The Necessity, Reason, and Means of Holiness

1. To keep up the resolutions of the converted. And

2. To instruct those in families that need them. Though the saving of souls be a matter of inexpressible importance,* yet — the Lord have mercy upon them! — what abundance are there that think it not worthy of their serious enquiry, nor the reading of a good book, one

* Mark viii. 36: Matthew vi. 33: Job xxi. 14, and xxii. 17: Psalm i. 2, 3, and xiv. 12.

hour in a week! For the sake of these careless slothful sinners, I have here spoken much in a little room, that they may not refuse to read and consider so short a lesson, unless they think their souls worth nothing. Sinner! As thou wilt shortly answer it before God, deny not to God, to thyself and me, the sober pondering and faithful practising these few directions: —

I. Begin at home, and know thyself Consider what it is to be a man.”^ Thou art made a nobler creature than the brutes. They serve thee, and are governed by thee; and death ends all their pains and pleasures. But thou hast reason to rule thyself and them; to know thy God, and foresee thy end, and know thy way, and do thy duty. Thy reason, and free-will, and executive power, are part of the image of God upon thy nature: so is thy dominion over the brutes, as, under him, thou art their owner, their ruler, and their end. But thy holy wisdom, and goodness, and ability, is the chief part of his image on which thy happiness depends. Thou hast a soul that cannot be satisfied in knowing, till thy knowledge reach to God himself :t nor can it be disposed by any other; nor can it or the societies of the world, be well governed according to its nature, without regard to his sovereign authority and without the hopes and fears of joy and misery hereafter ;J nor can it be happy § in anything but seeing and loving and delighting in this God as he is revealed in the other world. And is this nature given thee in vain? If the nature of all things be fitted to its use and end, then it must be so with thine.

II. By knowing thyself then, thou must needs know that there is a God IT and that he is thy maker and infinite in all perfections; and that he is thy Owner, thy Ruler

* Psalm viii. 4-6: Genesis i. 26, 27: ix. 6: Col. iii. 10. t John xvii. 3: i John iv. 6, 7: Jeremiah ix. 24. X Luke xii. 4, 5. § Psalm xvi. 5-1 1. II Isaiah xlv. 18.

Psalm xiv. i: Genesis i. i: Revelation i. 8: Romans i. 19, 20: Psalm xlvi. 10: ix. 10: c. andxxiii.: xix. 1-3: xlvii. 7: Ezekiel xviii. 4: Genesis xviii. 25: Malachi i. 6.

and thy Felicity or End. He is mad that seeth not that such creatures have a cause or maker: and that all the power and wisdom and goodness of the world, is caused by a power and wisdom and goodness which is greater than that of all the world. And who can be our Owner but he that made us? And who can be our highest Governor but our Owner, whose infinite power wisdom and goodness maketh him only fit thereto? And if he be our Governor, he must needs have laws, with rewards for the good and punishments for the bad; and must judge and execute accordingly. And if he be our” chiefest Benefactor, and all that we have is from him, and all our hope and happiness is in him, nothing can be more clear than that the very nature ol man doth prove that in hope of future happiness, he should absolutely assign himself to the will and disposal of this God, and that he should absolutely obey him,^’ and that he should love and serve him with all his power: it being impossible to love, obey and please that God too much who is thus our cause, our end, our all.

III. By knowing thus thyself and God, it is easy to know what primitive holiness and godliness is. Even this hearty, entire and absolute resignation of the soul to God, as the infinite power, wisdom, and goodness: as our Creator, our Owner, Governor, and Felicity or P2nd: fully submitting to his disposal, obeying his laws, in hope of his promised rewards and fear of his threatened punishments: and loving and delighting in himself and all his appearances in the world: and desiring and seeking the endless right and enjoyment of him in heavenly glory, and expressing these affections in daily prayer, thanksgiving and praise. This is the use of all thy faculties, the end and business of thy life, the health and happiness of

* Matthew xxii. 37: Jeremiah v. 22: 2 Corinthians v. 8,9: Titus ii. 14: 2 Corinthians viii. 5, and vi. 16-18: 1 Peter ii. 9: Psalm 10: xxxvii. 4: xl. 8: Colossians iii. i, 2: Matthew vi. 20, 21: 2 Cor. iv, 17, 18.

thy soul. This is that hoHness or godliness which God doth so much call for.

