A supplement to The Morning-exercise at Cripple-Gate, or, Several more cases of conscience practically…

6. As to thy working in this day; the sooner thou beginnest and the faster thou workest in this day of Grace, the sweeter will thy sleep be in the evening, when thy day is consummate. After thou viewest thy early, and thy earnest working for God, in the end of thy life, thou wilt have a Sabbath in thy thoughts. None ever repented them, either of early beginnings, or constant proceedings in the ways of holiness. It was an humbling to Paul, that Christ appeared last of all to him 1. Cor. 15. and that Andronicus and Junia were in Christ before him; that they were his Seniors in the faith, Rom. 16.7. How sweet is it in age to feed upon the comforts of a well spent youth and manhood! Never put that off to the last, that cannot be done too soon. Early beginnings in Godliness make an easy death-bed: And acquaintance with God betimes makes thee the more confident to go to him. God will never forget thee in the end, who rememberest him in the beginning of thy life. Should you at length look Heavenward, yet how will it grieve you that you did not make a more early beginning? The better thou art when thou dyest, the more it will trouble thee thou wert holy so late. Early Holiness spareth abundance of death-bed trouble. That man, who puts off his repentance to his end, dies at the best with little comfort. Incertus moritur, qui in fine paenitet: If he should repent at last, yet he dies uncertainly, as to future happiness. He ⟨p. 103⟩rarely knows whither he is going. 'Tis comfortable for a man to be able to say to God when he dies, as one did, Paenitentiam egi quando peccare potui: Lord, thou knowest, I then repented of Sin, when I had strength and time and ability and opportunities to sin. Thus I have shown you the strength and the force of the first Argument, whereby the Apostle engageth us to a present improvement of the season of Grace; as 'tis, for its fitness for working, the Time, the Day.

6. As to thy working in this day; the sooner thou beginnest and the faster thou workest in this day of Grace, the sweeter will thy sleep be in the evening, when thy day is consummate. After thou viewest thy early, and thy earnest working for God, in the end of thy life, thou wilt have a Sabbath in thy thoughts. None ever repented them, either of early beginnings, or constant proceedings in the ways of holiness. It was an humbling to Paul, that Christ appeared last of all to him