that is slothful for heaven. 3. Hethat is a sluggard, any small matter that cometh in between, he willmake it a sufficient excuse to keep him off from plying

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