IV. And by this it is easy to know what a state of sin and ungodliness is.”^ Even the want of all this holiness, and the setting of carnal self instead of God. When men are proudly great and wise and good in their own eyes, and would dispose of themselves and all their concernments, and would rule themselves and please themselves, according to the fleshly appetite and fancy: and therefore love most the pleasures and profits and honours of the world as the provision to satisfy the desires of the flesh: and God shall be no further loved, obeyed, or pleased than the love of fleshly pleasures will give leave, nor shall have anything but what the flesh can spare: this is a wicked, a carnal, an ungodly state; though it break forth in various ways of sinning.

V. By this, experience may tell you, that all men’ — yea all till grace renew them — are in this ungodly miserable state: though only the Scripture tells us how this came to pass. Though all are not fornicators nor drunkards nor extortioners nor persecutors nor live not in the same way of sinning; yet selfishness and pride and sensuality and the love of worldy things, ignorance and ungodliness are plainly become the common corruption of the nature of man; so that their hearts are turned to the world from God, and filled with impiety, filthiness and injustice; and their reason is but a servant to their senses; and their mind and love and lip is carnal;:y: and this carnal mind is enmity to the holiness of God, and cannot be subject to his law. This corruption is hereditary, and is become, as it were, a nature to us, being the mortal malady of all our natures. And it is easy to know that such an unholy, wicked nature, must needs be loathsome to God and unfit

Psalm xiv: i: Hebrews xii: 14: Romans viii. 12, 13: John iii. 34: v. 6: I John ii, 15, 16: Romans xiii. 14, 15: vi. 16: Luke xviii. 23: xiv. 26, 33. t Romans iii: Psalm 14: Ephes. ii, 2, 3: Romans v. 12, 17, 39: John iii, 6. X Romans viii. 5, 6, 7.

for the happy enjoyment of his love, either here or in the life to come :* for what communion hath light with darkness?

VI. Hence then it is easy to see what grace is 7teedful to a maji’s salvatmi. So odious a creature, such an unthankful rebel that is turned away from God and set against him, and defiled with all this filth of sin, must needs be both renewed and reconciled, t sanctified and pardoned, if ever he will be saved. To love God and be beloved by him and to be delighted herein, in the might of his glory, is the heaven and happiness of souls: and all this is contrary to an unholy state. Till men have new and holy hearts, they can neither see God nor love him nor delight in him nor take him for their chief content: for the flesh and world have their delight and love. And till sin be pardoned, % and God is reconciled to the soul, what joy or peace can it expect from him whose nature and justice engage th him to loathe and punish it?

VII. And experience will tell you how insufficient you are for either of these two works yourselves: /<? renew your souls or to reco7icile them unto God. Will a nature that is carnal resist and overcome the flesh and abhor the sin which it most dearly loveth? will a wordly mind overcome the world? when custom hath rooted your natural corruptions, are these easily rooted up? O how great and hard a work is it to cause a blind unbelieving sinner to set his heart on another world and lay up all his hopes in heaven, and to cast off all the things he seeth for that God and glory which he never saw. And for a hardened, worldly, fleshly heart to become wise and tender and holy and heavenly, and abhor the sin which it most fondly loveth! And what can we do to satisfy justice and reconcile such a rebel soul to God?

VIII. Nature and experience having thus acquainted

* Psalm iv. 3: 2 Corinthians vi. 14, 17.

t Psalm xxxii. i, 2: i Corinthians vi. 11: Titus ii. 14: iii. 5-7: Hebrews xiv. 14: Matthew v. 8. % Romans v. 1-3.

II Psalm xcvii. 7, 8, 15: i Corinthians ii. 11, 21: Hebrews xiv. 12: 2 Peter i. 3.

lo Instructions Jor a Holy Life.

you with your sin and misery, and what you want, will further tell you that God ‘’^ doth not yet deal with you according to your deserts. He giveth you life, and time, and mercies, when your sins had forfeited all these. He obligeth you to repent and-tum unto him. And therefore experience telling you that there is some hope, and that God hath found out some way of shewing mercy to the children of wrath, reason will command you to enquire of all that are fit to teach you what way of remedy God hath made known. And as you very soon discover that the religion of heathens and Mahometans is so far from shewing the true remedy that they are part of the disease itself: so you may learn that a wonderful Person t the Lord Jesus Christ, hath undertaken the office of being the Redeemer and Saviour of the world: and that he who is the eternal Word and Wisdom of the Father, hath wonderfully appeared in the nature of man, which he took from the virgin Mary, being conceived by the Holy Ghost: and that we might have a Teacher sent from Heaven % infallibly and easily to acquaint the world with the will of God and the unseen things of life eternal: how God bare witness of the Truth by abundant, open and uncontrolled miracles :|| how he conquered Satan and the world, § and gave us an example of perfect righteousness and underwent the scorn and cruelty of sinners, and suffered the death of the cross as a sacrifice for our sins to reconcile us unto God: how he rose again the third day and conquered death, and lived forty days longer on earth, instructing his apostles and giving them commission to preach the Gospel to all the world, and then ascended bodily into heaven.

