_Direct._ XVI. Go into the sanctuary, yea, go into the church-yard, and see the end; and judge by those skulls, and bones, and dust, if you cannot judge by the fore-warnings of God, what prosperity is.[43] Judge by the experience of all the world. Doth it not leave them all in sorrow at last? Woe to the man that hath his portion in this life! O miserable health, and wealth, and honour, which procureth the death, and shame, and utter destruction of the soul! Was not he in as prosperous a case as you, Luke xvi. that quickly cried out in vain for a drop of water to cool his tongue? There is none of you so senseless as not to know that you must die. And must you die? must you certainly die? and shall that day be no better prepared for? Shall present prosperity make you forget it, and live as if you must live here for ever? Do you make so great difference between that which is, and that which will be, as to make as great a matter of it as others when it comes, and to make no more of it when it is but coming? O man, what is an inch of hasty time? How quickly is it gone! Thou art going hence apace, and almost gone! Doth God give thee the mercy of a few days or years of health to make all thy preparations in for eternity, and doth this mercy turn to thy deceit, and dost thou turn it so much contrary to the ends for which it was given thee? Wilt thou surfeit on mercy, and destroy thy soul with it? Sense feeleth and perceiveth what now is, but thou hast reason to foresee what will be? Wilt thou play in harvest, and forget the winter? _Tempt._ XVII. Another great temptation to hinder conversion is, the example and countenance of great ones that are ungodly. When landlords and men in power are sensual, and enemies to a holy life, and speak reproachfully of it, their inferiors, by the reverence which they bear to worldly wealth and greatness, are easily drawn to say as they: also, when men reputed learned and wise are of another mind: and especially when subtle enemies speak that reproach against it, which they cannot answer.