as serious in obeying their instructions? They are serious in study, serious in prayer, serious in persuading you to the obedience of Christ. They beg of God, they beg of you, they hope, they wait, they long more for the conversion and salvation of your souls, than they do for any worldly good: "You are their hope, their joy, their crown of rejoicing." And shall other men be so careful for your salvation, and will you be careless and negligent of your own?

5. The servants of the world and of the devil are serious and diligent in their work. They ply it continually with unweariedness and delight, as if they could never do enough; and shall they do more for the devil than thou wilt do for God, or be more diligent for damnation than thou wilt be for salvation? Hast not thou a better master, and sweeter employment, and greater encouragement, and a higher reward?

6. The time was when thou wast serious thyself in the service of sin, if it be not so yet. Dost thou not remember how eagerly thou didst follow the world and its evil company, and sinful pleasures? And wilt thou not now be more earnest and serious for God? "What fruit had ye in those things, whereof ye are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death: but now being made free from sin, and become the servants of God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life."

7. You are to this day serious and in good ear nest about the matters of this life. If you are sick, what groans and complaints do you utter! If you are poor, how hard do you labour for your living, that your wife and children may not starve or famish! And is not the business of your Saviour of far greater moment? Are you not poor? and should you not then be labourers? Are you not employed in fighting for your lives? and is it time to sleep? Are you not engaged in a race? and is not the prize a crown of glory? and should you then sit still and take your ease?

Lastly, All in heaven and in hell, are serious. The

saints have a substantial happiness, and the damned a real misery; the one are serious and high in their joys and praises; the other are serious and deep in their sorrows and complaints. There are no remiss or sleepy praises in heaven, nor any remiss or sleepy lamentations in hell: All there are in good earnest. And should we not then be serious now?

And now, reader, having laid before thee these undeniable arguments, I do here, in the name of God, demand thy resolution. What sayest thou? Wilt thou yield obedience or not? I am confident thy conscience is convinced of thy duty. Darest thou live as thoughtlessly, and sin as boldly, and pray as rarely and as coldly as before? Darest thou spend the Sabbath as carnally, and slumber over the service of God as inattentively, and think of thine everlasting state as slightly as before? Or dost thou not rather resolve to "gird up the loins of thy mind," and to set thyself wholly about the work of thy salvation; to "lay aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset thee, and to run with patience the race that is set before thee?" I hope these are thy resolutions. If thou act agreeably to reason, I am sure they are.

PART III.

Yet because I know the strange obstinacy and hardness of the heart of man, I once more entreat thee to stir up thy attention, and go along with me in the free and sober use of thy reason, while I propound to thee the following questions.

Question 1. If you could grow rich by religion, or get lands and lordships by being diligent in godliness, or if you could get honour or preferment by it in the world, or could be recovered from sickness by it, or could live for ever in prosperity on earth, what kind of lives would you then lead; and what pains would you take in the service of God? And is not the rest of the saints a more excellent happiness than all this? Question 2. If the law of the land punished every

breach of the Sabbath, or every omission of family or secret duties, or every cold and heartless prayer, with death, what manner of persons would you then be, and what lives would you lead? And is not eternal death more terrible than temporal ?

Question 3. If it were God's ordinary course to punish every sin with some present judgment, so that whenever a man swears, or is drunk, or utters a lie, or backbites his neighbour, he should be struck dead, or blind, or lame on the spot; what manner of persons would you then be, and what kind of lives would you lead? And is not eternal wrath more terrible than any or all of these temporal punishments?

Question 4. If you knew that this was the last day you had to live in the world, how would you spend this day? If you were sure, when you go to bed, that you would never rise again, would not your thoughts of another life be more serious that night? If you knew when you were praying, that you would never pray more, would you not be more earnest and importunate in that prayer? Why, you do not know but it may be the last; and you are sure your last is near at hand.

Question 5. If you should see the general dissolution of the world, and all the pomp and glory of it consumed to ashes; if you saw all on fire around you, sumptuous buildings, cities, kingdoms, earth, heaven, all flaming about you; if you saw all that men laboured for gone, friends gone, the place of your former abode gone; the history of the world ended, the consummation of all things; what an impression may we suppose this would make on your mind! Why, such a sight thou shalt certainly see. Let me, then, put a question to thee in the words of the apostle, "Seeing all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be, in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for, and hastening unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat!"

Question 6. What if you had seen the process of

the judgment of the great day? If you had seen the judgment set, and the books opened, and the majority of men stand trembling on the left hand of the judge, and Christ himself accusing them of their rebellions and neglects, and at last condemning them to everlasting perdition; if you had seen the godly standing on the right hand, and Christ acknowledging their faithful obedience, and adjudging them to the possession of everlasting joy, what manner of persons would you be after such a sight as this! Why, this sight thou shalt one day see, as sure as thou now livest. and why, then, should not the foreknowledge of such a day awake thee to thy duty?

Question 7. What if you had lain in hell but one year, or one day, or one hour, and there felt all those torments of which you now do but hear, and if God should turn you into the world again, and try you with another lifetime, what manner of persons would you be ! If you were to live a thousand years, would you not gladly live as strictly as the Bible requires, so you might but escape the torment which you had suffered? How seriously would you pray, and hear, and read, and watch, and obey! How solemnly would you speak of hell, and how earnestly would you admonish the careless to take heed, lest they should come into that place of torment! And will you not take God's word for the truth of all this, except you feel it?

Question 8. What if you had enjoyed but one year the glory of heaven, and there joined with the saints and angels in beholding God, and singing his praise, and should afterwards be turned into the world again? What a life would you lead! What pains would you take rather than be deprived of such incomparable glory! Would you think any cost too great, or any diligence too much? Before you would lose that blessed state, you would labour in the service of God, both night and day, and "suffer the loss of all things, and would not count even your lives dear unto you, if you might finish your course with joy." And should not we do as much to obtain it?

Thus I have said enough, if not to stir up the indolent sinner to the serious working out of his salvation, yet at least to silence him, and leave him inexcusable at the judgment of God. If thou canst, after all this, go on in the same neglect of God and thy soul; if thou hast so far conquered and stupified thy conscience, that it will quietly suffer thee to trifle out the rest of thy time in the business of the world, when, in the mean while, thy salvation is in danger, and the Judge is at the door, I have then no more to say to thee.

PART IV.

Yet I will add a few more words to the godly, to show them why they above all men should be laborious for heaven; and that there is a great deal of reason, that though all the world besides should sit still and be careless, yet they should lay out all their strength on the work of God. To this end, I desire them to answer the following questions.

Question 1. What manner of persons should those be, whom God has chosen to be vessels of mercy, who have received the Spirit for sanctification, consolation, and preservation, and the pardon of sins, and adoption to sonship, and the guard of angels, and the mediation of the Son of God, and the special love of the Father, and the promise and seal of everlasting life-do but tell me in good earnest, what kind of life these men should live?

Question 2. What manner of persons should those be, who have felt the smart of their negligence, so much as the godly have done, in the new birth, in their trouble of conscience, in their doubts and fears, in their sharp afflictions both on body and estate? They that have groaned and cried out so often under the sense and effects of their negligence, and are likely enough to feel it again, if they do not reform,surely one would think they should be slothful no

more.

Question 3. What manner of persons should they