* Acts xiv. 27 and xvii. 24-28: Romans i. 19, 20: Romans ii, 4: Job xxxlii. 14-25: Matthew xii. 42, 43.

t Isaiah ix. 6, 7, and liii: John Hi. 16, 19, and i. 3, 4, and iii. 2.

X John i. 18. II Acts ii. 22: Hebrews ii. 3, 4. § Matthew iv.

1” I Peter ii. 22-25: Matthew: xxvi. 27-28: Acts i.: Hebrews iv: Ephesians i. 22, 23: Romans v. i, 3, 9: Hebrews viii. 9, 13, and viii. 6, 7: Hebrews vii. 25: 1 John V. 10, 12: John v. 22, and iii. 18, 19: Matthew xxv.

The Great Case Resolved. ii

while they gazed after him: how he is now in heaven, both God and man in one Person, the Teacher and King and High-priest of his Church. Of him must we learn the way of life: by him must we be ruled as the physician of souls. All power is given him in heaven ancj in earth. By his sacrifice and merits and intercession must we be pardoned and accepted with the Father: and only by him must we come to God. He hath procured and established a covenant of grace, which baptism is the seal of: Even that God will in him be our God and reconciled Father, and Christ will be our Saviour, and the Holy Ghost will be our Sanctifier, if we will unfeignedly consent; that is if penitently and believingly we give up ourselves to God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, in these resolutions. This covenant in the tenor of it is a deed of gift, of Christ and pardon and salvation to all the world: if by true faith and repentance they will turn to God. And this shall be the law according to which he will judge all that hear it at the last: for he is made the judge of all, and will raise all the dead, and justify his saints and judge them unto endless joy and glory, and condemn the unbelievers, impenitent and ungodly,^ unto endless misery. The soul alone is judged at death, and body and soul at the resurrection. This Gospel the apostles preached to the world; and that it might be effectual to man’s salvation, the Holy Ghost was first given to inspire the preachers of it,t and enable them to speak in various languages, and infallibly to agree in One, and to work many great and open miracles to prove their word to those they preached to. And by this means they planted the Church; J which ordinary ministers must increase and teach and oversee, to the end of the world, till all the elect be gathered in. And the same Holy Spirit hath undertaken it as His work to accompany this Gospel and by it to convert men’s souls,

* Luke xvi. t Acts ii: John xvii. 23.

X Matthew xxviii. 19, 20: Acts xiv, 23: Acts xx: xxvi. 17, 18. J Romans viii. 9.

illuminating and sanctifying them; and by a secret regeneration ‘^ to renew their natures and bring them to that knowledge and obedience and love of God which is the primitive holiness for which we were created and from which we fell. And thus by a Saviour and a Sanctifier must all be reconciled and renewed that will be glorified with God in heaven. All this you may learn from the Sacred Scriptures which were written by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit t and sealed by multitudes of open miracles, J and contain the very image and superscription of God, and have been received and preserved by the Church as the certain word of God, and blessed by him through all generations, to the sanctifying of many souls.

IX. When you understand all this it is time for you to look home and understand now what state your souls are in. That you were made capable of holiness and happiness, you know: that you and all men are fallen from God and holiness and happiness unto self and sin and misery, you know: that you are so far redeemed by Christ, you know, as to have a pardoning and saving covenant tendered you, and Christ and mercy offered to your choice. But whether you are truly penitent believers and renewed by the Holy Ghost and so united unto Christ, this is the question yet unresolved, this is the work that is yet to do, without which there is no salvation, and if thou die before it is done, woe to thee that ever thou wast a man! Except a man be regenerated by the Spirit § and converted and made a new creature, and of carnal be made spiritual, and of earthly be made heavenly, and of selfish and sinful be made holy and obedient to God, he can never be saved, no more than the devil himself can be saved. And if this be so — as nothing is more sure — I require thee now, who readest these words, as thou regardest thy salvation, as thou wouldst escape hell-fire and

* Titus iii. 5, 6: John xiii. 5, 6. t 2 Timothy iii 16.

