Direct. V. Endeavour also to make men know the difference between the godly and the wicked. Tell them, I now see who maketh the wisest choice. O happy men, that choose the joys which have no end, and "lay up their treasure in heaven, where rust and moths do not corrupt, and thieves do not break through and steal, and labour for the food that never perisheth," Matt. vi. 19, 20; John vx. 47. O foolish sinners, that for an inch of fleshly, filthy pleasure, do lose everlasting rest and joy! "What shall it profit them that win all the world and lose their souls?"
Direct. VI. Labour also to convince men of the preciousness of time, and the folly of putting off repentance, and a holy life, till the last. Say to them, O friends, it is hard for you in the time of health and prosperity, to judge of time according to its worth: but when time is gone, or near an end, how precious doth it then appear! Now if I had all the time again, which ever I spent in unnecessary sleep, or sports, or curiosities, or idleness, or any needless thing, how highly should I value it, and spend it in another manner than I have done! Of all my life that is past and gone, I have no comfort now in the remembrance of one hour, but what was spent in obedience to God. O take time to make sure of your salvation, before it is gone, and you are left under the tormenting feeling of your loss.
Direct. VII. Labour also to make them understand the sinfulness of sloth, and of loitering in the matters of God and their salvation; and stir them up to do it with all their might. Say to them, I have often heard ungodly people deride or blame the diligence, and zeal, and strictness of the godly; but if they saw and felt what I see and feel they could not do it. Can a man that is going into another world, imagine that any thing is so worthy of his greatest zeal and labour, as his God and his salvation? or blame men for being loth to burn in hell? or for taking more pains for their souls than for their bodies? O friends, let fools talk what they will, in their sleep and phrensy, as you love your souls, do not think any care, or cost, or pains too great for your salvation! If they think not their labour too good for this world, do not you think yours too good for a better world. Let them now say what they will, when they come to die, there is none of them all, that is not quite forsaken of sense and reason, but will wish that they had loved God, and sought and served him, not formally, in hypocritical compliment, but with all their heart, and soul, and might.
Direct. VIII. Labour also to fortify the minds of your friends, against all fears of suffering for Christ, and all impatience in any of their afflictions. Say to them, The sufferings as well as the pleasures of this life are so short, that they are not worthy once to be compared with the durable things of the life to come. If I have passed through a life of want and toil, if my body hath endured painful sickness, if I have suffered never so much from men, and been used cruelly for the sake of Christ, what the worse am I now, when all is past? Would an easy, honourable, plentiful life, have made my death either the safer or the sweeter? O no! it is the things eternal that are indeed significant and regardable. Neither pleasure nor pain that is short, is of any great regard. Make sure of the everlasting pleasures, and you have done your work. O live by faith, and not by sense; look not at the temporal things which are seen. It is not your concernment, whether you are rich or poor, in honour or dishonour, in health or sickness, but whether you be justified, and sanctified, and shall live with God in heaven for ever. Such serious counsels of dying men, may make their sickness more fruitful than their health.
FOOTNOTES
[126] Hic labor extremus, longarum hæc meta viarum est. Virgil.
[127] Luke x. 42; Phil. i. 19, 23.
[128] Mr. Vines, Mr. Capel, Mr. Hollingworth, Mr. Ashurst, Mr. Ambrose, Mrs. Burnel, &c.
[129] Reader, bear with this mixture: for God will own his image when peevish contenders do deny it, or blaspheme it; and will receive those whom faction and proud domination would cast out, and vilify with scorn and slanders.
[130] Isa. liii. 10-12.