4. To those who have taken some pains in seeking after eternal life, and are still enquiring the way thither. Have a care of resting in the mere practice of moral duties, or in the outward profession of christianity: never content yourselves with the righteousness of the Pharisee. Were your virtues more glorious than they are, and your righteousnesses more perfect, they could never answer for your former guilt, before the throne of a just and holy God. It is only the atonement of Christ, and his all-sufficient sacrifice, which can stand you in stead there; and it is pity that a youth, of so much virtue, should fall short of heaven, and be but almost a christian. It is pity that you should have gained so large a share of knowledge, and so honourable a character of sobriety, and, after all, want _the one thing needful_, an universal change, and renovation of your hearts, by receiving the gospel. Have you proceeded thus far, and will you not go on to perfection? _Take heed that ye lose not the things that ye have wrought, but that ye receive a full reward_; 2 John 8. It is pity you should enquire the way to heaven, and not walk in it, when it is marked out before your feet with so much plainness: It is pity you should indulge the love of this world so far, as to suffer it to forbid you the pursuit of a better; or at best, when ye receive instructions about your souls, you let the affairs of this life overwhelm and bury that good seed, and it never grows up to practice. What would you say to the folly of a man, who has a long and hazardous journey to make, to take possession of a large estate, and once a week he comes to enquire the way, and hears a fair description of all the road, perhaps he mourns his long neglect, and resolves upon the journey; but the next six days are filled up with a thousand impertinences; and when the seventh returns, he has not taken one step forward in the way?