X Hebrews ii. 3, 4. 2 Corinthians xiii. 5: Psalm iv. 4: 2 Peter i. 10.

I § John iii. 5: 2 Corinthians v. 17: Romans viii. 7-9: Philippians iii. 18-20.

stand with comfort before Christ and his angels at the last, that thou soberly consider whether reason command thee not to try thy state: whether thou art thus renewed by the Spirit of Christ or not, ‘^ and to call for help to those that can advise theet and follow on the search till thou know thy case. And if thy soul be a stranger to this sanctifying work, whether reason command thee not, without any delay, to make out to Christ, and beg his Spirit, and cast away thy sins, and give up thyself entirely to thy God, thy Saviour and Sanctifier, and enter into his covenant, with a full resolution never to forsake him; to deny thyself and the desires of the flesh and this deceitful, transitory world, and lay out all thy hopes on heaven, and speedily, whatever it cost thee, to make sure of the felicity which hath no end? And darest thou refuse this when God and conscience do command it? And further I advise you,

X. Understand how it is that Satan hindereth souls from being sanctified that you may know how much to resist his wiles. Some he deceiveth by malicious suggestions that holiness is nothing but fancy or hypocrisy :| and if God and death and heaven and hell were fancies, this might be believed. Some he debaucheth by the power of fleshly appetite and lust, so that their sins will not let their reason speak: some he keepeth in utter ignorance by the evil education of ignorant parents and the negligence of ungodly soul-murdering teachers: some he deceiveth by worldly hopes, and keepeth their minds so taken up with worldly things, that the matters of eternity can have but some loose and uneffectual thoughts, or as bad as none: some are entangled in ill company, § so make a scorn of a holy life, and feed them with continual diversions and vain delights: and some are so hardened in their sin that

* Acts xvi. 14.

t Acts ii. 37, and xvi. 30, and xi. 33; 2 Corinthians vi. i, 2: Rev. ii. 7.

X Acts xxiv. 14, and xxviii. 22, and xxiv. 5, 6.

II Malachi ii. 7-9: Hosea iv. 9. § Proverbs xiii. 20.

Ephesians iv. 18, 19.

they are even past feeling, and neither fear God’s wrath nor care for their salvation, but hear these things as men asleep, and nothing will awake them. Some are discouraged with a conceit that godliness is a life so grievous,* sad and melancholy, that rather than endure it they will venture their souls, come on it what will — as if it were a grievous life to love God and hope for endless yyi”; and a pleasant life to love the world and sin, and live within a step of hell! — Some that are convinced do put off their conversion with delays, and think it’s time enough hereafter: and are purposing and purposing till it be too late, and life and time and hope be ended.-J- And some that see there is a necessity of holiness are cheated by some dead opinion or names or shews and images of holiness: either because they hold a strict opinion or because they are baptized with water and observe the outward parts of worship: and perhaps because they offer God a great deal of lip-service and lifeless ceremony, which never savoured of a holy soul. Thus deadness, sensuality, worldliness and hypocrisy do hinder millions from sanctification and salvation. XI. If ever thou wouldest be saved, oppress not reason by sensuality or diversions: but sometimes retire for sober consideration. Distracted and sleepy reason is unuseful. God and conscience have a great deal to say to thee: which in a crowd of company and business thou art not fit to hear. It is a doleful case§ that a man who hath a God, a Christ, a soul, a heaven, a hell to think of, will allow them none but running thoughts, and not once in a week bestow one hour in man -like serious consideration of them.lT Sure thou hast no greater things to mind. Resolve then sometimes to spend half an hour in the deepest thoughts of thy everlasting state.

* Malachi i. 13. t Matthew xxv. 3, 8, 12, and xxiv. 43, 44.

X John viii. 39, 42, 44: Romans iii. i, 2: Galatians iv. 29: Matthew xiii, 19-22, and XV. 2, 3, 6: Galatians I. i.

II Psalm iv. 4: Haggai i. 5: Deuter. xxxli. 7-29. § Isaiah i. 3.

Job xxxiv. 27: Jer. xxiii. 20: Psalm cxix. 59.

XII. Look iipofi this W07’ld and all its pleasures as a man of reasoti 7uho foreseeth the end: and not as a beast that liveth by sense or present objects.* Do I need to tell thee, man, that thou must die? Cannot carcases and dust instruct thee to see the end of earthly glory and all the pleasures of the flesh? Is it a controversy whether thy flesh must shortly perish? and wilt thou yet provide for it before thy soul? What a sad farewell must thou shortly take of all that worldlings sell their souls for! And O how quickly will this be! Alas! man, the day is even at hand: a few days more and thou art gone! and darest thou live unready, and part with heaven for such a world as this?

