and sinful delights? And wilt thou not now be as earnest and violent for God?—You are to this day in earnest about the things of this life. If you are sick, or in pain, what serious complaints do you utter? If you are poor, how hard do you labor for a livelihood? And is not the business of your salvation of far greater moment?—There is no jesting in heaven or hell. The saints have a real happiness, and the damned a real misery. There are no remiss or sleepy praises in heaven, nor such lamentations in hell. All there are in earnest. When thou, reader, shalt come to death and judgment, O what deep, heart-piercing thoughts wilt thou have of eternity! Methinks I foresee thee already astonished, to think how thou couldst possibly make so light of these things. Methinks I even hear thee crying out of thy stupidity and madness. § 16. And now, reader, having laid down these undeniable arguments, I do, in the name of God, demand thy resolution; wilt thou yield obedience, or not? I am confident thy conscience is convinced of thy duty. Darest thou now go on in thy common careless course, against the plain evidence of reason, and commands of God, and against the light of thy own conscience? Darest thou live as loosely, sin as boldly, and pray as seldom, as before? Darest thou profane the Sabbath, slight the service of God, and think of thine everlasting state as carelessly as before? Or dost thou not rather resolve to _gird up the loins of thy mind_, and set thyself wholly to the work of thy salvation, and break through the oppositions, and slight the scoffs and persecutions of the world, and _lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset thee, and run with patience the race that is set before thee_? I hope these are thy full resolutions! Yet, because I know the obstinacy of the heart of man, and because I am solicitous thy soul might live, I once more entreat thy attention to the following questions; and I command thee from God, that thou stifle not thy conscience, nor resist conviction; but answer them faithfully, and obey accordingly—If, by being diligent in godliness, you could grow rich, get honor or preferment in the world, be recovered from sickness, or live for ever in prosperity on earth; what lives would you lead, and what pains would you take in the service of God? And is not the saint's rest a more excellent happiness than all this?—If it were felony to break the Sabbath, neglect secret or family worship, or be loose in your lives, what manner of persons would you then be? And is not eternal death more terrible than temporal?—If God usually punished with some present judgment every act of sin, as he did the lie of Ananias and Sapphira, what kind of lives would you lead? And is not eternal wrath far more terrible?—If one of your acquaintance should come from the dead, and tell you, that he suffered the torments of hell for those sins you are guilty of; what manner of persons would you afterwards be? How much more should the