XIII. And then think soberly on the life to come: 7 what it is for a soul to appear before the living God and be judged to endless joy or misery! If the devil tempt thee to doubt of such a life, remember that nature and Scripture and the world’s consent, and his own temptations are witnesses against him. O man canst thou pass one day in company or alone in business or in idleness, without some sober thoughts of everlastingness? Nothing more sheweth that the hearts of men are asleep or dead than that the thoughts of endless joy or pain, so near at hand, constrain them not to be holy and overcome not all the temptations of the flesh as toys and inconsiderable things.

XIV. Mind well what mind most men are of when they come to die I Unless it be some desperate forsaken wretch do they not all speak well of a holy life? and wish that their lives had been spent in the most fervent love of God and strictest obedience to his laws? Do they then speak well of lust and pleasures and magnify the wealth and honours of the world? Had they not rather die as the most mortified saints, than as [careless, fleshly worldly sin-

* 2 Corinthians iv. 8: Deut. xxxii. 29: i John ii. 17: i Cor. vii. 31: Luke: TO, 20: John xiv. i, 2: i Thess. v. 13.

t Luke xii. 4: Eccl. xii. 7: 2 Peter iii. 11: 2 Cor. iv. 18: Phil. iii. 18, 20. X Numbers xxiii. 10: Matt. xxv. 8; vii. 21 22: Prov. i. 28, 29.

1 6 Listructions for a Holy Life.

ners? and dost thou see and know this, and yet wilt thou not be instructed to be wise in time?

XV. Think well what manner of men these were whose names are now honoured for their holiness.^ What manner of life did St Peter and St Paul, St Cyprian, St Augustine, and all other saints and martyrs live? Was it a life of fleshly sports and pleasures? Did they deride or persecute a holy life? Were they not more strictly holy than any that thou knowest? And is he not self-condemned that honoureth the names of saints and will not imitate them?

XVI. Think what the difference is between a Christian and an heathe?i.f You are loath to be heathens or infidels. But do you think a Christian excelleth them but in opinion? He that is not holier than they, is worse, and shall suffer more than they.

XVII. Think what the difference is betwee?t a godly Christian and an ungodly, % Do not all the opposers of holiness among us yet speak for the same God and Christ and Scripture: and profess the same creed and religion, with those whom they oppose? And is not this Christ the author of our holiness, and this Scripture the commander of it? Search and see, whether the difference be not this, that the godly are serious in their profession, and the ungodly are hypocrites, who hate and oppose the practise of the very things which themselves profess: whose religion serveth but to condemn them while their lives are contrary to their tongues.

XVIII. Understand what the devil’s policy is by raising so many sects andfactio?is and controversies about religion in the world: even to make some think that they are reli-

* Matthew xxiii. 29-33 Heb. xi. 38: John viii. 39.

t Matthew x. 15: Romans ii: Acts x. 34, 35.

X Romans ii. 28, 29: Matthew xxv, 28: Luke xix. 22: Acts xxiv, 15: Galatians iv. 29.

II Ephesians iv. 14: Acts xx. 30: i Corinthians xi. 19: 2 Timothy iv. 3, and ii. 14, 16: I Timothy i. 5, 6: Titus iii. 9: Ephesians iv. 3 etc.: i Corinthians xii: Matthew xii. 25: Romans ii. 12, 27-29.

gious because they can prate for their opinions, or because they think their party is the best, because their faction is the greatest or the best; the uppermost or the suffering side. And to turn holy, edifying conference into vain jangHng; and to make men atheists — suspecting all religion and true to none — because of men’s diversity of minds. But remember that [the] Christian religion is but one, and a thing easily known by its ancient rule; and the universal church containing all churches, is but one. And if carnal interest or opinions so distract men that one party saith ‘We are all the Church,’ and another saith ‘It is we ’ — as if the kitchen were all the house or one town or village all the kingdom — wilt thou be mad with seeing this distraction? Hearken sinner, all those sects in the Day of Judgment shall concur as witnesses against thee if thou be unholy: because however else they differed,’’^ all of them that are Christians professed the necessity of holiness and subscribed to that Scripture which requireth it. Though thou canst not easily resolve every controversy thou may’st easily know the true religion, it is that which Christ and his apostles taught, which all Christians have professed, which Scripture requireth: which is first pure and then peaceable: t most spiritual, heavenly, charitable, and just.

XIX. Away from that company % which is sensual and an enemy to reason, sobriety and holiness, and consequently to God, themselves and thee. Can they be wise for thee that are foolish for themselves? or friends to thee that are undoing themselves? or have any pity on thy soul when they make a jest of their own damnation? will they help thee to heaven who are running so furiously to hell? Chuse better familiars if thou woulds’t be better.

XX. Judge not of a holy life by hearsay for it cannot so

* Galatians i. 7, 8: Matthew xxviii. 20. t James iil. 17,

X Ephesians v. 11: Proverbs xxiii. 20: 2 Corinthians vi. 17, 18: Psalm x v. 4: Deuteronomy xiii. 3. B

1 8 Instructlo?ts for a Holy Life.

be known.* Try it awhile and then judge as thou findest it. Speak not against the things thou knowest not. Hadst thou but lived in the love of God, and the lively belief of endless glory, and the delights of holiness, and the fears of hell but for one month or day: and with such a heart hadst cast away thy sint and called upon God and ordered thy family in a holy manner, especially on the Lord’s day, I dare boldly say experience would constrain thee to justify a holy life. J But yet I must tell thee it is not true holiness if thou but try it with exceptions and reserves. If therefore God hath convinced thee that this is his will and way, I adjure thee as in his dreadful presence, that thou delay no longer § but resolve, and absolutely give up thyself to God as thy heavenly Father, thy Saviour and thy Sanctifier, and * make an everlasting covenant with him,’ and then he and all his mercies will be thine: his grace will help thee and his mercy pardon thee: his ministers will instruct thee and his people pray for thee and assist thee: his angels will guard thee and his Spirit comfort thee: and when flesh must fail and thou must leave this world, thy Saviour will then receive thy soul and bring it into the participation of his glory: and he will raise thy body and justify thee before the world and make thee equal to the angels: and thou shalt live in the sight and love of God and in the everlasting pleasures of his glory. This is the end of faith and holiness. But if thou harden thy heart and refusest mercy IT everlasting woe will be thy portion, and then there will be no remedy.

And now. Reader, I beg of thee and I beg of God on my bended knees that these few words may sink into thy heart and that thou wouldest read them over and over again and bethink thee as a man that must shortly die.

* John V. 40: Luke xiv. 29, 30: John vi. 35, 37, 45. t Isaiah Iv. 6, 7.

X Matthew xi. 19. II Luke xiv. 33.

§ Revelations xxii. 17: John i. 12: Revelations ii. and iii.: i John v. 12, 13: Psalm xxxiv. 7: Psalm lxxiii. 26: Matthew xxv.: Luke xx. 39: Hebrews ii. 3: rrhessalonians ii. 12. Luke xix. 27: Proverbs x.xix. i, and i. 10, etc.

Whether any deserve thy love and obedience more than God? and thy thankful rememberance more than Christ? and thy care and diligence more than thy salvation? Is there any felicity more desirable than heaven? or any misery more terrible than hell? or anything so regardable as that which is everlasting? Will a few days’ fleshly pleasures pay for the loss of heaven and thy immortal soul? or will thy sin and thy prosperity be meet at death and in the day of judgment? If thou art a man, and as ever thou believest that there is a God and a world to come, and as ’ thou carest for thy soul, whether it be saved or damned, I beseech thee, I charge thee, think of these things! think of them once a day at least! think of them with thy most sober, serious thoughts! Heaven is not a May-game and hell is not a flea-biting! Make not a jest of salvation or damnation! I know thou livest in a distracted world where thou mayest hear some laughing at such things as these, and scorning at a holy life, and fastening odious reproaches on the godly, and merrily drinking and playing and feasting away their time, and then saying that they will trust God with their souls and hope to be saved without so much ado! But if all these men do not change their minds and be not shortly down-in-the-mouth, and would not be glad to eat their words, and wished that they had lived a holy life, though it had cost them scorn and suffering in the world, let me bear the shame of a deceiver for ever. But if God and thy conscience bear witness against thy sin and tell thee that a holy life is best, regard not the gain-sayings of a bedlam-world, which is drunk with the delusions of the flesh. But give up thy soul and life to God by Jesus Christ in a faithful covenant! Delay no longer, man, but resolve, resolve immediately, resolve unchangeably: and God will be thine and thou shalt be his for ever. Amen. Lord have mercy on this sinner and so let it be resolved by thee in him.